Grant - Clemson University

CLEMSON UNIVERSITY

Wildlife Habitat Improvement Practices for Working Forests

Project Overview

Beginning in 2010, The Clemson University Forestry and Natural Resources Department received $30,000 annually over three years, for a total of $90,000, to help South Carolina forest landowners improve wildlife habitat on managed lands through outreach and demonstration sites on Clemson’s Experimental Forest. The management demonstration sites established across the university’s 17,500 acre forest showcased practices such as promoting aquatic and riparian areas, managing for landscape level wildlife habitat features, conserving rare species and communities, and protecting special sites. The demonstration sites were then used in landowner outreach through a project website, creating self-guided tour brochures in conjunction with informative site signs, and conducting workshops and webinars on the project and lessons learned. Additionally, the project served in an academic capacity as students helped plan the demonstration sites and conducted monitoring to determine overall effectiveness and areas for improvement.

Supporting the SFI Standard

The project addresses a wide variety of SFI 2010-2014 Standard requirements including Objective 4, which says program participants must “manage the quality and distribution of wildlife habitats and contribute to the conservation of biological diversity by developing and implementing stand- and landscape-level measures that promote a diversity of types of habitat and successional stages, and conservation of forest plants and animals, including aquatic species.” It also addresses Objective 6, which requires that program participants “manage lands that are ecologically, geologically or culturally important in a manner that takes into account their unique qualities” and Objective 10, which requires the use of best management practices to protect water quality. The work is expected to result in an optional guidance module in the SFI 2010-2014 Standard for “value-added” wildlife habitat improvement on industry lands.

Project Partners

In addition to Clemson University, partners include Upstate Forever, Nemours Wildlife Foundation, Quality Deer Management Program and the National Wild Turkey Federation.

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About Clemson University

With more than 75 percent of South Carolina’s natural resources on private lands, Clemson University provides research-based information to help landowners, foresters and natural resource professionals manage forest for timber products and wildlife habitat. Forestry and wildlife contribute more than $6.5 billion annually to the state’s economy.