Don’t miss the latest episode of “South Carolina Wildlife” television show on South Carolina Educational Television. Beginning at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 11, viewers will see a variety of outdoor pastimes and places, and get close-up views of some special plants and animals occurring in the Palmetto State. South Carolina Wildlife is a production of the S.C Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and airs several times a month on South Carolina Educational Television and the South Carolina Channel.

Tag along with DNR staffers Jean Leitner and Glenn Gardner as they visit the Coon Branch Trail in Oconee County near the North Carolina border. This month will also feature vignettes on deer, dove and alligator hunting traditions. Viewers can take a field trip to River Park in York County near Rock Hill and DNR videographer Stewart Grinton takes a visit to Lower Whitewater falls.

Coon Branch Trail will take you trough some dense forests of old hardwoods and rhododendron, but in this segment you find out about treating Eastern Hemlock trees for the wooly adelgid aphid. Hemlock wooly adelgids use piercing-sucking mouth parts and feed only on hemlock tree sap. Immature nymphs and adults damage trees by sucking sap from the twigs and at the base of the needles. In addition to treating trees, arborists will climb and measure some of the largest specimens in the Bad Creek area around Coon Branch.

Most folks are familiar with at least some of the traditions for dove and deer hunting, but DNR has minted another tradition: alligator hunting. More than 100,000 alligators live from the Midlands to the coast of South Carolina. The regulated removal of alligators will not threaten the population.

You might be surprised by River Park in York County. It’s near Rock Hill and has some great trails that parallel the Catawba River and Manchester Creek. The park also has an elevated boardwalk through the wetlands.

The entire Whitewater Falls chain – six different waterfalls along the North and South Carolina border – is the highest series of falls in eastern North America. The Lower Whitewater Falls comprises a dramatic 200-foot drop.

DNR protects and manages South Carolina’s natural resources by making wise and balanced decisions for the benefit of the state’s natural resources and its people.