Another Winthrop faculty member, Sal Blair, con- ducts research at the farm to identify fish species and soon to study white-tailed deer.


Coordinating the foundation’s internship and grant program is David Harper. He finds his work fulfilling to see what connections people can make with the land, something he describes as a unique experience.


Findings Shared at Conference Harper, Winthrop’s Sydney Grant and Brianna Bergamini, the prairie keeper at Southern 8ths, presented their findings at the 2023 Southeast Land Conservation Conference on April 27 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. They shared informa- tion with conservation professionals about how to create pathways for the next generation of conservationists.


Assistant Professor Kiyoshi Sasaki and a team of students are conducting field research on Eastern Box Turtles to help the species thrive.


A second goal of the Carolina Wildlands Founda- tion is to raise awareness among area landown- ers and agricultural operators about the benefits of restoring and protecting natural land so they can enhance the natural diversity of species on their own property.


Carolina Wildlands Foundation’s Mission Funding for the turtle migration work in Ches- terfield comes from the Carolina Wildlands Foundation. Its organiz- er, Southern 8ths Farm owner Brad Turley, came down South from Connecticut in 2007 when he bought 77 acres for a horse farm. Since then, he has bought more property – soon to grow to 1,500 acres – and has found a passion in finding experts to study his land and then telling stories about what they’ve found.


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Developing partnerships with area universities to conduct the research on the farm’s ecosystem is part of the process.


Turley has observed a gap in the upcoming generation of students. “I found that very few young people want to do outside biology,” Turley said. “Most biology majors go into molecular or microbiology.”


In the last few years, he has connected with Dwight Dimaculangan, chair of Winthrop’s De- partment of Biology, who helped the foundation create a grant concept to bring college students to the farm to conduct field research. Along with Winthrop, Wingate and Francis Marion universi- ties and Newberry College also participate.


The foundation has even bigger goals. NEON, which stands for the National Ecological Obser- vatory Network, has shared with the foundation its phenology curriculum, which covers the study of cyclical and seasonal natural phenomena that relates to climate, plant and animal life.


NEON, which is funded in part by the National Science Foundation, is interested in using the foundation’s internship program as a feeder group for scientists. Meanwhile, the S.C. Depart- ment of Natural Resources also collaborates with the foundation and could connect interns with future job opportunities.


As for Turley, he wants to see the grant-funded student research findings shared more broadly as an inspiration to others. And he wants to impress


upon the students the importance of telling their stories in ways that don’t involve a lot of scien- tific jargon, and instead use language that the average citizen can understand. “It’s all about the stories,” said Turley.


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