Tag Archives: South Carolina

Bat-killing white-nose syndrome moves southeast

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Summit County Voice 3/13/2013
Excerpt:        “SUMMIT COUNTY — The spread of a lethal bat disease to Georgia and South Carolina once again heightens concerns that humans may be implicated in the transmission of the fungal spores that cause white-nose syndrome.

State and federal officials announcing the discovery of the disease in southeastern bat populations warned that there’s growing evidence that humans are a factor in the spread. White-nose syndrome has now spread to 22 states and 5 Canadian provinces over the past seven years.  ….”
Read entire article at http://summitcountyvoice.com/2013/03/13/bat-killing-white-nose-syndrome-moves-southeast/

Francis Marion Forest managers go online for ideas on how to use the forest

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Charleston Post and Courier 2/22/2013
Excerpt:     “Lowcountry residents get a chance to say what they’d like made available in the Francis Marion National Forest. This time, though, the U.S. Forest Service is coming to them.

A public input session on outdoor recreation and tourism opportunities in the forest will be held Tuesday 3-6 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Charleston Airport and Convention Center, 5264 International Blvd., North Charleston. But suggestion can also be made online until April 11. http://www.fs.usda.gov/detailfull/scnfs/landmanagement/planning/?cid=stelprdb5407621&width=full
Read entire article at http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130222/PC16/130229724/francis-marion-forest-managers-go-online-for-ideas-on-how-to-use-the-forest&source=RSS

Audit finds 16 of 17 SRS Forest Service computers left unused

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Augusta Chronicle 3/30/2012
Excerpt:   ” An audit by the Energy Department’s Inspector General suggests better oversight is needed for a program that allows the U.S. Forest Service office at Savannah River Site to buy computers and other equipment under an agreement with the Department of Energy.
The audit was initiated in response to a complaint last fall that the Forest Service office bought 17 new computers under an interagency pact, but only placed one of the machines into use.
Investigators found the remaining 16 computers still in their boxes — and stored in an unsecured location.   ….”
Read entire story at http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/government/2012-03-30/audit-finds-16-17-srs-forest-service-computers-left-unused?mmo_ccc=xfinity

Upper Chattooga River boating delayed

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Asheville Citizen Times 3/28/2012
Excerpt:   ” No boats allowed.
That is the latest decision in the 36-year-old saga over access to the Wild and Scenic Upper Chattooga River. The U.S. Forest Service granted a stay this week, halting its plans to permit boating on 17 miles of the river’s headwaters, which begin near Cashiers and flow through portions of Georgia and South Carolina.
A Forest Service decision announced two weeks ago approved non-motorized boating to start March 16 on the Upper Chattooga for the first time since 1976, during periods of high water flow, between Dec. 1-April 30.
But before the river ever reached high enough flow levels for one boat to launch, the Forest Service on Tuesday declared a boating moratorium in response to a request from Greenfire Law, on behalf of Georgia Forest Watch, the Sierra Club and Wilderness Watch, said Linda Brett, spokeswoman for the Southern Region Forest Service in Atlanta.    …..”
Read entire article at  http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20120328/OUTDOORS/303280032/Upper-Chattooga-River-boating-delayed

Chattooga ruling draws anger

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Asheville Citizen Times 3/17/2012
Excerpt:   ” In an angry and epic tug-of-water war, environmental organizations and a collective of boater groups filed appeals challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s decision earlier this week to allow limited paddling on the Upper Chattooga Wild and Scenic River.
After a 36-year boating ban on a 21-mile stretch of pristine river with headwaters in the Cashiers area of Jackson County, the U.S. Forest Service announced Tuesday that it would open the waters to non-motorized boating December through April at high rates of water flow……”
Read entire article at http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20120317/OUTDOORS/303170033/Chattooga-ruling-draws-anger

After being closed 36 years, Upper Chattooga will open to boaters

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Greenville News; 2/16/2012
Excerpt:   ” The upper portion of the Chattooga River will be open today for paddlers for the first time in more than three decades, following several years of exhaustive — and costly — legal and bureaucratic battles that even with the opening show little sign of stopping.
The U.S. Forestry Service said that boating enthusiasts such as paddlers, kayakers and whitewater rafters will be allowed to float the once-limited section with a permit and when water flows “are high enough.”……..”
Read complete story at http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20120315/NEWS/303150035/-1/rss01

 

Forest enjoys Seuss-like recovery

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Charleston Post and Courier 3/11/2012
Excerpt:   “BETHERA — The beaten old Dr. Seuss forest sign on the side of S.C. Highway 41 would be a shame. Except the Lorax lives!
Behind the road sign announcing the 1998 Dr. Seuss Lorax Forest planting, longleaf pines stretch away for acres on acres through the Francis Marion National Forest, animated in the breeze. You can almost hear the title character in today’s hit movie “The Lorax” — the “strange little man ‘who speaks for the trees’ ” — sighing in relief…..”
Read entire story at http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2012/mar/11/forest-enjoys-seuss-like-recovery/

Laurel wilt spreads, adds to worries over butterfly species, firewood use

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The Times and Democrat; 1/23/2012
Excerpt:   “Laurel wilt, a disease that sounds the death knell for redbay trees wherever it appears, has spread to another coastal county – Georgetown.
Researchers with the S.C. Forestry Commission (aided by lab staff of the USDA Forest Service) say laurel wilt’s movement is having a devastating impact not only on redbays, but possibly other plants in the laurel family.
Redbay are ecologically and culturally important to the South. The tree is ubiquitous across coastal urban and suburban landscapes.
And it’s the tree of choice for the caterpillar of the Palamedes swallowtail, a very large black and yellow butterfly that depends entirely on redbays to complete its lifecycle. Laurel wilt’s impact on the butterfly, however, has yet to be determined…..”
Read entire article at  http://thetandd.com/laurel-wilt-spreads-adds-to-worries-over-butterfly-species-firewood/article_74ed54da-4393-11e1-9b55-001871e3ce6c.html

Wildfires: Threat from S.C. to New Mexico

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The State; 1/01/2012
Excerpt:   “JEMEZ SPRINGS , N.M — . – From the floor of a dry lake bed rimmed by dark mountains, it’s easy to understand why people still talk about the historic wildfire that swept through northern New Mexico last summer.
Blackened trees dominate parts of the sloping forest near this small town. In places, the soil beneath the charred woodland is gray and slippery, the earth so lifeless it will take years for native conifers to grow back. Creeks where thousands of fish died flow silently as nature tries to recover.
The intensity of the June 2011 fire contributed to this stark winter scene at the Valles Caldera National Preserve, but the devastation found in New Mexico should be no surprise to other communities  across the nation.
In places as far away as South Carolina, where millions of dollars worth of property has been destroyed from unprecedented forest fires in recent years, past forest management practices have increased the threat of dangerous woods fires to people and wildlife, many natural resource managers say……”
Read more at  http://www.thestate.com/2012/01/01/2097163/threat-from-sc-to-new-mexico.html

Francis Marion forest marks 75 years

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The State; 12/5/2011
Excerpt:   “WAMBAW — The wild calls. Under dangling live oak limbs, 19-year-old Thomas Grimsley yanks on a riding outfit that looks like it’s been paintballed, and he straps on a helmet. He pulls the motorbike down from the pickup bed, an ’07 Yamaha YZ250, a powerful, competition-grade motocross burner, and cranks up the two-stroke motor.
“Fast. Scary fast,” Grimsley says. The Charleston retail worker and Grand National Cross Country rider is ready to rumble — off on a remote cycle trail through the Francis Marion National Forest.
Yep, those “empty” miles of pines in Berkeley and Charleston counties aren’t quite naturalist John Muir’s backcountry anymore. The Francis Marion celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, and a few hundred thousand people will hike, bike, hunt, fish, paddle, camp, horseback ride, birdwatch, even target shoot in it. That’s more people than lived in the three counties around Charleston when the forest opened in 1936. ….”

Read more at http://www.thestate.com/2011/12/05/2069175/francis-marion-forest-marks-75.html