Restoration burning continues on the Domain

On April 20, students, staff, and faculty participated in a 20 acre burn at the restoration site near Armfield Bluff. Students dug the fire line, used the drip torches and collected all the pre- and post treatment data.

Forest Ecology Class Seeking the Gopher Tortoise

Students in the Forest Ecology class traveled to south Georgia to visit the Jones Ecological Research Center. In addition to visiting a cypress swamp and a prescribed burn in a longleaf pine forest, the class learned about the importance of the longleaf-wiregrass ecosystem to amphibians such as the tiger salamander and reptiles such as the gopher tortoise. In this picture the class is sending a camera down into the gopher tortoise burrow to see if anyone is home.

Forest restoration project continues

On April 13, the last load of logs from the Compartment 46 restoration project left the site. The logs (white pine, loblolly pine, and hardwood pulp) went to three different locations. Students will now conduct post-harvest fuel and tree inventories, apply fire to part of the unit, treat invasives, seed native grasses, and plant approximately 200 shortleaf pine before the end of the semester.

Prescribed fire on the Domain

The Forest and Watershed Restoration class applied fire to the landscape during the first week of April at Compartment 6 (an oak regeneration study). Johnson Jeffers ( Nat. Res. C'10) and Julie Bennett (Eco/Bio C'11) are shown using the drip torches.

Snowden alum delivers white oak

Big thanks to Doug McConnell (C'80) for milling and delivering some nice white oak for the new Snowden addition. Apparently, this oak fell near his home in Mississippi. We all appreciate his time and effort!

Tree planting at SUD

Finally, a warm and sunny day for some tree planting at the Sewanee Utility District. Sewanee students recently planted shortleaf pine on a cleared area of the wastewater sprayfield with Nate Wilson. Nate will become our Domain Manager in mid-April.

2010 SAF meeting in Lexington

Ashley Bardet (C'10), Ken Smith, Mary Elizabeth Watson (C'11), Deanna Wolford (C'12), and Johnson Jeffers (C'10) met briefly with Wilbur Hitchcock at the 2010 Society of American Forester meeting in Lexington, KY. Mr. Hitchcock supervised several harvests on the Domain in the 1960s.