Clemson University Forest

09/06/2026

The Forest is full of unexpected wonders right now. Thistle and Joe-Pye w**d, shining sumac and elephant's foot, the first of the fall asters opening along the trail edges. They waited out the whole loud summer and are only now unfolding, and the bees and butterflies have found every one of them. Look closely at the photos and you'll see the traffic. Look closely at the edge of the trees at dusk and you'll see the night shift clocking in, because it is moth season too, and the pollinating goes on long after we diurnal creatures have called it a day.

It would be easy to call these late bloomers “laggards”. Our society seems to prize the early and the efficient, the linear path, the clear rule that lets us make sense of things from our own hurried vantage point. But an ecosystem doesn't keep that kind of calendar. Instead, it marks the change in humidity, the slant of late-afternoon light that is sharp and golden where it pierces the gloam beneath a deep tree canopy, the morning chorus of birds and insects that shifts a little each day with the sunrise, the stars and planetary alignments moving across the sky slowly overhead. The late bloomers are not behind. They are right on time in their own time, arriving with nectar exactly when the hummingbirds and monarchs need one more good meal before the long flight south.

I don't fully believe that nature is only a Darwinist contest of the ‘fittest’. Watch the Forest long enough, and it looks more like a journey of the well-timed and the well-connected, of things adapting alongside one another, leaning into change, weaving their lives together in the liminal space between seasons. Some things simply need more time and more space. That doesn't make them slower, or less than, or better than. It makes them part of the woven tapestry of things.

I am a late bloomer myself. So was the nap I took today, which I'm calling essential. There is a time for everything under the sun, as the old book says and the Byrds sang, and the late Wendell Berry spent a lifetime of Sabbath mornings teaching us to trust that timing rather than rush it. I like to think He'd have liked this week's asters too.

Come walk the Forest before the first frost. Bring your patience. Something out here is blooming just for you, and it is right on time.

Pics & ponderings by PAWhitener

08/25/2026

CUF Trail Closures

A few weeks ago, we told you about the blue paint appearing on trees along the Bottleneck Trail.

Equipment is moving into the "Six-Mile Harvest" area this week, and with it comes a second kind of marking that appears not on trees, but on signs. It is time to pay attention to what you see and hear on your next walk in the North Forest.

⚠️ TRAIL CLOSURE UPDATE

If you see a trail closed sign, there are no exceptions and no shortcuts. The area contains many hazards on both trails and forest roads, so the safest place for you is somewhere else.

The map above shows the current area of operation. This list has been updated since the original post. The following trails are closed until the operation is complete:

🚫 Family Trail and Stop Sign Trail — between Bottleneck Trail and Logging Road #1
🚫 East Dam Road — between the Issaqueena Parking Area and Logging Road #1
🚫 Logging Road #1 — between East Dam Road and the Triple Creek Trail intersection
🚫 RC Edwards Trail — from Old Six Mile Road to where it crosses the creek toward Triple Creek Trail
🚫 Bottleneck Trail — from the Issaqueena Parking Area to where it crosses Old Six Mile Road

Please plan your route accordingly and stay safe out there!

We know closures are frustrating, especially on trails you've walked for years. But a well-managed forest gets to keep being loved for generations, not just this one. The equipment, the noise, and the temporary inconvenience are what give young oaks, the sunlit understory, and successional habitat the space to thrive. It's uncomfortable in the short term in a way that good change usually is for long-term sustainability.

CUF Staff are working hard to keep the signage up to date as the area of operation shifts, and we'll continue to share maps and updates here as the work progresses. In the meantime, watch for signs and pay attention!
The trails will be back.

🔗 More information on this work: https://blogs.clemson.edu/cuforest/managing-forest-health-bottleneck-trail-old-six-mile-road/

08/19/2026

For nearly a century, the Clemson University Forest has been teaching us about the relationship between land and community. Through picnic shelters and bridges built by CCC crews during the 1930's and 40's, through 150 miles of trails worn in by hikers, bikers, and riders, through a lake that has held generations of memories since 1934.

But loving a place well takes more than affection; it requires a plan. Tens of thousands of visitors now pass through our trailheads each year, and with that much life moving through these woods, there are bound to be questions about safety, access, and stewardship.

That's why we're excited to share the CU Forest's new Recreation Management Plan. This provides a roadmap for protecting what makes this Forest special while keeping it open, safe, and welcoming for the people who love it.

Here's what every Clemson University Forest user should know:
🥾 Hike, bike, and ride only on designated trails and roads (Class 1 e-bikes allowed on trails). Note that the Issaqueena Lake area and Fants Grove (Seed Orchard, Butch Kennedy) see the heaviest use

🐾 Dogs must be under control at all times

🔥 No fires except in designated structures; no alcohol; no camping without University authorization

🚗 Issaqueena Lake Road is closed Nov. 1–March 15 (or as posted)

🚤 5 mph speed limit on Lake Issaqueena; no diving, swimming, or sliding at the dam

🎯 About 70% of the Forest is leased to SC DNR as Wildlife Management Area (WMA) land — Fants Grove, Keowee, and Gravely — marked by yellow triangular signs. Hunting and fishing are permitted only within these areas, and hunters are responsible for knowing current SC DNR seasons and regulations. All other recreation may continue in WMAs too, but research, teaching, and education always take priority there

🔫 Outside the WMAs, University Concealed Weapons policy applies to all fi****ms, open or concealed

📵 Cell service is limited — tell someone your route before you head out

This Forest belongs to all of us, and so does the work of caring for it. Take a few minutes to read the full plan and see what's ahead 👇

🔗 Recreation Management Plan https://www.clemson.edu/campus-life/cu-forest/about/plans-reports/recreation-plan.html

Image: Retired Old Trekker M.A.Whitener, Junebug & Izzy on Dam rd.

08/17/2026

It has been a while since I posted a reflection on the CUF. I’ll be honest, I simply haven't had the energy to walk the trails, even in the somewhat cooler mornings. The cicadas are screaming, and honestly, it feels like they're screaming for all of us, a rallying call that says it is hot, we’re alive! There is also a frog serenade and a low chirping hum of crickets in the background. This is the forest's chorus in late summer, and it is singing whether I feel like showing up for it or not.

These are the dog days of summer, so named for Sirius, the Dog Star, rising with the sun this time of year. These hot and humid weeks are the result of a thermal lag, as the ground, lakes, and oceans have been absorbing the Sun’s peak energy since June.

Here's the part where I tell you the forest is trying to kill you a little bit, and then I tell you to go anyway.
• Yellow jackets are ground-nesting and at peak activity; watch your footing near stumps and root balls
• Ticks, chiggers, and mosquitoes use repellent on the way in, do a full body scan on the way out
• Copperheads and timber rattlesnakes both call this forest home; eyes on the trail and watch where you step
• Poison ivy is thick and oily along the edges right now
• Afternoon thunderstorms build fast; check your weather apps before you set out
• Hydration before you show up, all along the trail, and after you're back at the vehicle; your body is working harder than you think in this humidity

During my internship with the US Forest Service, we called this kind of noticing "situational awareness”. It's the same thing I teach youth in 4-H when we talk about risky play: you don't avoid the woods because the woods have teeth. You learn to read the woods, so you can make good decisions.

Research out of Japan on Shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, reads almost like a rebuttal to my dog-days sluggishness: time in a forest has been shown to lower stress hormones, ease blood pressure, calm the nervous system, improve sleep and mood, and even boost immune activity. I don't need a study to tell me the crickets do something a to-do list never will, but I love that the science and my personal observations agree.

Right now, I'm biding my time and letting the cicadas scream and the storms roll through while the ground finishes catching up to the sun. But I'm still walking the trails when I can, water bottle in hand, eyes open for snakes and yellow jackets because the waterfalls are still running, and there's beauty here if you're willing to be a little uncomfortable to find it.
See you on the trail and be hydrated, alert, and paying attention.

Pics & Ponderings by PAWhitener

08/13/2026

The Clemson University Forest is a model for all academic forests - and they all should be protected

Forests are an asset for employee and student well-being and offer invaluable opportunities for teaching, research and recreation. Universities should protect them.

08/08/2026

This morning at Wildcat Creek, children and adults alike bent over a net full of macroinvertebrates, trying to name what wriggled there; a child held a snake and let it curl loose and easy around her wrist; a tortoise, in no hurry at all, taught a whole circle of 4-Hers what patience actually looks like. The Clemson University Forest is a community to which we all belong.

**Here's the problem:** kids today are growing up with less unstructured time outdoors than any generation before them, and the data on what that costs (attention, resilience, a felt sense of belonging to something bigger) keeps growing right alongside the disconnect.

**We feel that loss, too.** Every parent who's watched a screen hold a child's attention faster than a sunset knows this ache. It's not a failure of any one family, it's the water we're all swimming in now.

**So we built something small and stubborn against it:** 4-H in The Forest, a monthly hands-in-the-creek, feet-on-the-trail morning at the Clemson University Forest, where the curriculum is curiosity itself.

**This is what South Carolina 4-H Youth Development has done for generations and does still**: we put trusted adults and real ecosystems between kids and the version of childhood that keeps them indoors and disconnected.

**And the transformation is already visible.** Ask any child who left today with muddy shoes and a story about the snake that didn't bite. That's not just a fun morning — that's a kid who now trusts the natural world a little more than she did at 9 a.m.

**Join us next time.**
4-H in The Forest continues the 2nd Saturday of every month, 9:00–11:30 AM, through December at the Clemson University Forest.

👉 Register here for September Workshop: https://4-HintheForest-September2026Workshop.eventbrite.com

October Workshop: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/4-h-in-the-forest-october-2026-workshop-tickets-1994302685016?aff=oddtdtcreator

Bring a curious kid. Bring your own curiosity, too. The forest has room for both.

07/22/2026

If you've walked Bottleneck Trail lately, you may have noticed blue paint on some of the trees and wondered what's coming.
Here's the honest answer:

forest management activities are beginning soon in this part of the Clemson University Forest, and for a while, it's going to look different. There will be equipment, noise, temporary trail closures, and openings in the canopy where shade used to be. We know this trail is loved. That's exactly why we want you to understand what's happening and why.

A forest is never standing still. Long before any of us walked these trails, fire, storms, and time created a patchwork of conditions here — dense woods beside open, sunlit woodland — and that variety is what a rich diversity of plants and wildlife depends on. Much of what looks untouched today actually grew up on abandoned farm fields a century ago. Selective harvesting and prescribed fire help restore some of what the landscape has lost: open understory, young oaks, and habitat for species that don't thrive under a closed canopy.

We've put together a blog post with short videos answering the questions you're probably already asking:
🌲 Why harvest in a place people love so much?
🌲 Is this a clearcut? (No — and here's the difference.)
🌲 What do the blue marks mean?
🌲 What about the trail?

We'll keep sharing maps, timelines, and updates throughout the process, and once the work is complete, permanent photo monitoring stations will let you help document how this forest changes over the years ahead.

Forests are managed in decades, not days. Watch & Learn with us.

🔗https://blogs.clemson.edu/cuforest/managing-forest-health-bottleneck-trail-old-six-mile-road/

07/16/2026

There is a kind of learning that happens only outdoors. Experiential learning that arrives through the soles of your shoes and through cold stream water and the smell of pine warming in the sun. 4-H in The Forest is an invitation into that learning. On the Second Saturday morning of the month, from late summer into winter, families can gather in the Clemson University Forest to follow the season as it turns: to wade a stream, cast a line, stand at the edge of a working forest, and watch the leaves let go. Each workshop stands on its own, but together they tell a story of one place changing and of what it means to pay close attention to it.
These days are built for all ages and for families to share. A parent or guardian must stay alongside their young person throughout, so that curiosity and discovery pass easily between generations. Bring your questions, your good boots, and your willingness to get a little muddy. The Forest will do the rest.

4-H in The Forest is FREE; open to the public and SC 4-H Members.
Each month, a new registration will be available. Space is limited!

Register HERE => https://4-HintheForest-August2026Workshop.eventbrite.com

September Workshop: https://4-HintheForest-September2026Workshop.eventbrite.com

07/08/2026

This morning in the Clemson University Forest, a group of young people waded into Wildcat Creek and were introduced to some of its smallest residents: mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisfly larvae with casings built from sand and twig. The kids didn't know it yet, but they were reading the water. These sensitive macroinvertebrates are bioindicators of stream health.

Led by our Oconee County 4-H agent, Lillian Ledford , today's workshop was built on something I believe with my whole heart: a child will not protect what they do not love. And you cannot love a stream from behind a desk. You have to kneel in it. Let it soak your sleeves and the silt squish between your toes.
Our young people must love the earth. Study it. Play in it. Wonder at it.

This is what environmental education is for - not only to raise up the foresters, wildlife biologists, and Extension professionals but people who understand what Aldo Leopold taught: we belong to the land community, we are not above it.

Author & botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer teaches that land is not only a resource. It is a gift. There is reciprocity in that we use the waters, forests, and soil but the same hands that harvest and manage can also steward and protect.

That's the work. This morning, it looked like a half dozen 4-H'ers, ankle-deep in a creek, discovering that the world is alive and that it is asking for their care.

Pics & ponderings by PAWhitener

Clemson University's College of Agriculture, Forestry & Life Sciences

06/23/2026

The CU Forest continues to be the primary engine for field education in Forestry. Thanks, Travis, for hosting students from Clemson Forestry and Environmental Conservation on their Summer Camp tour of the CUF!

He covered the following topics with an engaged group of students:
Navigating complex/evolving market conditions
Managing a multiple use forest
Social / cultural environment surrounding natural resource management