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THURSDAY. DECEMBER 31.2020 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 3A
Plants of the Southeast
"Shagbark hickory," Carya ovata
By John Nelson
University of
South Carolina
We'll march back home but
we'll never be content
till we make Old Hickory the
people 's President.
—Johnny Driftwood,
“The Battle of
New Orleans ”
Pop-quiz time: who was
our seventh President? Why,
Andrew Jackson, of course, a
native South Carolinian (al
though our friends in North
Carolina like to claim him),
who was a true American
hero, ably commanding his
troops and winning the Battle
of New Orleans in 1815. For
his bravery and toughness,
Jackson was given the name
‘‘Old Hickory,” and with
good reason.
The hickories have some
of the toughest, strongest
wood there is. Most of the
species grow straight and tall,
and are usually solidly rooted
with a stout taproot, with
standing the strongest storms.
All the hickories (there are
about 20 species) may be di
vided into two basic groups,
the “pecan” hickories (yes,
pecan is actually a hickory)
and the “true” hickories. The
two groups exhibit a number
of technical differences, es
pecially involving features of
the scales of the buds, and the
way the fruits look.
The leaves are always pin-
nately compound, with a
number of variously shaped
and toothy leaflets arising
along both sides of a central
midrib. The fruits are rela-
mine-shaft supports, wagon-
wheel spokes, and all manner
of tool handles. And of
course, its wood is prized for
use in smoking meat.
Otherwise, it remains a
valuable timber tree, and is
even grown for such in Eu
rope. Its leaves typically bear
five large, football- or some
what diamond-shaped
leaflets, which are a bit hairy
on the lower surface. Its ripe
fruits are nearly spherical,
with a very thick husk. The
husk splits apart completely,
revealing a hard, relatively
thin-shelled kernel, pale and
tan, shiny and smooth, at the
end of which is a short,
pointed “snout.” The nuts are
edible, and sweet, although a
bit of work to extract from
the shell.
Perhaps the most telling
feature of this hickory is its
bark. On older trees, the bark
is prominent, peeling away in
long strips, these strips some
times nearly 3 ’ long, and fre
quently curling at their free
ends. (A few other hickory
species do this, too, but the
Shagbark is the most com
mon of the “peeling” hicko
ries.) ©JohnNelson2020
[John Nelson is the retired
curator of the A. C. Moore
Herbarium at the University
of South Carolina, in the De
partment of Biological Sci
ences, Columbia SC 29208.
As a public service, the
Herbarium offers free plant
identifications. For more in
formation, visit www.herbar-
ium.org or email
johnbnelson@sc. rr. com.]
Photo/Linda Lee
Shagbark is the most common “peeling” hickory and
can be found acros the southeast.
tively massive, with a hard
kernel enclosed by a number
of protective bracts, these
forming a husk around the
kernel.
The Shagbark hickory is a
species that Andrew Jackson
must have known, occurring
commonly near his birth
place in Lancaster County,
SC, and over much of Ten
nessee, where he spent a lot
of time.
It is fairly widespread
elsewhere in the eastern
USA, from the upper Mid
west down to Texas and well
into New England. (It’s not in
Florida.) From New Jersey to
Georgia it is mostly a pied
mont and mountain plant, so
you don’t see it often near the
coast. This tree grows on a
variety of upland habitats, in
cluding rich slopes and
ravines.
It is a handsome tree,
commonly with a narrow
crown, sometimes attaining a
height of 100’. The wood of
this tree is hard and durable,
and was used historically for
Highland Rivers CEO reviews challenges
of mental health service in past year
Jf#CC9' %
EAT DRINK LISTEN
Colin Alvarez Sand
Saturday, 2-5 p.w.
By Melanie Dallas, CEO
Highland Rivers Health
It almost goes without
saying that a year-end review
of 2020 will include COVID-
19. Indeed, the pandemic
caused unprecedented dis
ruption to our organization -
as it did to the communities
we serve - and managing it
required a coordinated all-
hands-on-deck response, as
fternoon of
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“BRING ONE FOR THE CHIPPER 2021”
CHRISTMAS TREE RECYCLING EVENT
30 Years of Treecycling
WHEN: Saturday, January 2, 2021, from 9:00 am. to 4:00 pm.
WHAT: Area residents will go green and drop off Christmas trees to be chipped into mulch or
used as a wildlife habitat. The event educates the public on recycling and environmental
conservation. It also allows communities to put discarded Christmas trees to good use.
The program has been a holiday tradition in Georgia for 30 years and is the largest tree
recycling program in the nation.
WHERE: Your old tree will be reused as mulch or wildlife habitat. Drop off your un-decorated
Christmas tree for recycling at the Park’n Ride across from the Pickens County Chamber
of Commerce building in Lee Newton Park, 500 Veterans Memorial Blvd. (500 Stegall
Street)
FOR INFORMATION CALL: Keep Pickens Beautiful, 706-253-3600, and leave a message or email us at
keeppickensbeautiful@gmail.com
Pickens County residents recycled 120 Christmas trees in 2020, diverting them from landfills, and chipping
them up into useful mulch. In this day of artificial Christmas trees, that’s not bad. Let’s see if we can do better
in 2021 and set a new record.
^©HIGHLAND
OrliMri IKALTH
well as vigilance and creativ
ity.
As a community service
board (CSB), state leaders
deemed Highland Rivers
Health - and all Georgia
CSBs - an essential service.
I couldn’t agree more. CSBs
are the state’s behavioral
health safety net, providing
treatment and recovery serv
ices to individuals who are
low-income, uninsured or un
derinsured for mental health
challenges, substance use
disorders, and intellectual
and developmental disabili
ties.
Without CSBs, many of
Georgia’s most vulnerable
citizens would not have ac
cess to behavioral health
services, even as COVID-19
has caused anxiety, isolation,
and in too many cases, death
and grief. There has rarely
been a time when behavioral
health services have been
more essential - and they will
continue to be for the fore
seeable future.
Toward that end, High
land Rivers Health made nu
merous changes to our
operations so we could con
tinue to meet the needs of our
communities while also en
suring the safety of the indi
viduals who rely on us. For
example, our agency:
•Created an internal
COVID-19 leadership group
that met via conference call
every morning and devel
oped protocols for screening
all individuals and staff. We
quickly sourced personal
protective equipment (PPE)
to distribute throughout
agency facilities.
•Created and implemented
COVID-19 plans in group
homes for individuals with
intellectual and develop
ments disabilities (IDD) and
sent training materials to all
IDD host homes.
•The Intensive Case Man
agement team continued to
meet with individuals in the
community, with services de
livered outdoors, in yards, in
lobbies of apartments, in
parks, etc., in order to main
tain face-to-face meetings
when possible.
•Highland Rivers staff do
nated more than 1,000 of
leave to an agency ‘leave
bank’ for coworkers who had
to miss work due to illness or
quarantine.
•Our Information Tech
nology department worked to
enhance network broadband
capacity to support an un
precedented shift to online
operations and increased use
of telehealth services.
But inasmuch as COVID-
19 was a priority, our agency
also continued to innovate,
form new partnerships and
expand services in our com
munities. In 2020, Highland
Rivers:
•Began a partnership with
Mercer University with a
planning grant from the
Health Resources and Serv
ices Administration to ad
dress the opioid crisis in four
counties served by Highland
Rivers (Gordon, Polk, Fannin
and Gilmer).
•The Assertive Commu
nity Treatment team devel
oped a “mobile clinic” using
one of the agency’s passenger
vans that was staffed with a
driver, RN, clinician and psy
chiatrist, as well as PPE, to
fully serve individuals in one
stop.
•The Rome Crisis Unit af
filiated with the Medical Col
lege of Georgia (northwest
campus) so that 10 medical
students per year could com
plete their four-week psychi
atry clerkship at the CSU.
•Provided suicide prevention
and post-vention services to
more than 2,400 youth ages
10-24, and provided Ques
tion, Persuade, Refer (QPR)
training to more than 600 in
dividuals.
•Worked with agency’s
website vendor to translate
the Highland Rivers website
into Spanish, with link to
Spanish version available on
the website homepage.
•Successfully managed
the cash reserves and met ac
counts payable commitments
despite a challenging cash
position throughout the fiscal
year.
•Streamlined the new em
ployee onboarding process
with implementation of Do-
cuSign to allow for electronic
processing of pre-employ
ment and new hire paper
work.
•Increased collaboration
with Floyd County Jail men
tal health coordinator for in
creased jail transitions back
into the community.
•Expanded our partner
ship with Pickens County
Schools to make APEX serv
ices available in all Pickens
schools.
Of course, this list barely
scratches the surface of all
that happened, both related to
COVID and in our ‘regular’
operations. Highland Rivers
Health is proud to be part of
so many outstanding commu
nities in northwest Georgia,
and we look forward to
building on these achieve
ments in 2021.
Melanie Dallas is a li
censed professional coun
selor and CEO of Highland
Rivers Health..
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