By Will Morris
Rowan Public Library

The library is the place to check out the latest Freida McFadden novel (“The Boyfriend” is checking out like hotcakes right now) and the location where your kids enjoy their weekly storytime with Mrs. Melissa or Mrs. Kim, or weekly art with Mrs. Chelsea, but with spring fast approaching, it can also be your planting, gardening and land preservation hub. Soon, it will be the time of year in Rowan County where we shed our sweaters and hot chocolate in favor of shorts and Cheerwine floats. And you know what that means, dear reader: it’s time to talk about your land. Whether a backyard plot or a 30-acre farmstead, RPL has things going on this month for you.

On the evening of Wednesday, March 5, at 6 p.m., the North Carolina Working Lands Trust will partner with RPL West in Cleveland on a presentation about land preservation. Attendance is free and open to the public. Anyone with an interest in North Carolina’s rich agricultural resources will find something worthwhile in what the Working Lands Trust has to say. The Working Lands Trust works to maintain forest and farmland across the state and has preserved nearly 18,000 acres since its foundation in 2013. North Carolina has long been an agricultural powerhouse, but the expanding suburbs and general development across the state mean that N.C. is projected to lose nearly a million acres of rural land by 2040. If you are a rural landowner interested in how to find support to save your land for the next generation, this is the workshop for you.

RPL also has a range of holdings in the non-fiction and new non-fiction sections for the green thumbed or the novice gardener. Leah Garces’ “Transfarmation: The Movement to Free Us from Factory Farming,” 2024 is an insightful read about the current state of American agribusiness. K.J. Willis’ “Good Nature: Why Seeing, Smelling, Hearing, and Touching Plants is Good for Our Health,” 2024 is a therapeutic journey about all the benefits of “touching grass,” as the kids say these days. Amy Stewart’s “The Tree Collectors: Tales of Arboreal Obsession,” 2024 provides 50 vignettes about the various ways trees have changed people’s lives, from campaigns to plant more of them to attempts to save endangered varieties. In addition to these works on the new non-fiction shelves, if you take a trip to the 630s in regular non-fiction, you will find a variety of practical books on topics from raising chickens and seed saving to backyard gardening and forest management. When in doubt, ask a staff member for assistance locating information on your topic of interest. No matter what sort of land needs you may have, RPL can lend a hand.

Plant your roots at any Rowan Public Library location and the results are sure to be fruitful this Spring. For more information, visit RPL online at www.RowanPublicLibrary.org, call 980-432-8670 or visit your nearest RPL branch.