Summer camp gives Clemson students an up-close view of forest management

If Clemson University senior Alex Lewis wasn’t sure he wanted to pursue a career in forestry, he is certain now after participating in the University’s forestry summer camp.

The forestry summer camp is a combination of four summer classes that are mandatory for forest resource management students. The classes, which are designed for rising juniors, begin in mid-May, total seven weeks and entail eight coursework credits. This year’s camp concluded June 27.

“We’ve learned a lot,” said Lewis, who is from Florence, South Carolina. “It’s a lot more than I thought. It’s one thing looking at it, but actually getting to take a hands-on approach really puts it into perspective. I could see myself doing any of it. It all looks like a lot of fun.”

The four courses are FOR 2510 – Forest Communities (2 weeks); FOR 2520 – Forest Operations (1 week); FOR 2530 – Forest Mensuration (3 weeks) and FOR 2540 – Forest Products (1 week). The courses are taught by Patrick Hiesl, associate professor of forest operations; Nilesh Timilsina, associate professor of forest biometrics; Brunela Rodrigues, assistant professor of wood utilization and biomaterials; and Donald Hagan, associate professor of forest ecology.

“The goal of forestry summer camp is to provide students with hands-on practical knowledge and the opportunity to see forestry activities across South Carolina and surrounding states,” Hiesl said. “During summer camp, students attend classes all day, often with overnight trips. This means we can go farther away from campus and show them things we can’t show during the regular semester. All summer camp classes meet with lots of forest industry partners which often include alumni from the program. This is a great networking opportunity for students and helps them understand what some career options may be.”

During the final week of camp, Hiesl led the students on tours of several forest operations across the state. It began with a visit to the Clemson Experimental Forest where Wayne Phillips, forest manager, and his staff explained their roles before giving the students a tour of the forest.

“The Experimental Forest is a great opportunity,” Phillips told the group. “It’s research, teaching, education, getting you all out there and exposed to what you like.

“We also do some logging. It’s important to keep a healthy working forest active. If you just let a forest sit, it’s kind of like the human body sitting around watching TV all the time; it’s going to decay. The forest is the same way. You’ve constantly got to be thinning, looking after the forest health and doing the right thing.”

The tour started with the students viewing a portion of the forest being logged due to damage last fall by Hurricane Helene. Forester Travis Schmitt said trees that were selected to remain were those that would be a good seed source so the area could be replanted naturally.

Another section the group toured was an area that suffered from southern pine beetle damage. One of the ways to manage the forest is to keep it thinned to help reduce the damage caused by the southern pine beetles.

“Part of what thinning does is it helps ensure tree health on an individual tree-by-tree level,” Schmitt said. “You’re allocating more resources to the residual trees after a thinning. It’s a good forest practice. It’s challenging now because of the state of pine forest products and the difficulty in moving them. But if you can stay up on your thinnings, particularly first thinnings and second thinnings, you are going to have a much healthier forest that is less susceptible to southern pine beetles and you don’t have to do as much of a control effort.”

After learning about the different machines used to conduct timber harvesting, the students got to see some of those machines in action in the Experimental Forest. The class also allowed students to visit multiple forest products mills such as pulp mills, sawmills, etc. They learned about forest communities and the plants that live in the forest. And they spent significant time with forest mensuration, where they learned how to measure trees in ways that are meaningful to forest management decision-making.

Finally, they spent time cruising timber, which is the systematic collection (sampling) of measurements from a forest to come up with volumes that can be used to market trees in a forest or assess the monetary value of a forest. The measurements can also be used to make decisions on forest management activities.

“I really enjoyed the forest mensuration class,” said junior Zack Pearson of Spartanburg, South Carolina, said. “Doing timber cruises was tough, but fun at the same time. It’s been challenging, but also a very valuable experience for us. A lot of what we’ve done in class during the normal semesters has been theory. But here we’re really getting to see and get hands-on field work and put all the knowledge that we’ve learned to use.”

Summer camp also allowed the students to bond in a unique way, Hiesl said.

“Summer camp is the first time a cohort of forestry students really spends significant time together, so they form a bond that typically lasts for their entire career,” he said. “While many students have seen each other in some gen-ed courses before, there was really no connection between forestry students until summer camp. Lots of friendships are built amongst students and faculty alike.”