Alabama's first lady Dianne Bentley will be in Tuscaloosa on Monday to speak at a news conference announcing the kickoff of the Alabama Tree Recovery Campaign. The Arbor Day Foundation and the Alabama Forestry Commission will join Bentley to announce that 16 north Alabama communities will receive over 30,000 trees.

Trees can help lower heating and cooling costs, help reduce air pollution and storm water runoff and provide valuable habitat for birds and other animals.

On Wednesday, the Department of Agriculture unveiled what most gardeners have known for years: a new plant hardiness zone map that shows generally warmer low temperatures for winter than the department's previous map from 1990. Two earlier, unofficial versions were developed privately in the past decade: one by the Arbor Day Foundation and the other by the American Horticultural Society. They, too, showed zones creeping northward to reflect milder winters.