...hot
on the Trail
Pee Dee Professor
Earns Service Award
Honda Manufacturing Donates to the Trail
Florence
School District 1 Teachers Incorporate
New Academic Indicators on Trail
Educational Tours Hit the Trail
Francis Marion English Department Takes On the Trail Kiosks
Pee Dee's Frederick Awarded for Trail
FLORENCE – A Clemson University professor at the Pee Dee Research and Education Center has been honored for his efforts in establishing an outdoor education trail at the center near Florence.
Jim Frederick was presented a special achievement award from the S.C. Soil and Water Conservation Society during the organization’s recent partners conference at Myrtle Beach.
Amy Maxwell, immediate past president of the society, cited Frederick for “outstanding dedication to conservation” with his work at the Pee Dee REC.
The 1.2-mile-long trail, which was dedicated in April of 2007, contains an abundance of information on the natural resources found in the Pee Dee region’s agricultural, forest, lake, wetland and urban ecosystems.
“We’re now planning to add a touch of rural heritage – past, present and future – to our efforts,” said Frederick. “As permanent learning centers we’ll recreate an early 1900s farm and saw mill and a native American village.”
“On a bigger scale we are working towards a rural cultural heritage center with several groups such as the Pee Dee Land Trust, the Pee Dee Resource Conservation and Development Council, Backswamp School Association, landowners associations, the S.C. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Natural Resources,” he said.
Honda Manufacturing a New Trail Partner
Honda Manufacturing of South Carolina located in Timmonsville continues to serve the Pee Dee community through a donation to the Outdoor Education Trail. This year, they donated a new 4-wheel-drive ATV and financial support to complete another educational kiosk on the Trail.
When asked about the donation, Jim Frederick, director of the Outdoor Education Trail, said he is "very happy that Honda has joined our group of Trail sponsors and become a partner with respect to natural resource education.”
The ATV will be instrumental in developing the education trail and bringing supplies to remote Trail locations. The vehicle also has the capacity to carry extra equipment and tanks of water for Trail functions. In addition to group tours, the Trail will be open to the public during its next Open House in April!
Florence School District 1 Teachers Incorporate New Academic Indicators to Trail
The recent hot weather was due to the hard work of Florence School District 1 teachers when they visited the Outdoor Education Trail at Clemson's Pee Dee Research and Education Center. Their mission: to apply and align the State's new curriculum objectives, indicators and inquiries into activities and demonstrations offered on the Trail.
The teachers were excited about utilizing the Trail to expand classroom instruction. The two-day workshop focused on promoting the Trail as a teacher-guided resource that will include cross-curriculum opportunities for every subject. Ideally, the typical day on the Trail will have a team of teachers from a single grade teaching approximately 150 students in an outdoor setting.
During the workshop, the teachers offered their expertise by incorporating perspectives from different subjects suggesting ways to teach across the curriculum using the learning centers on the Trail. Many of these ideas will find their way into new posters that will focus on social studies, mathematics and language arts subject matters, in addition to an expansion of multiple grade level curriculum for science.
The teachers also offered suggestions for the Trail's website. These ideas will allow easier access to and provide more useful tools to teachers before their visit.
Trail Educates Thousands
The Trail Hosts More Than 6000 Visitors Since Inception
Garden Clubs, school students from Head Start to high school, rotary clubs, scout clubs and nature clubs, all from Florence, Darlington, and Marion Counties have sought the Outdoor Education Trail to find out more about the Pee Dee Region. The Trail offers learning centers and kiosks about current and past agricultural practices, land management techniques, forestry products, plant and animal habitat recognition and the importance of good water quality.
The Trail is also being used to educate our educators. In the beginning of Spring, Science teachers from Florence District 1 dedicated an inservice training to the Outdoor Education Trail. Following an in-class introduction to the Trail, the teachers were given a tour of the Trail. Feedback from the training was more than positive with many suggestions.
One of the suggestion from the training will be incorporated in the near future: the Trail will be teacher-guided. A detailed trail guide will illustrate the education standards covered by each kiosk. Teachers and chaperones will be assigned tasks to communicate these standards which are grade specific. Ultimately, this idea will allow greater access to the Trail with decreased University staff intervention.
FMU on the Trail
English Department's Professional Writing program focuses on kiosk language; internship produces slide presentation
Students enrolled in FMU's Advanced Business Communication and Business Writing courses under the direction of Dr. John Sutton and Dr. Meredith Love, respectively, focused on improving the kiosks displayed at the Outdoor Education Trail. The goal of the assignment was to simplify and clarify information presented to the Trail audience. The objectives were successfully overacheived!
In mid-April, the results of students' hard work were apparent through their class presentations. The Forest Resource kiosk was completely refreshed to incorporate the original information into a new, appealling presentation. Also, considering the targeted audience, the students added new information.
This is the second semester that students focused their efforts on the trail kiosks. Last semester, Dr. Sutton's class will forever be known on the trail for thinking of the children. Their class dedicated the bottom 10 inches of the kiosks for offering fun facts. Questions are displayed on top of doors that flip up to reveal answers.
Next step: Trail team's implementation! Of course, if you feel you can help with this exciting venture, contact us!
Also from FMU, an internship under the direction of Dr. Lynn Hanson, focused on the Trail and produced a slide show including a voice over that explained the regional influence and opportunities of the trail. Hundreds of copies of the presentation were distributed as aid to advertise the Trail's inaugural Open House.
Hickory,
Jute and Switchgrass:
The Trail's Wikiup Takes Form
An update on the Native American structure
Students from the CHOiCES Charter School continue to dedicate seemingly endless hours of hard work on the Native American village at the Trail. The top right photo to the right shows the team gathering to plan the day's tasks: bundling grass, lashing supports and weaving the walls.
The team quickly gets to work (right), tying bundles of switchgrass that will be used to recreate the covering of the Native American shelters. By the end of the day, this efficient group managed to bundle a huge pile of grass and bring in another trailer full of material.
Although we have some instruction about lashing (connecting two supports using jute) as described by local archaeologists, it truely is an art. Team members shown below, however, perfected the task. The finished structure held the weight of two adults.
Switchgrass is a key material to put the finishing touches on the wikiup. After the switchgrass is bundled together, it is weaved into the supporting structure (pictured at the right), weatherproofing the interior. We used so much of the grass, more was brought to the site to complete the structure (below).
Life after the burn
Historically, wildfires were a common occurrence in the Pee Dee region until development of row crops and houses. Wildfires produce and maintain habitat for a wide range of animals including deer, fox, bobcats, and many birds.
The reasons for burning on Clemson University's Pee Dee Research and Education Center (PDREC) differ little from the original benefits of fire. Prescribed fires reduce fuel (small trees, leaf litter, fallen tree trunks) from cultivated pine forests, reducing competition from undesired tree species (like hardwoods).
Researchers at the PDREC are also interested in longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) habitat restoration and use for timber. Longleaf pine has adapted to frequent fires and the conducted burns resulted in the tree's cones dropping as seen in the photo to the right. Pictured below, you can see blueberry sprouting from roots insulated from the fire, and at the bottom right, new basal foliage from a Silphium species.
All sorts of legumes (types of beans) and euphorbs (small plants often with milky sap) benefit from the burn. In turn, butterflies and birds are attracted to the area to nectar on flowers and to eat seeds.
What's blooming near the Trail?
Natural land management on the PDREC focuses on increasing wildlife structure and function. Observations that tell researchers that management is working include an increased presence of species that are reproducing. This month, the wildflowers are starting to show their colors.
On a recent tour of the campus, a few noted species were inviting insects, birds and researchers to take notice. Ground cherry (Physalis longifolia var.subglabrata), Virginia goat's-rue (Tephrosia virginiana) and thistle (Cirsium horridulum) were a few of the more showy plant species. Less noticeable were the Southern rockbell (Wahlenbergia marginata), an introduced species, and native spurges which are all frequently found at the PDREC.
Utilize the
USDA
Plants Database for more information about Physalis longifolia
var. subglabrata.
Utilize the
USDA
Plants Database for more information about Cirsium horridulum.
See the USDA Plants Database for more information about Euphorbia curtisii and E. discoidalis.
Utilize the USDA Plants Database for more information about Wahlenbergia marginata.
Go to the USDA Plants Database for more information about Tephrosia virginiana.