Agency hopes to establish more prescribed burn associations in Pee Dee, elsewhere
Prescribed Burn Coordinator Mike Bozzo held a prescribed burn association (PBA) start-up meeting Aug. 19 for Florence, Kershaw and Lee landowners who have expressed interest in conducting more prescribed burning.
Landowners from all three counties attended the evening meeting at the Clemson Extension office in Camden to discuss what’s involved in establishing a PBA. The meeting covered the following topics:
- setting objectives and goals for the PBA
- establishing a steering committee of landowners and supportive agencies and NGOs
- developing guidelines for conducting prescribed burns
- establishing a membership dues to cover costs of meetings and tools
- conducting future training such as Learn-To-Burn workshops
- one is set for Sept. 30 near town of Stoneboro in Lancaster County
Though Bozzo retired from the agency in 2023 – he was formerly the Piedmont Regional Forester – he has been working on a temporary basis as the agency’s Prescribed Burn Coordinator, working to establish PBAs around the state with the ultimate goal of increasing the acreage that is prescribed-burned annually in South Carolina every year. About 500,000 acres are prescribed-burned every year in the Palmetto State – most of them on private land – but at least 1 million acres should be burned each year, according to agency officials.
A big thank you to AgSouth and Old South & Catery for sponsoring and catering the dinner for participants.