Pine needles: Austrian pine needles and cones can be sources of disease and infection. Loblolly pine needles present fewer problems with tip and needle blight.

Mulches also minimize soil surface moisture evaporation so more water that is applied to the plants, goes into the plants.

“Watering in the morning is best,” Sutherland said. “Mornings not only are cooler, but often have little wind. Cooler temperatures and low wind means less evaporation water loss.”

If you use a sprinkler, choose ones that keep the water closer to the ground and don't produce small droplets. Newer, turbine, rotary sprinklers fit both of these criteria and rotate without spraying water sideways, like older technology impact sprinklers.

Another impact of climate change of interest to foresters, farmers and gardeners is that diseases and insects can move to new, warmer locations.

The good news about climate change is that a longer spring and warm fall will allow gardeners to grow more of their own food due to the longer season. For example, longer spring and fall seasons will allow us to start planting outdoors earlier in the spring and later in the fall.

Oklahoma is already working to meet the challenges of climate change.

“The state is undergoing a water planning project,” Sutherland said. “The Oklahoma Comprehensive Water Plan will consider the current water availability of water and the future needs of communities from 2010-60.”

Oklahoma Mesonet, a world-class network of environmental monitoring stations, was designed and implemented by scientists from the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University. It is operated as part of Oklahoma Climatological Survey.

The Mesonet Web site, http://agweather.mesonet.org, is a wealth of information for gardeners, farmers and weather watchers.

“Oklahomans can track current weather, wind shifts, air temperature, freeze lines, soil temperatures and link to radar for storm watching,” Sutherland said. “Oklahoma Mesonet climate trend data goes back to 1994 and Oklahoma Climatological Survey data goes back to 1895. Annual average temperatures and rainfall can be viewed as a graph to illustrate that wetter years are cooler years and hotter years have less rainfall.”

Another new Oklahoma Mesonet Web site is the Simple Irrigation Plan, SIP for short, that allows landscapers and gardeners to know exactly how long to water their turf. Using SIP tells you how much water grass needs to thrive.

Sutherland pointed out that all of us will need to find ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. We will need to learn how to live in ways that use less energy and make the most of the energy we do use.

“Individuals can make fewer trips in the car, consider closer vacation spots, re-use or repair what they own instead of throwing it away, replace appliances with more energy efficient ones, use florescent light bulbs where lights are left on for longer periods and make other choices that will help,” Sutherland said.