Date: 07/22/04
Contact: Erik Flemming (864) 656-0606;

Writer: Susan Bedingfield (864) 656-3876;

Clemson will offer
forestry/harvesting workshops

CLEMSON – Timber harvesting professionals and landowners in South Carolina will have the opportunity to attend educational workshops.

Clemson Extension is offering the South Carolina Forestry Association Timber Operations Professional (TOP) Refresher workshop in conjunction with the Streamside Management workshop.

Both programs will be held August 4-5 in Walterboro.

Registration is required for both programs. The fee for each workshop is $125, which includes lunch and classroom materials.

The TOP refresher workshop is one day and will cover a variety of topics from sustainable forestry updates to trends in business management. The workshop starts at 8 a.m. and runs until 4 p.m.

The Streamside Management Zones (SMZs) workshop is also one day from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

SMZs are areas of vegetation adjacent to both sides of a stream or surrounding other areas of open water. It is the cornerstone of South Carolina’s Best Management Practices for Forestry, used to improve water quality from harvesting operations located in one of the eight priority watersheds in the state.

The SMZs workshop is part of collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. The workshop is funded through the Section 319 grant from the Clean Water Act.

Forest industries in South Carolina require that loggers meet the American Forest and Paper Association's Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) training guidelines.

To be recognized as fully SFI Trained, you must complete all three days of the TOP Program, the Refresher workshop, and maintain 12 hours of SFI approved continuing education every three years.

For more information, contact Erik Flemming at (864) 656-0606 or erikf@clemson.edu. Register online at http://www.clemson.edu/extfor/ and take the continuing education link.

Clemson University serves the state's citizens, communities and businesses through Public Service Activities that include research, Extension and regulatory services. For more information, check out www.clemson.edu/public/.
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