Faith's Focus: Safeguarding our beaches and birds

We are creeping toward the end of summer; the season of afternoon storms, juicy John’s Island tomatoes, and time enjoying our beautiful beaches. This spring and summer, we’ve earned some major wins for our beaches. I’m excited to share that last month, Governor McMaster vetoed budget provisos that sought to undermine longstanding laws that empower the Department of Environmental Services, an entity formerly part of the agency known as DHEC, to prohibit new seawalls on our beaches. These vetoes prioritize our public trust resources for the benefit of all. We are grateful for the Governor’s continued leadership in protecting our beaches. Read on to hear about more wins at the Statehouse that will continue to safeguard our coast.

Onward,

Faith Rivers James

Going to court to protect voters’ choice on the Charleston County transportation tax ballot question

A few weeks ago, Mary Edna Fraser, Glenda Miller, and the Coastal Conversation League, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, W. Andrew Gowder, Jr., and W. Jefferson Leath, Jr., sued Charleston County to demand that the 2024 sales tax referendum ballot meet the requirements for transparency under South Carolina law. The proposed tax would cost taxpayers $5.4 billion over a 25-year period.

This lawsuit argues that the Charleston County ordinance language fails to disclose the estimated costs and a timeline for each project to be partially funded, severely impacting voters’ ability to make an informed vote. In addition, as currently written, the sales tax ballot question only gives voters one choice. The single-vote measure denies voters the choice to support funding for conservation priorities, such as the Greenbelt program and mass transit, without also voting to fund the controversial Mark Clark Extension. If approved, the sales tax primarily would be used for the $2.3 billion Extension.

Charleston County voters deserve to make informed choices when they head to the polls. They should not be forced into an “all-or-nothing” decision. Voters deserve the right to vote for preferred needed improvements without being forced to support the destructive and unnecessary Mark Clark Extension as the County’s sole priority project.

To stay abreast of our efforts to stop the sprawling I-526 Extension, check our website here. You can also sign up for informative emails from our team and help us stop the sprawl!

Brown pelicans on Deveaux Bank / Andy Johnson and Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Continuing to advocate for our coastal birds

For years, we’ve advocated for smart management of critical coastal bird habitat that better balances nesting habitat with outdoor recreation. Although there are many barrier islands along our coast, colonial nesting seabirds–such as brown pelicans, black skimmers, and various species of terns–require specific habitats and features to raise their young successfully.

In South Carolina, Deveaux Bank is one of only six places that can support substantial colonies due to its nearness to food-filled sources like our vast salt marshes and its isolated nature which helps safeguard nests and baby s who can’t fly away from predators. However, these places face many of the same resiliency challenges as a lot of our coastal spaces, constantly eroding and accrediting at the whim of waves and tides.

Earlier this spring, SCDNR officially closed off Deveaux Bank from public access during nesting season, bringing this vital habitat in line with the protections afforded to our other seabird sanctuaries, like Bird Key-Stono and Crab Bank. (We were excited to see this after our campaign encouraging people to stay off Deveaux!)

Only three months later, we are seeing positive results. Over Memorial Day weekend, one of the busiest boating days of the year, SCDNR biologists reported seeing boaters and water users respecting the closure, leaving Deveaux Bank as a safe space for our coastal birds.

Faith Rivers James and Deveaux Bank

Earlier this summer, SCDNR biologists saw thousands of brown pelicans nestled in the dense vegetation with downy chicks along the eastern half of the horseshoe-shaped sand spit, closest to Seabrook Island. Along the front beach facing the Atlantic, clusters of royal and sandwich tern colonies were seen nesting eggs. Biologists also spotted Black skimmers incubating and gull-billed terns with newly hatched eggs. We won’t know official nesting totals until later this year, but initial observations point towards a promising season!

A settlement to safeguard wildlife on Seabrook Island

In June, the Conservation League, represented by the South Carolina Environmental Law Project (SCELP), reached an agreement with the Seabrook Island Property Owners Association (SIPOA) regarding a proposed sand scraping project to disruptively excavate sand along the beachfront of Seabrook Island and Captain Sam’s Inlet and transfer it to a different part of the beach.

The settlement agreement reduces the number of scraping events from three to two and commits SIPOA to exploring beach management practices that may have additional co-benefits for habitat in the Seabrook-Kiawah Complex and Deveaux Bank, such as renourishment from offshore dredging. It also secures critical safeguards for wildlife–limiting scraping between October 15 and December 31 to account for impacts to sea turtle nesting and shorebird foraging habitat.

Additionally, $50,000 will be allotted to a sediment dynamic study of the North Edisto inlet. Our coastal spaces, for both wildlife and people, are at the whim of how the tides and currents influence how sand and other sediments move and settle in our coastal waters. This study will help us better understand the forces that shape Deveaux Bank and Seabrook Island to help guide future management and restoration options for critical bird habitat.

This was a significant compromise; reinforcing the need for long-term beach management solutions and setting the stage for future projects that are less environmentally impactful.

It was a busy season at the end of this year’s legislative session. In May, the General Assembly approved a bill to designate the Eastern Brown Pelican as the official seabird of the state!

Nearly 40% of the East Coast’s nesting brown pelicans rely on the South Carolina coast, and important nesting colonies can be found on Deveaux Bank and Shutes Folly.

Check out our Pelicam to see for yourself!

This session, in addition to advocating for our beaches, our team focused heavily on engaging legislators on proposed omnibus energy legislation. We expressed concerns about many of the provisions in House Bill 5118, which passed in the House on March 28. Among other things, it could fast-track the development of an expensive new gas plant and pipeline in the ACE Basin, which is one of the largest undeveloped wetland ecosystems on the East Coast. On May 9, the Senate passed a significantly scaled-back version and the bill was referred to a Conference Committee to hammer out compromises between the House and Senate versions of the bill.

As we look ahead to the fall, there are plenty of opportunities to stay engaged and ways to advocate alongside the Conservation League and our partners.

Over the next few months, we will host postcard writing workshops as part of our campaign to Save our Sea Islands! Drop in at the Conservation League office in downtown Charleston to help us write personalized notes to our neighbors in Charleston County asking them to join us in voting no on the harmful 2024 transportation sales tax.

In the North Coast, we’re hosting a crafting day this weekend to make your own crocheted Venus flytrap planter, and have an upcoming litter sweep in North Myrtle Beach. And in September, we hope you’ll come along for a behind-the-scenes tour of the GrowFood Carolina warehouse.