Forestry and Natural Resources with Stephen Pohlman

February 2, 2021

Photo of Herbicide demonstration plot at Edgefield Agriculture Building on Gray Street in Edgefield, SC

I have remained in contact with forestry and wildlife clients throughout the pandemic for all my counties by phone, email, and site visits. In total, I worked with over 350 landowners, the majority of which were from Edgefield County. The most common questions I received from landowners and homeowners were about pines dying from beetle issues. I also had many questions on pond weed identification, timber management, forest herbicides, and questions about selling timber.

I sent several virtual program announcements to my client email lists for the six counties I cover. This list reached almost 700 individuals. Virtual program topics have included: Women Owning Woodlands, Invasive Plants, Invasive Insects, and other relevant/timely topics. I was featured as a content presenter during many of these virtual meetings and covered topics such as privet control, invasive species, herbicide application methods, and more. I was invited to be a guest presenter for the Center of Heirs virtual meeting and spoke to the participants about selling timber. I have also aided in running video equipment for other agent projects, including Dr. David Coyle’s coverage of the Asian Longhorn Beetle.

In efforts to keep the local County Forestry Associations going, I partnered with other surrounding area forestry agents who were facing the same dilemma of not being able to host in-person meetings. We began hosting quarterly virtual forestry meetings for both county forestry association members, as well as the general public. We have hosted two meetings so far, one on Fall Wildlife Food Plots and the other on Controlling Privet in Your Woodlands. We had over 100 landowners attend both of these meetings. Again, the majority of those landowners were Edgefield County residents. These programs were geared toward landowners in Abbeville, Aiken, Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Edgefield, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, Newberry, and Saluda counties. We plan to continue to offer these virtual association meetings this Spring.

I created a herbicide control demonstration plot at the Edgefield Agriculture Building. This demonstration plot showcases hardwood control while maintaining grasses underneath. Edgefield was selected as the location due to travel restrictions at the time. The goal was to have in-person tours by the end of summer; however, COVID-19 rules still do not allow for this. With that said, individuals can still ride by the Edgefield Ag Building to view the results.

Another big project that I helped build is an Augmented Reality (AR) Sandbox. For those not familiar, this is a sandbox that uses a computer and projector to read the sands’ topography and then projects topographic lines and color onto the sand. This is used to teach individuals how to read topographic maps and visualize what it looks like in reality.  We initially created the display as the companion display for the Smithsonian Institute traveling ‘Water/Ways’ exhibit held at Hickory Knob State Park. This exhibit attracted over 2700 visitors to the State Park during Summer 2020. The AR Sandbox is currently being used to teach students at John de la Howe Governor’s School for Agriculture.

For more information on forestry and natural resources programs, please contact Stephen Pohlman by email spohlma@gmail.com or phone 803-384-4151.