U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell hiked Boneyard Beach —the
eroded northern end of this island where dead trees poke out of the
sand — and called it a great example of climate change and erosion at
work. “It changes your perspective on
man’s relationship with nature,” she said Wednesday. “We should be
paying attention to what we’re seeing on the ground. We should be
listening to the science. ... We need to adapt to the changes and
understand what we can do to mitigate them.” Jewell said she would like every school child to see this picturesque
spot in the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge because it illustrates
how nature changes and how futile it is to try to fight that. “It’s
clear that Mother Nature wins every time,” she said. The
hike capped a full day for Jewell, who paid her first visit to South
Carolina since becoming the nation’s 51st Secretary of the Interior in
April. She began with an early morning
flight over the refuge’s 22 miles of coastline, then met with about 50
representatives of businesses, nonprofits and government agencies to
talk about conservation, and ended with a tour of this pristine barrier
island reachable only by boat. And she
carried many messages, from the reality of climate change to importance
of public-private collaboration to promote conservation, particularly of
longleaf pine, to the urgency that Congress end the sequester and
support the nation’s Land and Water Conservation Fund. Jewell did not need to step foot on an eroded beach to understand how
rising sea levels and erosion have affected the state. As she inspected
the coastline from the air, she said she saw a lot of beach homes and
other buildings vulnerable in the next storm. “You’ve
already seen a one-foot increase in sea level rise in this community
over the last 100 years,” she said. “A lot of development is vulnerable.
I did encourage the community to think about that and to make sure
you’re working alongside developers to develop in a smart way that takes
into account the risks of sea level rise.” She
noted swamps and wetlands are very useful in protecting communities
from storms and talked briefly about how federally underwritten flood
insurance has made coastal development more economically viable. After her airplane tour, Jewell spent more than an hour at the Sewee
Visitors Center listening to a variety of people involved in government
and conservation, from Conway to Darien, Ga. She
said she came to this part of the state because of its track record of
collaboration — between government and business on all levels — to
promote conservation. With gridlock in
Washington and future federal funding of conservation in doubt, Jewell
said such collaboration will continue to be important — and that the
federal government must do its share, specifically by funding the Land
and Water Conservation Fund...
more
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell hiked Boneyard Beach —the
eroded northern end of this island where dead trees poke out of the
sand — and called it a great example of climate change and erosion at
work. “It changes your perspective on
man’s relationship with nature,” she said Wednesday. “We should be
paying attention to what we’re seeing on the ground. We should be
listening to the science. ... We need to adapt to the changes and
understand what we can do to mitigate them.” Jewell said she would like every school child to see this picturesque
spot in the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge because it illustrates
how nature changes and how futile it is to try to fight that. “It’s
clear that Mother Nature wins every time,” she said. The
hike capped a full day for Jewell, who paid her first visit to South
Carolina since becoming the nation’s 51st Secretary of the Interior in
April. She began with an early morning
flight over the refuge’s 22 miles of coastline, then met with about 50
representatives of businesses, nonprofits and government agencies to
talk about conservation, and ended with a tour of this pristine barrier
island reachable only by boat. And she
carried many messages, from the reality of climate change to importance
of public-private collaboration to promote conservation, particularly of
longleaf pine, to the urgency that Congress end the sequester and
support the nation’s Land and Water Conservation Fund. Jewell did not need to step foot on an eroded beach to understand how
rising sea levels and erosion have affected the state. As she inspected
the coastline from the air, she said she saw a lot of beach homes and
other buildings vulnerable in the next storm. “You’ve
already seen a one-foot increase in sea level rise in this community
over the last 100 years,” she said. “A lot of development is vulnerable.
I did encourage the community to think about that and to make sure
you’re working alongside developers to develop in a smart way that takes
into account the risks of sea level rise.” She
noted swamps and wetlands are very useful in protecting communities
from storms and talked briefly about how federally underwritten flood
insurance has made coastal development more economically viable. After her airplane tour, Jewell spent more than an hour at the Sewee
Visitors Center listening to a variety of people involved in government
and conservation, from Conway to Darien, Ga. She
said she came to this part of the state because of its track record of
collaboration — between government and business on all levels — to
promote conservation. With gridlock in
Washington and future federal funding of conservation in doubt, Jewell
said such collaboration will continue to be important — and that the
federal government must do its share, specifically by funding the Land
and Water Conservation Fund...more
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