UPCOMING EVENTS
UPCOMING EVENTS
NOW
Columbia Green’s Beat the Heat Tree Giveaway
Get up to 3 free trees and help us Beat the Heat, Columbia!
Columbia Green is currently accepting orders from Columbia-area property owners for free shade trees to help us address urban heat across our city. We planted over 1,000 trees during the 2024-2025 planting season, and aim to plant as many this year! Visit our Beat the Heat page on this website to find out how you can become part of the solution to urban heat. Then sign up to receive up to three free shade trees for your property.
Thursday, November 13th, 4:30 pm
COLUMBIA COLLEGE screening of ROOTED documentary about food justice
Columbia College invites you to a screening of Rooted, a documentary about food deserts and food injustice for those living in them. Germaine Jenkins, born in Hartsville, raised in Cleveland, Ohio, and a graduate of Johnson and Wales, moved to North Charleston at age 25. Without access to grocery stores and healthy food for her family, she petitioned North Charleston City Council to lease a vacant lot to her and created a community garden and farm— now Fresh Future Farm. Come and learn about one woman’s continued campaign for food justice in America.
Columbia Green will participate with other members of the community on a panel discussion prior to the screening. Please join us for this important event with our non profit partners at Columbia College.
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 6pm
Arbor Day Book Talk with Margaret Renkl at SC State Museum
Celebrating and Protecting Nature’s Gifts
Join the South Carolina State Museum for a special evening with celebrated author and environmental writer Margaret Renkl, presented in observance of South Carolina Arbor Day.
Known for her lyrical reflections on the natural world and Southern life, Renkl will share insights from her work and discuss how we can reconnect with and protect the beauty around us. The evening will feature a moderated conversation with James Barilla, University of South Carolina professor of creative writing and author of My Backyard Jungle, followed by a reception and book signing.
Renkl is the author of three acclaimed collections of essays, including The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year—winner of the 2024 Southern Book Prize and Reese’s Book Club’s 100th pick. Through her writing, Renkl invites readers to slow down, observe, and rediscover the wonder in everyday encounters with nature.
A native Southerner and graduate of the University of South Carolina, Renkl’s voice resonates with warmth, empathy, and a passionate call to stewardship. Her work reminds us that caring for our environment begins at home… right in our own backyards.
“The phenomenon of ecological grief is real. Many of us do require fuel to restore our spirits. You will find that fuel in this book.”
-- Review of The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl for NPR by Barbara King