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Crisis at Patriot's Point - please help



Hi Carolinabirders.

If you have ever birded Patriot's Point or if you live in coastal SC, I urge you to email the following SC state senators and ask them to try and save some forest at Patriot's Point.  

Senator Glenn McConnell - SJU@scsenate.org
Senator Arthur Ravenel - AR@scsenate.org

If the bulldozing of forest at Patriot's Point does not stop soon, this might be the last fall migration we enjoy there.  If you have traveled to bird at Patriot's, point this out along with any economic impact you had on the local economy.  Any Mount Pleasant,  SC residents please call, write or email Mayor Harry M. Hallman or Mt. Pleasant Town Council.

While some conservation groups fought over this issue without a lot of success in the 1990s, it is worth writing elected officials and urging last-ditch action.

Thanks, 

Nathan Dias - Charleston, SC

Below is a sample email I sent to state senators, representatives and local (chapters of) conservation groups.  If you want to use it as a starting point, please change the letter somewhat and remove the personal bits I put in before sending. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

				Nathan Dias
				xxx yyy Street
				Charleston, SC 29407

Dear Senator Ravenel,

I am writing to bring to your attention a crisis in progress.  The forests at Patriot's Point in Mount Pleasant are one of the most important habitats in South Carolina used by neotropical migrants.  This importance is not due to the forests' size or unspoiled nature; it is due to their location.  Sadly, these forests are being bulldozed at an alarming rate and in an apparently haphazard manner.

Patriot's Point is the last resting and feeding spot for southbound migrants before they hit the expanse of Charleston Harbor on their way to James Island or Folly Beach.  Local topography funnels migrating birds to Patriot's Point.  The forests of Mulberry, Hackberry, Privet, Yaupon, Wax Myrtle and myriad vines and other plants hold a lot of insects, berries and nectar for tired and hungry migrants.  Besides providing birders a consistent place to get good looks at rare migrants, the woods at Patriot's Point save the lives of countless migrants on their hazardous journey.  Bone-tired migrants arriving over a Patriot's Point without trees would be forced to try and cross Charleston Harbor.  Many would die that would have lived if certain patches of forest remained.

There is a lot of bulldozing of forests in progress now at Patriot's Point.  Pretty soon there won't be any significant (un-manicured) stands of trees left.  A wide new roadbed is in progress; this roadbed terminates across the existing road from the Hilton hotel entrance.  Why this new road is necessary is beyond me - the existing road goes everywhere and connects everything at Patriot's Point already.  

Patriot's Point used to belong to the state of South Carolina before it was given to the Patriot's Point Development Authority.  Rather than having the benefits only be enjoyed by a few developers and corporations, it is only fair to preserve part of it for the use of the people of South Carolina and the wildlife of the east coast of North America.

I understand development at Patriot's point is inevitable.  I have also heard the Patriot's Point Development Authority's position that "it's all man-made anyway so don't bother us with ecological arguments."  Man-made or not, the forests that have sprung up on the old dredge spoil disposal site at Patriot's Point are critical to migrating Warblers, Vireos, Tanagers, Orioles, Flycatchers and other songbirds.  The forests mitigate the rampant development that has occurred east of the Cooper over the last 10-15 years.  

As developers are beginning to learn, development can be economically rewarding while still serving the needs of wildlife.  A few strategic strips of forest could be left at Patriot's - the few hundred yards from the new road across from the Hilton entrance to the driving range would be enough combined with a few other forest fragments around the golf course.

I grew up birding at Patriot's and have done so a lot this September.  I have watched the bulldozing unfold day by day, wondering what it is for and when it will stop.  Sunday morning they bulldozed the most productive acre of trees in South Carolina, in terms of migrants.  This acre was behind the pumphouse just past and across the road from the Hilton entrance.  Some of South Carolina's rarest bird sightings have occurred on that acre.  Now it is a denuded patch of earth.  I feel worse about it than if many of my relatives had died.  The morning before it was bulldozed, I observed 10 species of Warbler, 2 species of Vireo, Baltimore Oriole, an Empidonax Flycatcher, several  Hummingbirds and many other birds in that single acre.

I implore you to urge the Patriot's Point Development Authority to leave strategic strips of undisturbed forest.  There is ecological and economic benefit to doing so.  Folks drive from Columbia, Greenville, North Carolina, Georgia and even Virginia to bird at Patriot's Point.  My postings to the Internet over the past couple of weeks on rare birds have brought folks from all over to Patriot's.  Some have stayed at the Shem Creek Inn and eaten at local restaurants. 

There is no time to waste - please hurry. 

Thank you,

Nathan Dias