Benton County News & Events

County youth attend Tara Youth Camp

Four Benton County youth recently attended a Youth Conservation Camp at Tara Wildlife near Vicksburg. Tara Wildlife and the Mississippi State University Extension Forestry Department conducted the camp. Scholarships to attend the camp were funded by the Benton County Board of Supervisors through Public Law 106-393. The campers studied hunter safety, CPR and First Aid, and received "Certification" in those fields. Campers learned how to shoot with archery equipment, .22 caliber rifles, and shotguns. Among other things, they learned how to use a compass, tree identification, paddling a canoe, and predator control with live traps. The program is expected to continue next year. All Benton County youth ages 9 through 16 are eligible to apply for the scholarships. For more information contact your MSU Extension Service County Office at 662-224-6330.

Students visit Wood Magic Science Fair

Students from Ashland Elementary and H W Byers Elementary Schools were treated to the Wood Magic Science Fair at the Benton County Agriculture and Forestry building. Over 130 students attended, in Ashland, May 13, 2004.

Children and teachers were shown the great number of everyday products derived from the forest and how the forest industry is important to the health and well being of all Americans.

Students also learned that that the forest industry is a good steward of the forests planting and that it plants five trees for every one harvested. Two videos, Two Sides of Fire, Dynamic Forests; and Wood as a Global Resource, were also viewed.

Supervisors sponsor forestry tour

On Friday, February 6, 2004, a forestry tour was held at the sawmill operation of Hankins, Inc. of Ripley. This sawmill is located about six miles east of Ripley, MS on along Highway 4. It has been producing finished dry-kilned pine products for almost fifteen years.

The board products that they produce are as follows: boards (1 x 4, 1 x 6), dimension lumber (2 x 4, 2 x 6, 2 x 8, 2 x10, 2 x 12), and timbers (4 x 4, 5 x 5, 4 x 6, 6 x 8, and 6 x 6) ranging in lengths 2 ft.- 24 ft. The owners of Hankins, Inc. are David Hankins, J. D. Hankins, and Harold Hankins. The three brothers are third generation sawmillers in the Hankins family.

Currently the company's employment totals approximately 100, the employment of supportive companies or crews that interact with Hankins, Inc. on a day to day basis, would be more than four hundred. On a normal production day, the sawmill processes over 50 truckloads of logs that produces up to 380,000 board feet of green lumber.

The sawing process can generate over 18 truckload of chips, 4 loads of bark mulch and enough green sawdust to kiln-dry 250,000 board feet of lumber. During the same production day the planer mill could plane up to 600,000 board feet of timbers or dimension lumber. A standard week of planer production, which is normally limited to the previous week of sawmill production, can generate over 20 truckloads of shavings that are sold to a local bagging operation. The approximate 75 truckloads of kiln-dried finished lumber and timber are traditionally trucked or railed to treating facilities and lumberyards throughout the Midwest and Northeastern United States.

The forestry tour was provided as a portion of an "Enhanced Forestry Education Program" through Public Law 106-393. The Benton County Board of Supervisors funded the tour.

Teena Orman is TCW Scholarship Recipient

Recently the Benton County Board of Supervisors, in cooperation with Benton County Extension Service and Benton/Tippah County Forestry Association, sponsored a scholarship for Teena Orman to attend the Teachers Conservation Workshop (TCW). The workshop was held at Northeast Mississippi Community College, in Booneville.

The Mississippi Forestry Association (MFA) sponsors the workshop each year in order to promote the conservation of natural resources through public educators. The workshop provides hands on ideas for use in classroom activities. Teachers, conservationists, and scientists instruct the workshop emphasizing the importance of conservation of natural resources with special attention given to Mississippi's forests and forest products.

The scholarship that Orman received covered registration fees for the workshop as well as fees for 4.3 hours of Continuing Education Units (CEU's). The scholarship was funded by Title III of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000, and was provided by the Benton County Board of Supervisors:

• District 1: Tate King
• District 2: James "Bubba"Griffin
• District 3: Don Jeanes
• District 4: Stanley Wilkerson
• District 5: Ricky Pipkin