SoLoACE Longleaf Partnership Hosts Workshop & Field Day

By Bobby Franklin, The Longleaf Alliance

The Southern Low Country and ACE Basin (SoLoACE) Longleaf Partnership, Hitchcock Woods, International Forest Company and the NWTF hosted a workshop at Newberry Hall and field tour of Hitchcock Woods in Aiken, SC on November 20.  Topics for the day included History & Future of Longleaf Pine, Prescribed Fire & Wildlife, Longleaf Values, and Cost Share Programs.  During the afternoon tour of Hitchcock Woods, participants saw efforts to restore longleaf ecosystems on the 2,000 acre property which is surrounded by the city of Aiken.  Tour stops included native groundcover restoration, midstory hardwood control & fuel reduction, prescribed burning, and natural regeneration of longleaf pine.  Approximately 60 people attended the day’s events.  The workshop was sponsored by the partnership which included The Longleaf Alliance, Clemson University, Ducks Unlimited, Hitchcock Woods, NWTF, Natural Resources Conservation Service, The Nature Conservancy, Nemours Wildlife Foundation, Open Land Trust, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, South Carolina Forestry Commission U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service, Savannah River Forest Station.

Image 1:  Gary Burger (SCDNR) and Bennett Tucker (Hitchcock Woods Foundation) speaking to the group of 60 attendees at the first SoLoACE Longleaf Landowner Field Day help in Aiken SC.  Photo by Robert Abernethy.

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