Study aims to ease skeptics

of moratorium on power disconnections

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Low income residents continue to pay their heating bills even though a winter moratorium on disconnections protects them losing their power, a study shows.

Boston consultant Roger Colton said he hopes his review of how a moratorium affects utility customers will ease fears that a proposed moratorium in South Carolina could cause financial harm to power and gas companies.

‘‘The knee-jerk reaction is that if you can’t disconnect people for not paying their bills then they won’t pay their bills,’’ said Colton, who authored the 2002 study of Iowa utilities.

‘The problem with that argument is that the evidence doesn’t support it.’’

South Carolina lawmakers have proposed looking at the moratorium idea following the Dec. 11 death of 89-year-old Elizabeth Verdin of Greenville, who died from hypothermia five days after power was shut off to her home.

Group hopes to educate

public on prescribed burning

AIKEN, S.C. — A new group hopes to educate the public on the need and value of prescribed burning of timber tracks and farmland in South Carolina.

State and federal agencies that manage large tracts of land have formed an alliance with timber companies and conservation groups to promote prescribed burning, seen as the cheapest and most effective way to reduce the threat of wildfire and create healthy habitats for wildlife. The group, the South Carolina Prescribed Fire Council, had its first meeting last month.

‘‘We need to educate the public about the need and value of prescribed burning,’’ said state Forestry Commission spokesman Ken Cabe, a council member. ‘‘Prescribed burning is the No. 1 fireproofing tactic for property in the woodland-urban interface. People need to know a carefully applied prescribed fire can protect their homes.’’

Retired surgeon hopes to

bring back the American chestnut

SENECA, S.C. — Retired surgeon Joseph James hopes his 250-acre farm helps bring back the chestnut tree crop that was wiped out by disease in the mid-20th century.

James and his colleagues at the American Chestnut Foundation have undertaken the task of developing a disease-resistant strain of what once was called the ‘‘redwood of the East.’’

Most of the baby trees James has grown on his property have succumbed to the same diseases that wiped out their ancestors.

‘‘The chestnut tree was and will be hopefully again the most important hardwood species in North America,’’ James said.

Thanks to a partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, James said there could be widespread plantations of hybridized trees in the mountains within five years.

Before chestnut blight or root rot, the American chestnut was a huge source of food for wildlife and a solid source of good timber for barns, fences and telephone poles.

Its long life span made it a giant of the forest.

The trees’ weaknesses were demand for its nuts and its need of another chestnut tree nearby to breed.

Scientists and chestnut enthusiasts have tried to breed genetic material from the few surviving American trees with Chinese and Japanese trees that have a resistance to the blight.