The S.C. Tree Farm Committee will be hosting the 2008 Field Tour and Awards Ceremony on Thursday at Clemson University’s Pee Dee Research and Education Center.
The ceremony will feature keynote speaker Rhett Johnson of the Longleaf Alliance, who will speak about the alliance’s latest accomplishments. The Longleaf Alliance works to preserve the longleaf pine habitats in nine states, including South Carolina.
“He has worked a lot with trying to have the longleaf pine restored,” Roy Boyd, S.C. Forestry Commission Project Forester and the organizer of the event, said. “Over the years we have lost a lot of longleaf pine habitats.”
Boyd said a number of awards will be presented to area tree farmers, including the Tree Farmer of the Year.
“We’re going to present the Tree Farmer of the Year award to the winner,” he said. “We will actually celebrate (the awards ceremony) next year on his property.”
And when that happens, the winner will offer guests a five stop tour of his property, just like the one being offered this year, Boyd said.
“The tour is comprised of five different stops and each stop is basically a small educational experience for tree farmers to show them some different techniques to help meet the objectives on their farms,” he said.
Some of the information available to tree farmers during the tours include a tour stop regarding pine straw production by Brain Davis, director of the Sandhills State Forest; another related to prescribed burning with James Brunson, project forester with the S.C. Forestry Commission in Patrick.
“One is on using switchgrass as biofuel and yet another is on longleaf pine restoration,” Boyd said.
According to literature from the S.C. Forestry Commission, forests cover two-thirds of the land in South Carolina, making timber the most valued agricultural crop in the state.
The tree products industry is the third largest employer in the state with the third highest payroll among manufacturing industries in the state, employing more than 30,000 people in South Carolina.
If You’re Going
What: S.C. Tree Farm Committee’s 2008 Field Tour and Awards Ceremony
When: 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: Clemson University’s Pee Dee Research and Education Center, 2200 Pocket Road, Florence
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