Thursday morning, we had a great crowd for an environmental program hosted by Lori Sheridan-Wilson, island ecologist, and Greg Martin, environmental technician.  They introduced guest speaker Billy McCord to our assembled crowd of residents, visitors, and newcomers.  Mr. McCord is semi-retired from the state’s DNR office, and has spent the better part of 30 years exploring the marsh ecosystems, especially the hummocks. He estimates that he has surveyed and mapped over 300 marsh hummocks in his career.  He describes the marsh as a beautiful mosaic, with Hummock islands providing relief and texture to the beauty.

We began at the Landings Building, where we did some introductions, and wandered over to Lone Cedar dock.  We were delighted to see a fledgeling Great Horned Owl, and catch a carpenter bee.  We learned that male carpenter bees have yellow faces, and were astonished by Mr. McCord’s parlor trick with one of those bees.

He was impressed by our tallow tree improvement and gave us some background on Tallow trees.  Brought to the lowcountry by Ben Franklin, Tallow have been a problem because they affect the level of water in wetlands.  They have no natural predator  but goats, and goats won’t get their feet wet, so they are of little use in terms of tallow management.  They thrive in seasonal wetlands, and eventually crowd out native vegetation and change the chemical composition of the soil around them so that they reduce biodiversity.  Mr. McCord states that the two biggest enemies of wetlands are ditching and tallow trees.  A mature tree sends 300 thousand seeds per year into the environment, and each of those can be dispersed 100 miles… and live for decades in the soil until the light is right (like after a storm) when they will sprout in great masses.

As we stood in the maritime forest, listening to kinglets and blue-gray gnatcatchers in the trees above, we discussed the unique plant community that makes up the Maritime forest.  Because of increased pressure to develop our coasts, maritime forests are disappearing as people appropriate them for habitat.  He reminded us to celebrate our unique resources on the island, and treasure them, because they are disappearing deaths of a thousand cuts elsewhere.  He was delighted to discover a falcate orangetip butterfly, one of our harbingers of spring. I finally got this picture off wikipedia, because I can’t seem to get a good photo of the tiny, speedy butterfly.  Kate was astonished to find that they might be rare, because they are a fairly common sight on the island in early spring.

All told, it was a wonderful, relaxing, and informative morning in the woods.  It’s always nice when someone who has done so much research reminds us that the development on our island was designed to preserve the unique ecosystems, rather than wrestle them into submission.  We appreciate Lori’s setting it up!