Special Programs in AFW

The following provide Clemson's AFW graduate students with unique settings and facilities for study and research.

Extension Wildlife Program - This program is now under the auspices of Extension Forest Resources.

South Carolina Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
This group is supported by a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Department of Interior, the SCDNR, Clemson University, and the Wildlife Management Institute. It is one of more than 40 such units located at land grant universities around the country. The mission of the Unit is focussed on training and education of graduate students, and the conduct of research of importance to the cooperators. Emphasis areas include population dynamics of fish and wildlife game species, wetland ecology, age and growth dynamics of fish species, statistical ecology, and assessment of the impact of hydropower facility operation on aquatic resources. Contact Drs. Craig Allen orJeff Isely for more information.

Savannah River Ecology Laboratory Master Permit Agreement
This permit allows AFW faculty and students to conduct ecological research on the Upper Coastal Plain pine stands and hardwoods at the Savannah River Plant. The Savannah River Ecology Lab provides extensive lab facilities and financial support for students working in the area. Contact Drs. John Sweeney, Tim Fendley or Michael Smith for more information.

South Carolina Aquaculture, Fisheries and Wildlife Cooperative
The AFW Cooperative is a research and educational unit supported by Clemson University and SC DNR. Through the cooperative agreement, research and public service projects are conducted that neither SCDNR nor the AFW Department could undertake alone. In addition, the cooperative provides research assistantships for AFW graduate students. Contact Dr. John Sweeney for more information.

Research Facilities

Most AFW graduate students and faculty members are housed in Lehotsky Hall. This includes more than 6 400 square feet of space with administrative offices, 30 graduate student carrels, a teaching lab with prep room, six research labs, Extension program storage facilities and a multimedia lecture hall. Faculty members have personal computers and terminals in their offices or labs which provides access to the University's mainframe. Graduate students have access to these resources as well as laser printers, copy machines, etc.

Aquaculture Research

Clemson's aquaculture research facilities consist of 42 0.02-hectare culture ponds, several farm ponds, four ponds specially designed for aeration studies, and a 220-square-meter building with an office, shop area, fish-holding area, hatchery, wet laboratory and fish- disease laboratory. An additional wet laboratory is available in the Poole Agricultural Center. Shop facilities and a water quality laboratory are also available in the agricultural engineering building.

Fisheries Research

Fisheries researchers have three modern research labs in Lehotsky Hall. In addition, four large reservoirs are nearby: Hartwell Reservoir (55,000 acres) is adjacent to campus; Keowee (18,100 acres), Jocassee (7,600 acres) and Richard B. Russell (26,700 acres) are all within a one-hour drive. The Chattooga River watershed is less than an hour's drive west of campus.

SCDNR has made several of its facilities available to the fisheries faculty and graduate students. These include the Dennis Wildlife Center, Styx Hatchery, Wateree Research Station, Marine Resources Research Institute, Waddell Mariculture Center and the seven Freshwater Fisheries District Offices. In addition, the Dennis Wildlife Center has a dormitory for graduate students and visiting faculty. Federal facilities available for research include the Walhalla National Trout Hatchery, Orangeburg Federal Fish Hatchery and National Marine Fisheries Service Lab at Fort Johnson.

Wildlife Research

Off-campus wildlife research facilities are provided through cooperative agreements with industry, hunt clubs, SCDNR, the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory and Archbold Tropical Research. These include the Delta Waterfowl and Wetlands Research Station, Dennis Wildlife Center, South Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station, Webb Wildlife Research Center, Belle Baruch forest Science Institute, Samworth Game Management Area and Bear Island Game Management Area.

Other Campus Facilities

Campus facilities used by AFW faculty and students include the electron microscope facility; computing facilities, which consists of a network of on-campus computers, including the University's mainframe with 128 megabytes of main memory, a vector processor and 32 I/O channels running the MVS/XA operating system; and the University's main library, which has more than 1.5 million volumes and 7,200 serial titles. Graduate students receive an account and an interactive mainframe USERID at no charge.