Keep Haralson Beautiful

09/06/2026

For today's Colorblindness Awareness Day, we're talking about the two-color vision that nearly all animals exhibit. While human eyes can see three wavelengths of light at various strengths (roughly corresponding to red, green, and blue), many animals can only see two. The reason that orange works as a hunting color for deer, for example, is because they lack the red cone cells entirely. As a result, orange blends in to their surroundings and appears as a muddled green in the leaves. While dichromatic colorblindness is far from the only kind exhibited in humans, it is our hope that, when viewed through this example, it can be made clearer what it may be like to be colorblind.

09/05/2026

Today is international vulture awareness day! Though a commonly disliked animal, vultures are incredibly intelligent and important to our ecosystem. Scavengers like them help keep everything clean and healthy. The species shown here, the black vulture, is one of two native to the state of Georgia, and particularly interesting behaviorally. Like some other birds, they mate for life and care for their young for a long amount of time - up to three months. As stewards of nature, it helps to take a moment to appreciate every animal within our area - even the more unpopular ones.

09/04/2026

The result of symbiosis between many individual species of algae and fungi, lichen is just as varied as its components. The most common form we see here is the greenish-white lichen growing on the side of trees, although it can also take a moss-like form growing on stone, as pictured below. Lichen is incredibly sensitive to environmental pollution, and its presence commonly indicates a well-maintained ecosystem. If you want to join our mission to keep Haralson county's lichen, check us out at keepharalsonbeautiful.org.

09/03/2026

09/03/2026

09/01/2026

This insect appears to have the banding and stingers of a wasp, as well as the face and body type of a praying mantis - while being related to neither. Mantidflies are a group of neuropterans (i.e. mayflies) that convergently developed extremely similar eye and arm structures to the praying mantis in order to snag its prey, while the wasp mantidfly specifically developed adaptations to mimic a wasp and scare away predators. Wasp mantidflies use something called "Batesian mimicry" - appearing as a dangerous animal while posing no threat to predators themselves. Uniquely, this species exhibits a wide degree of variance: their coloration, extended abdomen, and tendency to swarm all mimic those of paper wasps in their local area. Pictured here is a morph more common in the South, carrying a bright red that mimics our local wasps.
If you want to help protect our nation's amazing biodiversity, you're not alone. A local level is where individuals can have the greatest impact - and if you want to join us in the fight, check us out at keepharalsonbeautiful.org.

08/30/2026

In collaboration with West Georgia Technical College and B & D Recycling, we're hosting one of our three October recycling drives - the scrap metal & old appliance drive! Here, you'll be able to safely recycle scrap metal, old metal furniture, and large, metal household appliances, all for absolutely free! Want to find out more? Check out the link!: https://www.keepharalsonbeautiful.org/scrapmetalrecycling

08/25/2026

From August 22nd to August 27th is ! One of its biggest focuses is keeping drinking water clean, and a big part of what we can do to help with that is make sure our local rivers are clean. The Tallapoosa river is at the heart of Haralson County, and as such we're one of the communities that acts its steward. If you want to join us in keeping the river healthy, consider checking us out at keepharalsonbeautiful.org.