Green it Up!

Two of my colleagues and I attended our first Carolina Arborist Workshop as part of the Urban and Community Forestry Council grant we recently received. The grant will allow three County Planning staff to take workshops, order study material, become ISA members and attempt arborist certification.

To what end you may wonder?

Increased tree protection, of course!

Have you ever drove (biked or walked) by an area being developed where the trees were entirely razed? With little regard to the affects on the local air quality, the neighboring landowners, stormwater capacity and quality, aesthetics and natural flora and fauna, acres of intact canopy as well as top soil are scraped to make room for... a 'for sale' sign.

If we are successful in our forestry grant campaign, then the public will realize the current state of our tree canopy and where we need to be in order to maintain and increase our quality of life.

At yesterday's workshop, the State Forester Gene Kodama opened up the meeting with a whole list of interesting stats. Did you know that 67% of our fine State is covered in forests! That's more than the area covered in Georgia, which is quite a bit larger in size. A seventeen BILLION dollar industry, employing more than 44,000 jobs - it's clearly the #1 manufacturing industry in SC.

Look for more stats in the State Forestry publication: Annual Report 2007-2008 (pdf, pg 37 has a good graphic)

On a local note, check out the County's newly approved Economic Element of the Comprehensive Plan. This link is also to a pdf - check out pages 30-32 to see Florence's ranking among other Pee Dee counties.

So, we understand that forestry is an important crop, the most valuable crop, in Florence as it supports this important State industry. Let's also start thinking about when those resources are replaced by more and more 'for sale' signs. We need our forests; and we are here to help builders, engineers, developers and investors to develop responsibly keeping in mind the quality of life for Florence residents.

Another topic at the workshop was about plant hormones! Comment if you want more details.