In June, the official sale of a property adjacent to Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve marks the culmination of years of work to protect the preserve. 

The property is where a new hospital was proposed, far too close to a preserve that requires prescribed fire to maintain the habitat. Announced today, the sale from Conway Medical Center to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) ensures a conservation outcome for this important site. This morning at Lewis Ocean Bay, SCDNR dedicated the property to the preserve. 

We are grateful to Conway Medical Center staff and board for coming to the table with SCDNR for this vital conservation acquisition.

The Conservation League was on the ground, guiding this effort, and working alongside the community for many years, and today we can all rest easy knowing this particular threat has passed. The work our team does to protect our coastal communities and habitats is never over, and this is particularly true for Lewis Ocean Bay and other important landscapes across our state. The Coastal Conservation League will continue to advocate for wise planning and sustainable and common-sense development.

Located near Myrtle Beach, Lewis Ocean Bay is home to important wildlife, wetlands, and native plants —including the state’s only stable population of Venus flytraps. Management of this highly unique and biodiverse ecosystem requires prescribed burning, a precise and controlled practice of using fire to manage forest understory vegetation, thereby enhancing biodiversity and reducing the risk of wildfires. 

In February, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources was able to purchase the property, ensuring a conservation outcome. This places the 353-acre parcel of forested land adjacent to Lewis Ocean Bay under permanent protection from any further development. 

For many years, the Conservation League, partners and passionate community members have fought external threats and incompatible development surrounding the over 10,000-acre preserve in Horry County. 

The Conservation League led letter writing campaigns to Horry County Council and Planning Commission, contracted an independent smoke modeler to quantify the number of burn days that would have to be reduced should the hospital be sited next door, organized speakers at county council meetings, hosted public outreach and educational meetings, brought the community into the preserve on nature walks to see the value of the habitat, made countless phone calls and sent countless emails to decision makers, all in the name of advocating for this conservation outcome. 

Historically, Lewis Ocean Bay has been threatened time and time again by encroaching development — from proposals for the construction of mines to infrastructure that would crowd the perimeter of the preserve. This type of incompatible development would further complicate management and the preservation of this special place. 

In 2020, the development request was made by Conway Medical Center to build a new hospital directly across from Lewis Ocean Bay; behind fire drop gates and on a parcel composed primarily of wetlands. This location would be severely limiting to the already narrow window of opportunities for prescribed burning days, as a medical facility is a critical smoke-sensitive area. Mitigating smoke for a hospital is nearly impossible given its doors are open 24/7, 365 days a year, not to mention the critically ill patients needing to access the facility.  

Placing a hospital next door to a highly smoke-sensitive area would have severely hindered the critical land management necessary for this heritage preserve. Siting the hospital elsewhere and conserving this property was a common-sense solution that balances public health with ensuring prescribed fire practices can continue at Lewis Ocean Bay. This will ultimately safeguard invaluable natural resources and contribute to a more resilient community.

Community members and conservation organizations rallied together showing support for the protection of Lewis Ocean Bay from this threat. Nearly 25,000 people signed a petition asking Conway Medical Center to choose a different location, and local art activist Mary Edna Fraser shared the beauty of the preserve through a plein air painting.  

In February of 2024, Horry County Council deferred the rezoning request that would have made building the Conway Medical Center project possible, and public opposition encouraged Conway Medical Center to enter discussions for selling the property to SCDNR. 

Many local conservation organizations fought along beside us and their contributions will forever be appreciated. Though the heritage preserve will see more challenges as growth continues in Horry County, this is a major win for the conservation of Lewis Ocean Bay, the reduction of wildfire risk along the coast, and exemplifying successful prioritization of our state’s natural treasures. 

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BACKGROUND

Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve is located just west of Myrtle Beach and is easily accessed from S.C. Highway 90 or S.C. Highway 31 via International Drive. Just over 10,000 acres, this natural area was dedicated as a heritage preserve given its unique assemblage of Carolina bays, which are elliptical or oval depressions unique to the East Coast, longleaf pine forests, and rich biological diversity. The S.C. Department of Natural Resources maintains the pine savannah habitat through frequent prescribed burns, also called controlled burns. These fires are similar to natural fires ignited by lightning, and they maintain the habitat that is home to these imperiled and endangered plants and animals.

The area around the preserve has changed dramatically since the early 1990’s when the Carolina Forest community was being planned. The preserve today is surrounded by four-lane highways, and growing neighborhoods on its boundary. That makes it harder to conduct prescribed burns, which are necessary to maintain the habitat for rare species and reduce fuel loads for wildfires. Conway Medical Center has added to this challenge by proposing a hospital across from Lewis Ocean Bay. And Horry County has proposed creating a mitigation bank—which is an area of wetland conservation set aside to offset the damage from building roads—that will also require controlled burns.

CONWAY MEDICAL CENTER

Horry County Council is considering a rezoning request, Future Land Use amendment, and development agreement that would allow Conway Medical Center to build a new hospital directly across from the Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve. Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve is a fire-dependent ecosystem that requires frequent prescribed burning to maintain habitats for many rare, threatened, and endangered species such as Venus flytraps and red-cockaded woodpeckers. Of the 76 heritage preserves in the state, Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve is the most biologically diverse.

In addition, Horry County has invested $12 million in adjacent wetlands for a mitigation bank that has not yet been authorized by the U.S. Army Corps. The pending mitigation bank is just north of  the proposed hospital site and will also require prescribed burning to release full credits that will be used to offset impacts for improvements to infrastructure throughout the county, but also burned in perpetuity as governed by the Army Corps of Engineers.

This area has experienced numerous wildfires, including two of the state’s largest wildfires on record. The Highway 31 fire in 2009 covered over 19,000 acres and destroyed 76 homes. Routine prescribed burning reduces forest fuels, thereby decreasing wildfire risk and severity. Building a more resilient Horry County will include lowering wildfire risk by ensuring prescribed fire stays on the ground in this location.

THE ISSUE

Building a medical facility at the proposed location would severely limit SCDNR and the South Carolina Forestry Commission’s ability to use prescribed burns at Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve, as a hospital is a critical smoke sensitive area. Burning at Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve is already a challenge due to Carolina bays with peaty soils (high smoldering potential), sea breezes from the Atlantic Ocean, highly flammable pocosin fuels, and proximity to the urban interface.

Locating a critical smoke sensitive area like a hospital in such close proximity to both Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage and the Horry County mitigation bank will remove an entire cardinal direction from the limited options burn managers currently have when planning a prescribed fire. A burn a manger cannot send smoke towards any smoke sensitive area that is within 1000 feet of the planned burn site. Beyond 1000 feet, the closer the smoke sensitive area to the burn site the less total fuel tonnage (vegetation that can be consumed by fire) can be burned in a given day. With a fire-dependent ecosystem surrounded by an ever-expanding urban interface, every single burn day counts.  

The window of opportunity for burns is already constrained. Building the medical facility across the road would further limit SCDNR’s ability to manage Lewis Ocean Bay, putting surrounding communities and rare species at even greater risk.

Unique places like Lewis Ocean Bay are part of what makes this region so special. Now more than ever, with the rapid growth along South Carolina’s coast, we need to stand together to protect our natural resources.