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DAUFUSKIE ISLAND CONSERVANCY
JANUARY 2015
DAUFUSKIE ISLAND , SC
ANNUAL UPDATE
From hosting popular educational
presentations to piloting recycling
projects to organizing annual beach
sweeps, the Conservancy had a
very productive year!
Education is a Key Conservancy Focus
Presentations in 2014
“Prehistoric South Carolina”
The Dolphin Project
with Bruce Lampright at the Haig Point Clubhouse
Training at the Chatham Library in
Savannah GA
“Edible and Medicinal Plants of
the Lowcountry” and
“Gator Gaze and Night Hike”
Palmetto Goodwill E-Waste
Disassembly Plant and
Bee’s Ferry Compost Facility
with Marvin Bouknight
at the Haig Point Clubhouse
“Beaks for All Occasions”
with Robert Rummel
at the Eagle’s Nest at
Bloody Point
“The Dolphin Project”
Field Trips in 2014
Charleston, SC
Amazon Smile Partnersh
ip
The Amazon Smile Fou
ndation was recently
established by Amazon as
a way for their shoppers
to
make donations to non-pr
ofit organizations. The
Daufuskie Island Conserva
ncy is registered with
Amazon Smile. By signing
up on Amazon Smile, .5%
of your purchases will be
matched by the Amazon
Smile Foundation and wil
l be contributed to the
Daufuskie Island Conserva
ncy. The price of your
items will be the same as
when you shop on Amazo
n. To sign up for Amazon Sm
ile, go to
www.smile.amazon.com.
with Peach Hubbard and Charlotte
Keenoy
at the Mary Fields School
LOVE IT
SAVE IT
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501(c)3
501(c)(3)
Non
Nonprofit
Profit
Organization
Looking Ahead 2015
EARTH DAY 2015
Please join us at the
Daufuskie Island
Conservancy 2015 Earth
Day Celebration on
Saturday April 25 at 5:30pm
at the Haig Point Clubhouse.
This year’s fundraising event
will feature a presentation by
Tony Mills, Education Director of the
LowCountry Institute and star of South
Carolina Educational Television’s Coastal
Kingdom. A silent auction and dinner will
follow. Tony will also host a live animal
presentation for children and families at
4:30.
Also in 2015, Programs Featuring
• Diamond Back Terrapin
• Oysters
• The ACE Basin & Port Royal Sound
• Lowcountry Soils
• A presentation by Daufuskie Island
graduates of the South Carolina
Master Naturalist Program
For More Information
www.daufuskieislandconservancy.org
Founded
2005
Feral Cat Project Beach Sweep
The Daufuskie Island
Feral Cat Project (DIFCP) was formed in 2006
to decrease the
population of free
roaming feral cats.
We follow the Beaufort
County Ordinance for
Management of Feral
Cat Colonies. In the last eight years, over
175 cats have been trapped on Daufuskie
Island. Thanks to a grant from the American
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals (ASPCA) and donations from
Hilton Head Humane Association
and Beaufort County Animal Control, in
2012 we created an enclosed rescue habitat. Relocating our threatened feral cat colonies
to the enclosure has significantly reduced the
number of free roaming feral cats on our
island. The Daufuskie Island Conservancy
has recognized the enclosed habitat as a
method to protect island wildlife.
F i n a n c i a l c o n t r i bu t i o n s t o t h e D I
Conservancy that are earmarked for DI-FCP
will be used to support the habitat. The Daufuskie Island Conservancy and
the Haig Point Environmental Committee
organized a local Beach Sweep for
Daufuskie Island on Saturday, September
24, 2014. Forty three volunteers scoured
five plus miles of beachfront and filled fifty
two trash bags. This adds up to 280
pounds of debris cleared from our
beaches. Most notable, over 200 pieces of
wood and construction materials were also
hauled in five trailer loads to the county
dump. Most interesting items were a large
floating dock box, three large pieces of a
boat and a large empty sandbag. Most
prized item, a Great White Shark tooth!
Thanks to our
volunteers, haulers
and org anizer s. The Annual Beach
Sweep, managed
by the S.C. Sea
Grant Consortiumin partnership with the
S.C. Department of Natural Resources, is
the largest one day litter clean up of South
Carolina beaches and waterways, and has
been an annual event in South Carolina
since 1988.
Dolphin Project
The Daufuskie Island Conservancy is
forming volunteer teams to work with The
Dolphin Project (TDP). Scientists and
TDP volunteers come together to count the
dolphins and photograph their dorsal fins
(comparable to a human fingerprint for
identification) between Hilton Head Island,
SC and Fernandina Beach, FL. These
actions help monitor the health of the
dolphins which are the sentinel species of
their estuarine environment. Since we share
this environment, the well-being of these
dolphins impacts our well-being, too. We
have formed several teams from Daufuskie.
Each team consists of 3-4 members,
minimum. Each member must go through
the TDP training. A team consists of: a
skipper (must have a boat), a photographer
(must have a 300mm telephoto lens,
minimum), Assistant Team Leaders and
Team Leaders (the team leaders must be
able to record the dolphin sightings). If you
are interested in participating, please contact
Yvonne Clemons at 843-785-7490 or
yclemons@columbus.rr.com.
Started in 2012, efforts continue on the Island Clean-Up Project. The
Conservancy received permission from five additional property owners and
their properties were the focus of the February 15-16, 2014 Clean-Up effort.
Thanks to Mike Loftus who, using his Bobcat, moved heavy items and thanks to 26 volunteers who removed whatever they
could carry. This effort filled two 40 yard dumpsters that were provided and barged by Beaufort County. Project Leader,
Paul Vogel said, “The next phase is to raise money and apply for grants for properties where we have received permission
to remove large trash such as old cars, boats, and rusted trailers that will require removal with heavy equipment and then barged off the island.” Island Clean-Up
Adopt A Road
Recycling & One Island Solution
Adopt A Road (AAR) program was created in 2009
to clean up, educate and raise awareness about the
effects of litter on the environment. We modeled our
program after Beaufort County’s Adopt A Highway
program. Haig Point pilot recycling program began in May, 2007. Currently
multiple items are being collected for recycling, and this collection area is
being serviced by volunteers from the Daufuskie Island Conservancy and
data is collected to document the effectiveness of this program.
Approximately every three months e-waste items are transported by our
volunteers to an e-waste recycler in Bluffton. For each of the last two
years, approximately 200 tires, 400 containers of paint/household
chemicals, 150 large trash bags of soft plastic packaging and 50 large trash bags of foam egg
cartons and food trays have been transported off of Daufuskie for safe disposal or
reprocessing. The Conservancy’s efforts over the last several years have been to bring this level
of recycling to the entire island. Daufuskie Island currently has no island-wide center to
process residential and commercial solid waste and to facilitate recycling. The Daufuskie Island
Conservancy, representing a range of island residents, organizations, and businesses, is
proposing a consolidated solid waste service as recommended in our Integrated Services Study
prepared by Joyce Engineering. A potential site has been identified that already meets DHEC
permitting requirements for waste consolidation. The county’s current landfill is nearing
capacity. A new one will likely be farther away and taxes may go up to cover this additional
expense. The county needs to be a participant and the Conservancy has been working with the
county for years on this topic. We are also pursing multiple avenues to reach this goal of the
One Island Solution.
AAR volunteers have adopted 34 quarter mile
sections of road or beach in the Historic District to
collect trash bimonthly from October to April and
monthly from May to September. Grabbers and trash
bags are provided to volunteers by the Conservancy. May 3,2014 volunteers did a special clean up on
Barge Landing Road. 850
aluminum cans, 100+ glass and
plastic bottles, drywall, styrofoam
insulation, scrap wood, golf cart
parts and a chair were among the
items hauled by a flatbed trailer to
the dump.