We are rapidly approaching one of my favorite times of the year in the Ozarks. It's time to take a drive, or a hike if you are real ambitious, and check out the State Arboreal Emblem, better known as the State Tree – Cornus florida, better known as the Flowering Dogwood. I encourage you... I implore you to plan a drive down one of our windy wooded highways on or around Earth Day, April 22. That should be prime time for viewing one of the real wonders of this area. Most of the trees have not leafed out yet so you can see deep into the wooded areas and see hillsides bursting with the beautiful white blooms of Dogwoods. I spend most every day looking at and thinking about trees, but there is one time of year that I can't get enough of them and this is it! We are all busy – often too busy. Give yourself an Earth Day and take a sunlit afternoon to drive or hike through Mark Twain National Forest. Take a backroad trip to Branson. Pick a more obscure Highway like Z Highway going south from Fordland, Mo. Or maybe take a walk around the Springfield Nature Center. You may not be a nature freak – I'm not! But there are few things better than a trip to take in the flowering dogwoods of southern Missouri! Enjoy!!