| H.G. Wells warned us: “Adapt or perish.” That truth hangs over South Carolina’s coast today as change is coming fast. Population growth is surging. Energy and water demands are climbing. Development pressures are reshaping communities and ecosystems. Coupled with accelerating climate change, conditions on the (very wet) ground – from Little River to Daufuskie – are changing fast. More communities now stand on the edge of losing the forests, marshes, and farmland that make this coast home. Adapt or perish.
And yet, amid the pressure, powerful wins are happening. This year, the Coastal Conservation League and our partners helped protect the stunning pine-savannah habitat of Lewis Ocean Bay – saving critical ground for the venus flytrap and red-cockaded woodpeckers. This follows expansion of protections for Deveaux Bank’s nesting birds and red knots that depend on Cape Romain feeding grounds. We’ve celebrated triumphs with Union Pier and 526 and most recently, Tickton Hall in Jasper County. We supported Bluffton’s groundbreaking wetlands protections and sustained our defense of St Helena’s cultural protection overlay. Our GrowFood Carolina food hub is expanding too – supporting local farmers, reaching more schools, delivering more locally grown food to our community. Making sure our farmlands are plowed, not paved. We recognize that today’s wins are the fruits of yesterday’s labor. In their book, A Wholly Admirable Thing, (Highly Recommend), CCL’s founder, Dana Beach and his wife, Virginia, illustrate how much we owe to the Coastal Conservation League and the thousands of advocates who fought for decades to protect this special place. But tomorrow’s wins depend on what we do right now. Package septic systems are enabling sprawl and threatening long-term water quality. We’re pushing for smarter growth through “concurrency” requirements and fighting for the ACE basin, resisting gas plant and pipeline expansions for data centers that are rapidly draining our freshwater resources. The compounding challenges are urgent and complex. They require new approaches and greater resources. At the Coastal Conservation League, we’ve inherited enormous responsibility and we feel the weight of this moment. That’s why, under the leadership of our Executive Director, Faith Rivers James, we undertook a deep, organization-wide strategic planning process involving more than 100 people – staff, board members, partners, supporters, and community leaders. We listened. We learned. We emerged with a clear mandate: dramatically amplify and intensify our environmental advocacy. That means deeper community engagement. Stronger collaboration. And sharper focus on the most pressing threats to our coast. It also means strengthening the team doing the work. In recent years, we’ve built deeper expertise across the organization – adding Jeff Leath, with decades of environmental law and policy experience, and Yarley Steedly, skilled in the South Carolina legislative process. Later we welcomed Joel Sandstrom, a seasoned finance and not-for-profit leader, and Mike Worley, an accomplished advancement officer bringing new approaches to engage supporters in our conservation mission. Most recently, we recruited two exceptional conservation leaders. Robert Boyles, former Director of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, joined as a strategic advisor and “player-coach.” Lori Cary-Kothera – formerly the EPA’s Director of Climate Resilience and Adaptation – joined as our first Chief Conservation Officer guiding our work to safeguard our coastal plain. The League has a long history of nurturing talented conservation professionals who go on to start or join other organizations in our expanding conservation ecosystem. We’re proud of our alumni, grateful for all they continue to accomplish. And yet, threats evolve, so must we. Adapt or perish. We’re investing more deeply now in strengthening and retaining talent. Recent leadership additions have a track-record of developing people. We’ve added coaching and mentoring opportunities while exploring new tools to help staff manage the heavy workload today’s challenges demand. We’re investing in our people because the work requires it. We depend on exceptional staff, trusted partners, and an army of supporters and advocates – and we need every one of you. Like Faith, many of our supporters have family roots here stretching back generations. Others arrived more recently, drawn by our extraordinary natural spaces. All of us share the same responsibility: to protect this place we love. This coast is worth fighting for, and the Coastal Conservation League needs and deserves our support to safeguard South Carolina’s natural environment for generations to come. Kent Griffin |