State Forester Speaks To Local Group

By Betsy Finklea
State Forester Gene Kodama was the guest speaker at the Dillon County Forestry Association meeting Thursday, September 1st. Kodama’s topic was the state of forestry in South Carolina.

He presented several facts about forestry in South Carolina including:
·  There are 13.1 million acres of forestland in South Carolina.
·  57 percent of the land area in South Carolina is forested.
· 88 percent of the forest land in South Carolina is privately owned; 12 percent is public.
· Private lands produce 95 percent of the timber supply.
·   52 percent are hardwoods, and 48 percent are softwoods.
·  There are 200,000 family forest owners. 86,000 own greater than 10 acres.
 The timber volume in South Carolina is at record levels, but there is a scarcity of pulpwood-sized pine timber. Growth of timber exceeds the harvest.
The South Carolina Forestry Commission assists with forestry management, forestry protection, forestry resource development, and information and education. The commission’s entire budget is about $30 million, and approximately $15.6 million has been budgeted by the state.
Kodama spoke about the commission’s firefighting capacity. The commission has 160 manned bulldozers – 39 percent are the new enclosed cab dozers.
Kodama said they offer forestry management assistance such as stewardship plans, cost share assessments, firebreak plowing, prescribed burning assistance, and equipment rental.
Kodama said they had a study done to see the impact of a S.C. forester. He said one forester contacts 147 landowners. A forester generates an annual impact of:
A $24 impact for every $1 investment.
Creates 12 additional jobs.
A $2.7 million incremental economic impact.
Kodama said the forest stewardship program used to be a one million dollar program, but it has dropped to $250,000. Since 1992, the S.C. Forestry Commission has written over 5,000 plans for approximately one million acres of land.
Kodama said there had been record lows for the past two years. There were 989 fires that affected 5,445 acres, an average of 5.5 acres per fire. They work with many volunteer fire departments. The S.C. Forestry Commission gave $303,419 to 95 fire departments last year. At 80 percent of the wildfires they respond to, local fire departments respond.
They have 12 aircraft that flew 872 hours last calendar year. They have two full-time pilots and 15 temporary pilots.
Kodama said forestry had an $18.6 billion dollar total economic impact. The forestry industry is responsible for 90,320 jobs. Forestry was #1 in the manufacturing sector in jobs and labor income. They were the #1 export commodity from the Port of Charleston. One ton of timber has a $72 economic impact, 284 tons equals one job. 11.4 log trucks support one job in the forestry industry.
He briefly spoke about the 20 by 15 project to increase the economic impact of forestry form $17.48 billion to $20 billion by 2015. They will know by early 2017 whether they reached this goal.
The then spoke about where they go from here. Goals include:
·  Retention and growth of primary manufacturing.
· Increased secondary manufacturing.
· Improved public perception and understanding of forestry as an ideal industry.
Kodama said South Carolina has a wonderful forestry resource, a strong forest industry, and a bright future.