Plants for Livestock Pond Buffers
Healthy vegetation within buffer zones helps prevent erosion and intercepts sediment and pollutants (e.g., phosphorus) that can compromise water quality. The vegetation in buffer zones can include...
Category: Natural Resources
Funding Stormwater Management: An Introduction to Stormwater Utility Fees in South Carolina
Have you ever looked at your water bill or property tax and wondered why a stormwater utility fee item is included? This article will explore the history of stormwater utility fee collection, how...
Managing Pine Trees with a Thinning
Forest management practices, such as thinnings, are recommended to meet landowner management objectives, including generating income, improving habitat for wildlife species, and, most importantly,...
Introduction to Watershed Water Quality Models
Informed decision-making on the sustainable management of waterbodies such as streams, rivers, and lakes entails understanding various watershed processes (e.g., land-use changes, urbanization,...
Historical Floods of South Carolina
This publication introduces different types of flooding and discusses major historical hurricanes and flooding events that have caused significant damage and fatalities in South Carolina. The...
Streamflow: What is it, and How Do We Measure It?
Streamflow tells us how much water is flowing past a certain point in a stream or river. Streamflow (or discharge) affects almost all aspects of stream health, including essential biological and...
Asian Longhorned Beetle Biology and Management in South Carolina
The Asian longhorned beetle is a federally regulated invasive wood-boring pest recently discovered in South Carolina. This publication helps landowners and land managers know and recognize the most...
Water Withdrawal Amounts in South Carolina
Access to plentiful, clean water is critical for life and economic activity. South Carolina has typically been considered a water “rich” state, and surface and ground freshwater supplies have...
Pond Maintenance: Dredging
Dredging is often one of the larger projects a pond owner may consider; successful projects require careful planning and frequently involve hiring a professional experienced in planning, permitting,...
An Introduction to Wetlands of South Carolina
This publication describes the importance of wetlands through a discussion of the ecology, ecosystem services, history, and policy of wetland ecosystems. With a particular focus on South Carolina...
Introduction to Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) in South Carolina Freshwater Systems
Harmful algal blooms (HABs) occur when algal communities and cyanobacteria dominate water bodies or produce toxins or other compounds that can cause taste or odor issues in water and negatively...
Water Withdrawal Regulation in South Carolina
Water use and reporting regulations in South Carolina have gone through substantial changes over time. Current regulations contain permitting, registration, and reporting requirements for...
How to Stay Safe Around Chainsaws
While professional users of chainsaws must follow Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements to keep them safe, the non-professional user is not subject to the same...
Logging Operations and Soil Compaction
Soil is highly sensitive to improper logging activities that can cause long-lasting soil compaction and reduce forest productivity, seedling growth, and survival. All logging operations can cause...
Conservation Easement Amendments: A Landowner Guide
As states and local communities look toward nonregulatory methods to protect natural resources, conservation easements (CEs) have become an increasingly popular tool for land conservation. CEs can...