Tag: South Carolina

First Release in the Carolinas of New Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Predator

by Bryan Mudder, SRS Forestry Technician  • 
On Friday last week, U.S. Forest Service scientists with the Southern Research Station and Forest Health Protection released just over 1200 Laricobius osakensis beetles on eastern hemlock trees in North and South Carolina. Reared at University of Tennessee Knoxville’s Lindsay Young Beneficial Insects Lab, the predator beetles are natural enemies of the hemlock woolly adelgid, an…  More 

Study Shows How Coyotes Help Manage Deer Populations in the Southeastern U.S.

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
Coyotes have become a force in the southeastern U.S. that can no longer be ignored in deer management, according John Kilgo, a Forest Service research wildlife biologist. He and his colleagues arrived at that conclusion after spending the last decade studying coyote-deer interactions in South Carolina. Coyotes, a species native to the western U.S., gradually colonized…  More 

Longleaf Pine at a 50-Year High in South Carolina

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery  • 
Efforts to restore longleaf pine forests in South Carolina are proving quite successful, according to data published by U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) unit. Longleaf pine forests now occupy less than three percent of an original range estimated at around 92 million acres that once stretched across the coastal plains of…  More 

Susan Loeb Awarded Grant for Research Related to White-Nose Syndrome in Bats

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery  • 
On September 29, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced $2.5 million in grants for research, management, and communication projects related to white-nose syndrome, the fungal disease that’s killed millions of North American bats since 2007, when it was first documented. White-nose syndrome is caused by a cold-loving fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), that infects hibernating…  More 

The Future of the Francis Marion’s Coastal Forests

by Emrys Treasure, Eastern Forest Threat Assessment Center; Mary Morrison, Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests; and Sealy Chipley, Chipley Consulting  • 
When Hurricane Hugo hit the coast of South Carolina in September of 1989, the Francis Marion National Forest (Francis Marion) suffered a devastating blow. Sixty percent of its pine trees sustained moderate or heavy damage, and its bottomland hardwood trees fared even worse: 43 percent were broken and 43 percent were uprooted. At that time,…  More 

Headwaters to Estuaries: Advances in Watershed Science and Management

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
On March 2 -5, 81  scientists, managers, and stakeholders met in North Charleston, South Carolina, to present and discuss the latest research on watershed science and management. U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station scientist Carl Trettin served as conference chair and host  for the 5th Interagency Conference on Research in the Watersheds, which took a national perspective…  More 

Taking the Long View at the Francis Marion National Forest

by Adapted from materials provided by Lori Barrow, South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative  • 
The Francis Marion National Forest (Francis Marion) is currently revising its land and resource management plan under the National Forest System 2012 Planning Rule. The new rule requires climate change be taken into account and supports an adaptive framework based on science, public values, and the all-lands context for resource management. Located adjacent to the…  More