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The Hitchcock Woods Foundation would like to thank our Festival of the Woods Committee Volunteers, Corporate Sponsors (Autoneum, Bridgestone, Bartlett Tree Experts, O.A.K. Services ), Education and Outreach Partners (Ruth Patrick Science Education Center, SC Dept. of Natural Resources, SC Dept. of Health and Environmental Control, Savannah River Archaeological Research Program, Diachronic Research Foundation, Archaeological Consultants of the Carolina's, MPJ Wildlife Consulting), and our many Friends of the Woods (both longtime and several new!) for supporting and helping us celebrate our magnificent Woodland at Friday evening's Festival! Congratulations to Joanna Samson for winning the beautiful Chalk Cliffs Quilt (created by Stephanie Wilds and inspired by a photo taken by Shelly Schmidt)! Congratulations, again, to our Festival Honorary Chair: Nancy Wilds and our Essay Winners: Lewis David Hunter (Winner) and Ben Thomas Wiedenman (Reserve Winner). Special thanks to the Aiken Standard for their wonderful coverage of this year's festivities and for the Festival of the Woods Event Gallery below. Enjoy! http://www.aikenstandard.com/news/festival-of-the-woods-a-celebration-of-aiken-s-urban/article_79d2da0c-a07a-11e7-b629-7f368592acc6.html

Hitchcock Woods staff, Festival of the Woods Committee members and our AMAZING partners had so much fun with these students! Thanks to all for such a wonderful day! Check out what they learned and enjoy the photo gallery below! http://www.aikenstandard.com/education/mead-hall-students-explore-the-wonder-of-nature-history-in/article_63735440-9efd-11e7-a875-ffd0bd569698.html

Before and after pictures of Devils Backbone taken from the same photo point of the "gyro-trac" mulching project this week.

September 20th: The South Boundary entrance was active with our mulching activities this afternoon and we are pleased with the early results. That being said, our contractor has not quite wrapped up the project and will be working tomorrow morning, September 21st, to get things finished up. We will have a detour in place, but we would like to ask folks to please use alternative entrances in the morning if possible. If anyone is planning on riding in on horseback to this entrance tomorrow morning, please utilize the entrance at Coker Spring and Newberry as an alternative. We hope to have the entrance opened back up by lunch time or shortly after. Thank you for everyone's patience while we get things spruced up for the upcoming busy fall and winter season! For those curious about this machine, this is a skid-steer outfitted with a "gyro-trac" forestry mulching head. This machine shines in mechanical "mowing" of mid-story or underbrush growth. Many folks utilize these machines for fuel break creation (for wildfire protection), habitat management or "day lighting" and clean up of forestry roads/trails. It has the ability to chop up limbs, logs and stumps thus allowing those chips to decay and eventually become natural fertilizer. Have a good evening!

PLEASE BE ADVISED: The Hitchcock Woods Foundation will be conducting a school field day on Thursday, 9/21, between 8:30 and 1:30 pm in conjunction with the Festival of the Woods. Students will arrive at the Tea Cottage entrance, hike to Ridge Mile Track and then to the Show Grounds where they will participate in learning stations and have lunch before heading back to the Tea Cottage entrance to depart.

ONLY THREE DAYS LEFT for a chance to win the Chalk Cliffs Quilt! Contact the Foundation office to purchase your tickets. http://www.aikenstandard.com/news/festival-of-the-woods-to-celebrate-hitchcock-woods-cultural-and/article_ba1599ee-9975-11e7-8445-739684de8bc9.html

Good morning: In preparation for the Festival of the Woods this weekend as well as our upcoming fall season, we will have a contractor working to dress up the shoulders of Devil's Backbone with a forestry mulching machine. This machine will chip up the under brush as as well as any limbs and stumps along the trail side as you come into the South Boundary/Devil's Backbone entrance. Please pay attention to woods staff detours while this work is being completed today, and if possible please use an alternative entrance altogether. Thank you for your cooperation. -HWF woods staff

Whitney Drive will be closed for a short period this morning while this hazardous wind thrown loblolly pine is removed. Please use Hastings Line or Cathedral Aisle to avoid this lower section of Whitney Drive next to our neighbors at The Stable on the Woods. Thank you for your cooperation. -HWF woods staff

Good morning- there will be traffic control on Dibble Road this morning as a tree crew takes down a hazardous dead tree. Dibble Road at Burgundy Rd. is where the tree work will be taking place. Please avoid this area between 8:30 and 9:30 this morning, thank you!

It's a busy Saturday in Hitchcock Woods! Many folks were out this morning hiking, trail riding and enjoying the late summer weather. Mark Pavlovsky, of MPJ Wildlife Consulting, LLC, our contracted Red-cockaded woodpecker biologist was out early this morning adding 6 more RCW inserts to neighboring trees in 3 of our existing cluster sites where we have an increasing population of Red-cockaded woodpeckers. Adding these 6 will bring the total of artificial cavities from 36 to 42. In addition to the existing population of RCWs, we will be receiving 10 more birds this fall as part of a bigger translocation project in the state. Exciting times for this endangered species and for the Hitchcock Woods Foundation, and Aiken!

HW IRMA UPDATE: Cathedral Aisle is back open from the Stable on the Woods entrance and Peek-A-Boo Lane/Cathedral Aisle Fence intersection as of 2:30 this afternoon!