Project WINGS (Wildlife Incentives for Nongame and Game Species) is a rights-of-way management campaign designed to create new wildlife lands along gas and electrical transmission lines.

This cost-share program is focused on reintroducing prescribed fire in the Chattahoochee Fall Line area of Georgia to provide ecological benefits and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. The program will be implemented by the Georgia Forestry Commission with funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, American Forest Foundation, Georgia Department of Natural Resources Bobwhite Quail Initiative, Landscape Scale Restoration Grant, and other partners.

A trailer containing tools which supplement and assist landowners in conducting safe prescribed burning is now available for rent through the Georgia Forestry Commission. The West Central Georgia Forest Landowners Association initiated the idea to provide local forestland managers with professional equipment needed to conduct safer and more efficient prescribed burns. The trailer and tools are also used at training events for private landowners.

Managing hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) can involve use of insecticides. When it does, the non-target impacts (negative effects to other organisms) need to be thoroughly considered
and weighed against the environmental cost of inaction or alternative management approaches. Insecticides applied for HWA management are used for conservation purposes, which may seem counterintuitive. However, hemlocks are a key forest species, and so their loss can result in severe ecological consequences. To justify insecticide use against HWA, we have to ask: What are the possible negative consequences of using insecticides in the forest? We must consider these trade-offs in hemlock management. It is important to remember that there will be trade-offs in any kind of resource management discussion, even if it may not initially seem apparent. The negative environmental consequences of hemlock mortality must be weighed against the known consequences of insecticide use to preserve hemlocks.

If you would like to see the current weather conditions within a 24 hour period for the Co-Op Area (Oakland Station – North Marion County), please click this link.