Starting Time: 00:00
Hayes D. Brown, attorney and forest owner, will moderate this news conference. Hayes’ email address is hbrown@hayesbrown.com.
Starting Time: 01:00
Patrick Hiesl is an Associate Professor of Forest Operations at Clemson University. With an extensive background in timber harvesting and experience collaborating with forest owners, Patrick knows well that it can take years–or sometimes even decades–for landowners to produce annual income through their land. He also knows a potential solution to create early revenue: primitive camping. The primitive camping trend came on strong during the Covid-19 pandemic as a way for people to escape and social distance, and it has continued. In a recent article for Forest Landowner, Patrick shared how offering these low amenity and low maintenance campsite trends could benefit landowners, and he joins us to share the details on how landowners could get in on the revenue stream.
Could You Offer Primitive Camping in Your Forestland?, Forest Landowner, May-June 2023
Starting Time: 06:20
Dane VanDervoort is a Geologist with the Geologic Investigations Program at the Geological Survey of Alabama. The state of Alabama was recently given $1 million by the U.S. Geological Survey to help fund a survey in the Graphite Belt, a stretch of land in the east-central portion of the state. Through the survey, researchers will be looking for a variety of minerals that are used in everything from household essentials to solar energy generation. Dane joins us to share the specifics on what researchers hope to find and how the survey will help provide a better understanding of the mineral resources in Alabama.
Starting Time: 09:27
Austin Reese is a Forest Health Coordinator at the Alabama Forestry Commission. The Alabama Forestry Commission has been detecting more beetle spots this year than in years’ past, and to combat the issue has launched the Southern Pine Beetle Prevention Cost-Share Program. Administered by the Alabama Forestry Commission through a grant from the USDA Forest Service, the program seeks to help forest landowners implement forest management practices that will reduce not only damage caused by southern pine beetles, but also outbreaks themselves. Austin joins us to talk about the program and the specific ways in which the program can help landowners.
Starting Time: 12:42
John Cameron is a County Extension Coordinator at the Tuscaloosa County Extension. Having years of experience working in workforce and economic development in the state, John has seen firsthand the impact agriculture has had in Alabama. Alabama’s Agriculture, Forestry, and related industries have created approximately 580,000 jobs in the state and led to $70.4 billion in revenue. With the average age of farmers in the state being 58, he also sees the need for workforce development as well. To alleviate the growing issue, the Tuscaloosa County Cooperative Extension Office has partnered with the Tuscaloosa County School System and Northport Career Tech Annex to create a Teaching Farm for students within the school system and the surrounding areas. The farm will be the first in Alabama to provide hands-on agriculture educational experience for students and prepare students for the more than 500,000 agricultural and forestry-related jobs needed in the state. John joins us to talk about the status of the project and the many benefits it may bring.
