NRCS Showcases Wildlife Habitat Enhancement Practices

project coordinators from the research center and NRCS conservationists survey WHIP plantings at the demonstration site

In Darlington County, South Carolina, numerous wildlife species are getting first-class treatment at Clemson University’s Pee Dee Research and Education Center. The NRCS Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) is providing financial and technical assistance to establish habitat enhancements as demonstration and research sites. The project consists of illustrating and evaluating WHIP and other USDA conservation practices for wildlife including agricultural filter strips, hedgerow plantings, field borders, native warm season grasses, forest stand improvements, forest openings, riparian forest buffers, and prescribed burning. The project – a collaboration of efforts by numerous local, State, and Federal agencies to illustrate integrated land management for wildlife, agriculture, and forestry in an environmentally sound and sustainable manner –is enhanced by signage which explains to viewers the purpose of each practice area. It will target a wide audience including farmers and landowners as well as school children and the general public.

Visit the NRCS South Carolina web site.

Pee Dee Research and Education Center Director George Askew spearheaded the project by calling for the establishment of a wildlife habitat demonstration site. “This project is a big step in changing some negative ideas about providing food and shelter for wildlife alongside farming practices,” he said.

Your contact Amy O. Maxwell, NRCS public affairs specialist, at 803-765-5402, or amy.maxwell@sc.usda.gov.