Roger Collins has always enjoyed exploring Georgia’s landscape and history and is an avid participant in the Thursday morning Nature Ramblers at the State Botanical Garden. He has a passion for researching land use history in the Athens area and surrounding counties. His research includes finding old tax maps and aerial photos and analyzing tree rings and land formations to interpret the land. Join attendees as Collins presents a fascinating program on the history of the land the State Botanical Garden occupies as well as the surrounding nearly 2,000 acres. He will share information about the three generations of the White family who owned the land. This is the family that created the mill village of Whitehall and built the mansion on the forestry school property of the same name. You will learn how the property eventually came to be a part of UGA.

Collins is a graduate of UGA’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. After working on newspapers in South Carolina and Tennessee, he returned to Georgia to serve as editor of The Oconee Enterprise in Watkinsville. For the past 40 years, he followed a career in residential construction as a home builder, electrical and plumbing contractor. He is now semi-retired and lives on Lake Oglethorpe in Oglethorpe County.  

The registration deadline is noon on July 25.