As nature awakens, so should your tree care routine. This National Agriculture Day, March 24, 2026, we’re celebrating the roots of our environment—literally. While we often think of “agriculture” as crops and livestock, the health of our trees is just as vital to a thriving ecosystem. Here are two resources from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to help keep trees healthy.
How to Prune Trees provides help for correctly pruning trees. The objective of pruning is to produce strong, healthy, attractive plants. This
can be achieved by understanding when, how, and why to prune, and by following simple principles such as making clean cuts and avoiding damage to the tree. The publication contains information regarding when to prune different types of trees, safety measures, and more.
How To Recognize Hazardous Defects in Trees. This brochure was created to help homeowners and land managers recognize hazardous defects in trees and to suggest possible corrective actions to restore trees to good health. It presents guidelines for identifying and correcting hazardous defects such as dead wood, cracks, weak branch unions, decay, cankers, root problems, and poor tree form. The publication also emphasizes the importance of identifying trees that pose a risk to “targets,” such as buildings, vehicles, or areas where people gather.
The key benefit of pruning is promoting tree health. Removing dead, diseased, or damaged branches prevents the spread of infection and pests, and improving airflow and sunlight penetration within the canopy reduces the risk of disease.
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- Click here to purchase How To Prune Trees
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Visit a Federal depository library: Search for U.S. Government publications in a nearby Federal depository library. You can find the records for most titles in GPO’s Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.
Find more than a million official Federal Government publications from all three branches at www.govinfo.gov.
About the author: Blogger contributor Ed Kessler is a Promotions Specialist in GPO’s Publications and Information Sales Office.
Images and additional content provided by Government Book Talk Editor Trudy Hawkins. Trudy is the Senior Marketing & Promotions Specialist in GPO’s Publication & Information Sales Office, supporting the U.S. Government Online Bookstore (https://bookstore.gpo.gov).
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