The N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services soil testing lab is about to hit its busy season and growers and homeowners are encouraged to submit soil samples by Nov. 26 to avoid peak-season fees and to get results and recommendations sooner.

Hurricane Helene caused great devastation throughout much of Western North Carolina and farm fields were not spared. There are reports of impacts to fields in all landscape positions. This situation calls for a vigilant approach to soil and crop management that includes assessment on a field-by-field basis. 

The Macon County Planning Board voted last week to recommend a revision of the water supply watershed ordinance to the county commission. Set against the backdrop of catastrophic flooding in Western North Carolina, and despite public opposition to the change, board members maintain the revision is a minor and will have little impact. 

Macon County approved revisions to its soil erosion and sedimentation control ordinance despite an outpouring of opposition from the public — so much so that not everyone who had signed up to speak on the issue at the Aug. 13 meeting was able to do so. 

Dear reader, yeah, I mean you. You who are reading this while holding the paper in your hands or scanning through on your computer, tablet or phone. Yeah, you. I am so deeply grateful to you for reading my articles. This marks the 52nd column that I have written for The Smoky Mountain News, with one running every couple of weeks for the last two years or so. That’s one for each week in the year. One for every card in a deck.  

The Haywood County Soil & Water Conservation District is a recipient of three of this year’s N.C. Grange grants to aid in land preservation efforts within the county. 

NC State Extension Master Gardener volunteers staff a booth on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month (May through August) at Haywood’s Historic Farmers Market in Waynesville.

Experts are using the spring weather to remind people to test their soil if that has not been done in the last two to three years.

Prepare for gardening season with “Learn to Grow: Vegetable Gardening,” a workshop offered 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8, in Waynesville. 

A research project aiming to understand contamination levels outside the fence line of the now-shuttered Canton paper mill is likely to draw more than a quarter-million dollars in state funding to test soil, water and air samples nearby.