CANCELED: Course: Native Tree Identification

---

Pre-registration is required and space is limited. Our courses usually fill several days before they begin—don’t miss your chance to study with Audubon!

UPDATE: This class has been canceled in response to COVID-19 as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of this virus. Learn more at alaudubon.org/COVID-19.

April is perfect for learning forest trees in the field by their leaves, flowers, branch and bark patterns and landscape positions, aided by a simple key with line drawings. Join Henry Hughes for this new class on native tree identification! We’ll learn at least 60 common forest trees. There will be sufficient overlap of tree species from week-to-week for repetition and reinforcement.

Henry worked in urban and rural forestry in Alabama for over 25 years before serving as director of education at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens for ten years. He’s particularly interested in the ecological and aesthetic integrity of forested watersheds. Henry has served as Executive Director of Friends of Shades Creek, as Co-chair of the Stewardship Committee of the Cahaba River Society, and as President of the board of the Alabama Rivers Alliance. He’s taught on forest, soils, and watershed-related topics for many years at the Audubon Mountain Workshop. He studied forestry and botany at the University of the South, Sewanee, and plant and soil science at the University of Kentucky and Texas A&M University.

Textbook: “A Key to Common Trees of Alabama” will be provided to each participant. No other materials will be required. 

Where and when do we meet? This six-week class will meet on Wednesday nights for five weeks (4/1, 4/8, 4/15, 4/22, 4/29), 6:00–8:00 p.m., with the sixth week (5/6) as a back-up date for inclement weather. The first class on April 1st will be mandatory for planning purposes and will meet at our Birmingham office. Our office is located on the second floor of 3720 Fourth Avenue South. (Ample and well-lit parking is available in back, just behind Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ.) 

The rest of the classes will be field trips to optional metro-area locations, such as Avondale Park, Flora Johnston Park, Vulcan Park, Red Mountain Park and Homewood Greenway and Birmingham Botanical Gardens to study the trees of particular native forest sites, including north- and south-facing slopes, high elevations, rivers and floodplains and the remnant trees of urban parks.

Cost:  Your one-time registration fee ($75/members; $100/non-members) covers all six meetings. (While you are not required to attend each class, do note that we cannot refund individuals for partial attendance.)

Registration: Class size is limited to fifteen, so don’t delay! To register, click on the button above. If you’re new to our online system and don’t yet have a username and password, simply click the “X” on the pop up and fill out the basic form.

Accessibility: Accessibility will vary among “paved/wheelchair accessible,” “easy hike with some uneven terrain,” and “moderate to strenuous hike with hills and uneven terrain.”

Questions? Email the Outreach & Communications Director, or call 205-719-3678, option 3.

Please, no pets in the classroom. Only service animals are welcome.