Sun City Environmental Club (SSEC) General MembersShip Meeting Summary

Meeting Date/Location: April 20, 2026/the Lakehouse Ballroom

Socializing and viewing exhibits provided by the SSEC Focus Teams started at 6:30 pm before the meeting began at 7:00 pm.

Attendance – Forty nine people attended the meeting.

Bob Donelson, Club President, brought the meeting to order. Bob reported that the April 18 Sun City Earth Day Celebration, co-sponsored by the Club, was the 7th year for this event. It appeared to be the most successful yet based on feedback from the attendees as well as the various Clubs, Groups, local organizations and vendors at the event.

Featured Speaker: Timothy Evans, Registered Licensed Forester and Certified Wildlife Biologist, who is Director of Land Conservation for the South Carolina Audubon Society presented “Balancing the Needs of Birds and People in a Shrinking Landscape”.

Tim briefly recapped the founding of the Audubon Society in 1895, long after James Audubon, the famous naturalist, had passed away. The name was selected because in people’s minds it meant “all about birds”. It was founded to raise awareness and hopefully stop the slaughter of large numbers of birds for their feathers, which were used solely to decorate women’s hats. This fashion craze was needlessly decimating and, in some cases, endangering the existence of many bird species.

Today the Audubon Society, a non-profit organization, continues the mission of protecting birds by focusing on bird habitat preservation. Tim focused his presentation on the huge challenges in keeping and hopefully increasing bird habitat in South Carolina. He delved into the factors driving actual and threatened habitat loss and some of the key Audubon activities to reverse the trends. He said their goal is that at least 10% of SC land be permanently suitable for bird habitat.

Tim explained the current situation as follows:

1.      About half of SC agriculture is silviculture, and trees are the number 1 cash crop of more than 1 billion dollars per year. This is rapidly changing. Local lumber and wood pulp mills are closing – 11 in the last year have closed and more will be shutting down. There hasn’t been a new SC mill in 40 years. Computers have reduced the need for paper, and imports from mills in nations that do not have environmental regulations as strict as those in the US, have reduced the need to harvest SC trees.

2.      About 46% of trees grown on silviculture lands are loblolly pine, a non-native pine to SC. Most of the tree farms are independent small operations and the market for their product is rapidly disappearing. Trees planted many years ago hoping for a profit can’t be sold. Thus, pressure to sell the land to developers is huge.

3.      South Carolina is growing by 90,000 residents a year, making it probably the fastest growing state in the country. Jasper County alone is growing by 10,000 residents a year and the stretch from Atlanta, GA, through Greenville, SC to Charlotte, NC is becoming a regional metropolis.  The pressure to develop land for houses, which leads to the need for commercial and infrastructure growth is enormous.

Tim said this “treetops to rooftops” situation means Audubon is focused on expanding the protected habitat tracts it owns, acquiring new tracts and working with landowners and other organizations to permanently protect large tracts of from development. Where needed, it restores land that is or can become suitable bird habitat, for example by restoring native species in loblolly pine forests.  Tim explained that if habitat is, or becomes, suitable for one or two key bird species, many other bird species also thrive.

Tim also mentioned that Audubon sells carbon offset credits resulting from the amount of carbon dioxide removed by the trees on its managed lands and maintains a wetlands bank that can be used to mitigate the loss of wetlands that happens, for example, in state transportation projects. It also promotes hunting and fishing clubs to allow access to Audubon lands. Audubon owns over 30,000 acres, including 2 bird sanctuaries, in SC and all of its habitat lands are open to the public.

Tim highlighted the Beaufort County Greenspace program as a first of its kind in SC, sales tax funded initiative to acquire important habitat properties inside and outside of the County if they are likely to impact the County. He said that even though SC is known as a very conservative state, the state leaders are strongly in favor of conservation of our ecological resources.

Closing Remarks – Bob reported that elections for Club President and Vice-President, who will have served out their terms at the end of the year, will be held in the late fall. He urged members to consider running for office and/or making nominations for candidates.

The next Membership meeting will be on May 18. 2026. The meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm.