Shelby County Today

Dr. Whitney Griffin will present “The Art of Growing Plants Where Plants Don’t Want to Grow” for Stephen F. Austin State University’s Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Sept. 12 at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center.

August 21, 2024 – Stephen F. Austin State University’s SFA Gardens will host the monthly Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series at 7pm Thursday, September 12 in the Brundrett Conservation Education Building at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center.

Dr. Whitney Griffin, landscape software product manager, will present “The Art of Growing Plants Where Plants Don’t Want to Grow.”

Griffin is a passionate green industry proponent, having held several positions in a variety of green industries while earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in horticultural sciences at Auburn University in 2008 and 2010, respectively.

Griffin served as director of maintenance at a boutique contractor specializing in green roofs and living walls shortly after completing her doctoral degree at The University of Maryland in 2014. In this role, she was responsible for over 2 million square feet of living walls and green roofs from New York City down to Raleigh, North Carolina, and as far west as Chicago. Her doctoral research specialized in green roofs, specifically the optimization of green roof substrates for stormwater management.

Griffin served as a faculty member in the Department of Horticultural Sciences at Texas A&M University from 2015-19, where she taught landscape design, computer-aided design, landscape business management and landscape construction courses. In 2019, she joined a firm in Austin as lead landscape designer and project manager for custom residential landscape development. 

Since 2021, Griffin has been a part of the product management team at Aspire, a landscape software solution, where she collaborates with industry professionals to design and deliver industry-focused software for high-growth companies. She lives in Austin with her partner, Kenneth, their border collie, Pixel, and usually at least one foster dog they are rehabilitating with Border Collie Save and Rescue.

The Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series is held the second Thursday of each moth and includes a rare plant raffle after the program. The lecture is free and open to the public, and donations to the lecture series fund are always appreciated.

Parking is available at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center or Raguet Elementary School.

For more information, email sfagardens@sfasu.edu.

August 8, 2024 – Stephen F. Austin State University’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture was awarded a Conservation Innovation Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture to assist in the creation of a demonstration area for climate-smart agricultural practices.

The $417,493 grant will support the implementation of beneficial agricultural practices involving silvopasture, the deliberate integration of trees and grazing livestock operations on the same land, and biochar, a substance made from the burning of wood in an oxygen-limited environment. Applying biochar to silvopasture can benefit livestock production and the overall environment.

“Biochar will be used both in traditional pastures and silvopasture to improve soil health, structure, nutrient holding capacity, pH balance and carbon sequestration, and plays a significant role in ensuring the sustainability of agricultural practices,” said Jason Grogan, research associate in the College of Forestry and Agriculture. “In addition to the other many benefits, biochar also increases crop productivity and has the opportunity for carbon sequestration on agricultural lands.”

Silvopasture has the potential to increase carbon sequestration, reduce nutrient and sediment runoff, improve pollinator and wildlife habitats, and reduce heat stress to cattle from shade provided by flourishing trees. 

Forestry and Agriculture students have worked with faculty members to gain hands-on experiences provided by the silvopasture demonstration area. Through laboratory and work-study activities, students have taken part in native grass planting, woody vegetation control and unmanned aerial vehicle use for tree survival and health monitoring. 

SFA’s project is one of 53 projects that the USDA is supporting in an effort to improve the environment and agricultural production. In total, the USDA is investing $90 million in Conservation Innovation Grants. 

“The awarded funds will be used to purchase equipment and materials and pay labor costs to implement numerous climate-smart agricultural practices that ultimately will result in improving the environmental footprint of the Todd Agricultural Research Center while also increasing productivity,” said Grogan. 

The project will serve as a resource to inform local agricultural producers, SFA students and others about the advantages of biochar and native forage utilization. 

For more information about forestry at SFA, visit sfasu.edu/atcofa. 

Steven Chamblee, retired director of horticulture at the Longview Arboretum and Nature Center, is the August speaker for Stephen F. Austin State University’s Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series.

July 30, 2024 – Stephen F. Austin State University’s SFA Gardens will host the monthly Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series at 7pm Thursday, August 8 in the Brundrett Conservation Education Building at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center.

Steven Chamblee, retired director of horticulture with the Longview Arboretum and Nature Center, will present “Am I Tired or Just Retired? Gardening as a Lifestyle and Not a Hobby.”

Chamblee is a horticulturist and public speaker with a great history of gardening and a unique perspective on life and people. Active in horticulture for more than 40 years, he uses humor and heart to bring hard science home and inspire gardeners across Texas.

Chamblee’s love for plants began when he would help his father transplant trees in the late 1970s. He soon formed Southern Lawn Care, a landscape maintenance company, and in 1986, he joined the Fort Worth Botanic Garden as a gardener.

Chamblee’s natural curiosity led him to enroll in Tarrant County College, where he earned his Associate of Applied Science in horticulture. Still working full time at the garden, Chamblee earned his Bachelor of Science in ornamental horticulture from Tarleton State University and a Master of Science in public horticulture administration from the University of Delaware.

After graduate school, he served as the native plant horticulturist for the Heard Natural Science Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary in McKinney before returning to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden as the grounds manager. He has also served as chief horticulturist for Chandor Gardens in Weatherford and as the executive director of the Longview Arboretum. 

The Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series is held the second Thursday of each month and includes a rare plant raffle after the program. The lecture is free and open to the public, but donations to the Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series fund are always appreciated.

Parking is available at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center and Raguet Elementary School, located at 2428 Raguet Street.

For more information, call (936) 468-4129 or email sfagardens@sfasu.edu.

About Stephen F. Austin State University
Stephen F. Austin State University, the newest member of The University of Texas System, began a century ago as a teachers’ college in Texas’ oldest town, Nacogdoches. Today, it has grown into a regional institution comprising six colleges — business, education, fine arts, forestry and agriculture, liberal and applied arts, and sciences and mathematics. Accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, SFA enrolls approximately 11,000 students while providing the academic breadth of a state university with the personalized attention of a private school. The main campus encompasses 421 acres that include 37 academic facilities, nine residence halls, and 68 acres of recreational trails that wind through its six gardens. The university offers more than 80 bachelor’s degrees, more than 40 master’s degrees and four doctoral degrees covering more than 120 areas of study. Learn more at sfasu.edu.

Stephen F. Austin State University chief instructor pilot Jack Gainer with Josi Oujesky, a first-year aviation sciences major from Pearland. Oujesky was the first aviation sciences student to transition from the program’s previous Tecnam Sierra plane to the Tecnam P-Mentor. Not only is Oujesky the first SFA student to fly the P-Mentor, but she is the first student in the United States to train on Tecnam’s newest plane.

June 26, 2024 - Soaring into the future of aviation sciences, Stephen F. Austin State University has become the first institution in the United States to fly the Tecnam P-Mentor two-seat trainer airplane, equipping Lumberjacks with the most advanced training platform available in the country.

“Tecnam has been flying the airframe around the world for a couple of years now, and I was able to fly one out of Brazil to test it,” said Jack Gainer, chief instructor pilot for SFA’s aviation sciences program. “The P-Mentors that we received are even more advanced than that aircraft, and we are the first ones in the nation to have them. Not only are we the first to fly them in the United States, but they arrived in our SFA purple colors.”

Stephen F. Austin State University’s aviation sciences partner, HCH Aviation, became the first U.S. recipients of the state-of-the-art Tecnam P-Mentor two-seat trainer airplanes. Provided by Tecnam Aircrafts, an Italian aircraft manufacturer and the oldest in the world, the new airplanes will give SFA aviation students unique expertise in the most modern technology available.

Acquiring the Tecnam P-Mentors puts SFA’s flight program at the top of industry standards preparing graduates for what they will utilize out in the field.

“SFA graduates will have high-tech experience, and we’ll be the first ones to have it,” Gainer said. “Our students will be very notable when they begin searching for a career. They can say, ‘I was a Flying Jack,’ and the industry will know they are hiring graduates with experienced training.”

Offered through the James I. Perkins College of Education’s School of Human Sciences, SFA’s aviation sciences program exists through a partnership with HCH Aviation, a specialized aviation training school.

Tecnam Aircraft is an Italian aircraft manufacturer and the oldest manufacturer in the world. The Tecnam P-Mentor is a state-of-the-art training plane created for flight schools that is affordable to maintain and uses less fuel than other training airplanes.

“The delivery of the P-Mentor caps off our conversion of our fleet to an all-inclusive Tecnam Flight Program,” Kristen Conklin, HCH Aviation president and a 2009 SFA graduate, said in a Tecnam media release. “The innovation, low operational cost and aerodynamics of this platform are perfect for our students and our operations. This combined with the reliability of Tecnam Aircraft’s products made it a very easy decision to choose the P-Mentor.”

One SFA student, Josi Oujesky, a first-year aviation sciences major from Pearland, was the first student to transition from the program’s previous Tecnam Sierra plane to the P-Mentor.

“It just kind of hit me like, ‘Wow, you’re the first student in the United States to fly this plane,’” Gainer said, describing Oujesky’s experience with the plane. “Not just the first student at SFA, but the first in the United States to actually train in the P-Mentor.”

Gainer said Oujesky had a great experience with the P-Mentor and could immediately tell a difference from their previous planes.

“She said the P-Mentor felt very different and that the plane is more stable,” Gainer said. “It’s designed that way, with much more control and incredible aerodynamic technicalities. It’s just a really enjoyable airplane for students.”

The first four P-Mentors arrived at the beginning of June and an additional three will arrive before the fall semester. Two more planes are expected to arrive the following spring.

“One of the things that we’re really interested in, both SFA and HCH Aviation, is to keep a modern fleet,” Gainer said. “We want a new, clean fleet that is well maintained. In comparison to some of the other flight training universities that are still flying 1960s, ’70s or ’80s aircrafts, we will have quite a fleet.”

Additionally, all planes are available for aviation sciences students to practice in regardless of classification. SFA’s aviation sciences program starts students flying as soon as possible, and many Lumberjacks will be able to fly the P-Mentors as early as their first week in the program.

“Having students fly as soon as we can has always been one of our personal goals, because a lot of universities don’t have students fly at all for their first year,” Gainer said. “We vow to our students to have them airborne within their first two weeks, if not the first week.”

To learn more about SFA’s aviation sciences program and how to be on the cutting edge of the aviation industry, visit gosfa.com/3VuQ03C.