April 4--June 20, 2002.
The premiere episode of The World of Nolan got off to a great start with a very special guest. Will Moriaty returned for his third visit to Public Access, his second time on my show, and the first time to talk about his first passion: trees and agriculture.
Will is the founder and president of T.R.E.E, Inc., which stands for the Tampa Bay Reforestation and Environmental Effort, Inc. This not-for-profit organization has been in operation since 1983.
Will told the story of T.R.E.E.'s founding (it was an informal meeting at a south Tampa restaurant, "The Mexican Burro", which no longer exists), then took us on a fascinating tour of the flora that is Florida. This was accomplished through an elaborate slide show consisting of photos Will took on a recent visit to gardens and parks mainly in the Orlando area.
Our musical guest was George Draper, a regular gigging singer-guitarist, who graced us with an original song and a McCartney song that George "countrified".
We had several interesting phone calls. One was from our own Terence Nuzum who called to compliment us on the slide show and George's musical performance. Another, from fellow producer Dean Chambers, brought up the subject of global warming and asked if that had any impact on Will's work (it does not---but Will was intrigued enough to respond thoughtfully to the topic). The third caller asked the difference between two different species of tree that ended with "nut" in the name.
The remaining minutes of the show were devoted to a brief synopsis of two particularly villified Florida "junk" trees: the "Punk" and the Brazilian Pepper. Brought in decades ago to quickly vegetate the developing suburban areas, they have very nearly taken over or severly displaced exisiting native species.
For further information on anything related to the TREE organization, Florida trees, or planting schedules, you may write an email to Will at:treeinc@tampabay.rr.com
There is also the T.R.E.E. website.
For further information on anything related to The World of Nolan public access television program, you may write to my email address at:
Crazedfanboy1@aol.com