A&T Faculty Members Present Jamaican Workshop
December 16, 1996
Kingston, Jamaica: An erosion modeling and watershed management workshop was recently hosted by the North Carolina A&T State University School of Agriculture. The three-day workshop was held in Kingston, Jamaica, and hosted in partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) of Jamaica.
Providing the workshop welcome was Dr. Daniel D. Godfrey,
dean of the NC A&T School of Agriculture, and presenting research findings were Drs. Godfrey Gayle, Alton Thompson, and
Charles Raczkowski, faculty members of the NC A&T School of Agriculture.
Drs. Gayle and Raczkowski presented soil erosion research currently being conducted on
A&T's farm complex. Dr. Alton Thompson and George Flemming, an A&T graduate
student, reported on a study conducted during the summer of 1996, on the economic demand
for ecotourism.
Additional presentations were given by Jamaican scientists.
The workshop resulted from A&T's ongoing research project, "Natural Resources
Management Needs Assessment to Facilitate Ecotourism in the Blue Mountain and John Crow
Mountain National Park." Drs. Gayle and Charles
Panton of the NC A&T School of Agriculture are the project's directors.
In this project, A&T and USDA Forest Service scientists are studying impacts and the
potential for ecotourism in approximately 200,000 acres of mountainous Jamaican terrain
recently designated by the Jamaican government as a national park. The project is funded
by Southeastern Forest Experiment Station in Asheville.
The workshop was designed to make relevant agencies and organizations aware of the
ecological importance of the national park, and to motivate participants to increase their
knowledge and skills in water and watershed management. As part of this effort, Dr. George
Foster of the USDA Agricultural Research Service presented and demonstrated the latest
version of the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation.
Workshop participants included representatives from Jamaica's government agencies,
universities, and private industries.
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For more information, please contact Dr. Charles Panton, (336) 334-7665, or Dr. Godfrey
Gayle, (336) 334-7543, NC A&T Agricultural Research Program.