health

Spend a (virtual) day in the woods

Ohio’s 2020 Day in the Woods series—which has gone virtual for now because of the coronavirus shutdown—kicks off on Friday, May 8, with the aptly titled “Keeping Yourself and Your Woodlands Healthy.”

Four, one-hour online sessions will cover spring migrant birds, the benefits of woodlands to your health, and management practices related to things such as tree seedlings, trails, and invasive species.

Viewing the sessions is free. Find full details and the link to watch.

CFAES’ OSU Extension outreach arm is one of the many sponsors of the series.

Ohio AgrAbility for tha-REE!

On tap for today, Friday, April 10, in Agriculture and Natural Resources Madness: A Tournament of Education are “Making Your Events, Festivals, and Agritourism Accessible to the Public” at 9 a.m., “Assistive Technology to Keep You Farming” at noon, and “Farming and Gardening with Arthritis and Other Physical Limitations” at 3 p.m.

Find details about the series here and here. Scroll down to April 10 at the second link and you’ll find links for watching today’s sessions by Zoom.

Tips for gardening with physical limitations

If you’re thinking about planting a vegetable garden, whether during the coronavirus shutdown or any other time, but are challenged by a physical disability, check out an upcoming webinar from CFAES called “Gardening With Physical Limitations.” The program will offer tips and strategies. It’s from 11 a.m. to noon on Thursday, April 9. Registration is free, open to everyone, but is limited to the first 500 people.

Dig further details.

Study: Air polluters still polluting low-income, black communities

New research by Kerry Ard, a CFAES environmental sociologist, shows that despite an overall improvement in American air quality over the past 70 years, air pollution remains a serious health problem in low-income communities, especially communities of color. Read the story.

Grow your own lettuce

Interested in growing your own greens? Early spring is a good time to start. Lettuce can tolerate cool soil and weather, writes Master Gardener Volunteer Faye Mahaffey in a piece published by OSU Extension’s Brown County office, “so you can plant seeds in a well-prepared seedbed as much as 4 weeks before your last frost date.”

Further, if you have limited space or mobility, you can easily grow lettuce in pots, compact salad boxes, and raised salad tables, too.

Read the full story.

Ohio’s last frost date ranges from the first week of May to the first week of June, depending on where you live. See when yours is.

Learn more about CFAES’s Master Gardener Volunteer program. (Photo: Getty Images.)

Tuesday: ‘Healthy planet, healthy patients’

The Environmental Professionals Network (EPN) presents its next public breakfast program, “Healthy Planet, Healthy Patients: Hospitals Reduce Their Environmental Footprint” from 7:15-9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 16, in the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Building on Ohio State’s Columbus campus. Registration is $10, free for students, and includes breakfast. Find out more and register.

EPN, a statewide professional group, is a service of CFAES’s School of Environment and Natural Resources.