D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director

My beloved great-aunt knew the seasons well.  After the advent of Spring, we still had to go through “Blackberry Winter” and a few other cold snaps.  She would be amazed to learn that I find these “Kudzu Days”.  She never celebrated such a time.  After all, kudzu*, which grew behind her home, is a non-native woody vine planted all over the Southeast by F.D.R.’s Civilian Conservation Corps.  Later it was designated a pest weed.  In 1953, kudzu was removed from the USDA’s list of permissible ground cover, but it has never been eradicated from ...read more