By Dennis Chastain
Naturalist

Like most hunters, sometime around Labor Day I start wondering if we are going to have acorns or not. After all, whether you are going to be hunting anything from gray squirrels to black bears, it is the acorn crop more than anything else that determines how the season is going to go.

Early indications were that we were looking at a pretty good acorn crop this year. I had checked some older age-class white oak trees in the Easley area, and they were literally drooping with big green fleshy acorns, and we have had white oak acorns falling on the roof of our house near Table Rock for two weeks. But a recent scouting trip revealed that this is going to be a year of boom or bust. Some areas, particularly south of Highway 11, have good to great crops of acorns, but what I found in the mountains north of the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway is not nearly so promising.

By Olivia Fowler
For the Courier

If you’re out in the woods hunting, hiking or just enjoying nature in general, there are several plants you need to steer clear of. Poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac have earned their names. The leaves, roots and stems of these plants contain a poisonous sap called urushiol.
Contact with urushiol causes an allergic reaction in the form of an intense itching rash. There’s about a 10-minute window of time when the sap can be washed off without dire consequences.

But the best way to avoid an allergic reaction is to avoid contact. And the only way to avoid contact is to be able to identify the culprits.
There’s an old saying, “Leaves of three, let them be.”

By Scott Stegenga
Table Rock State Park

Fungi come in many forms. Many are attractive, even beautiful, while others appear ugly and repulsive. Some are rigidly attached to trees or logs, some are slimy or jelly-like, while others we know as mushrooms.

The common image we have of a mushroom includes a stalk with a cap and “gills.” The word mushroom is also used more loosely to describe other types of fungi such as puffballs, coral fungi, cup fungi and stinkhorns to name just a few. If adequate moisture exists, late summer into early fall is an ideal time to find mushrooms emerging from the soil. Mushrooms are also known as toadstools. This name has come from German folklore where toads sit upon a mushroom and catch flies that are drawn to the mushroom.

These fascinating fungi are not like green plants that make their own food but must gain nutrients by other means. Mushrooms rely on the death and decay of other organisms. They not only take in nutrients for themselves but also aid the decaying process, making nutrients more readily available to other living plants. Some trees are very dependent on this mutual give and take.

The main body of a mushroom is hidden underground. It spreads by sending out small root-like threads called mycelia. The part we see above ground is the fruiting part, like apples on a tree. Instead of forming seeds, the underside of the cap releases tiny spores into the air to foster reproduction when they land on the proper surface. Sometimes a ring of mushrooms are seen on an open lawn. This represents the outer edge of the spreading mycelia. These rings are called fairy rings that seem to pop up overnight. Grass within the circle of fungi is often a richer green from the beneficial action of the mycelia below. Mycelia may grow more than 100 years and form a network well over 100 yards wide if conditions are right.

Fruiting mushrooms come in many shapes and brilliant colors. Some mushrooms are edible, but many are toxic to humans. It takes a careful level of expertise to determine which mushrooms a person is able toconsume.

Obtaining mushrooms from a store is the much safer route to take. Animals such as squirrels and box turtles are immune to the toxicity of mushrooms and can eat them without any harm.

Despite the strange appearance and toxic characteristics of some mushrooms, if it were not for all fungi the critical process of decomposition would be dysfunctional, disrupting the balance of nature.

PICKENS — Mounted Ministries, located in Pickens, is a faith-based equestrian ministry. It is not your average place to take riding lessons or visit for summer horse camp.

Mounted Ministries (MM) founder and CEO Cathy Childers is glad to explain how MM is different from other riding facilities.

LIBERTY — A Pickens County Warrants Officer barely escaped being shot at point-blank range on Monday, after he was confronted by a man at the M-Mart on U.S. 178 between Pickens and Liberty.

Pickens Assistant Sheriff Tim Morgan told the Courier on Tuesday that Trenton James Black, 28, of 1007 Saluda Dam Road in Easley, was arrested after attempting to shoot an officer in plain clothes at the convenience store.