ENVIRONMENT
NATURAL BEAUTY Jacqueline Hayworth captured this beautiful sunset before the remodel at Hilton Head Harbor.
ment and festival and event management. On the ecological side, USCB is studying dolphin abundance distribution in the May River, tracking fiddler crab larvae in local and inland coastal waters, and how organisms react to rising sea levels. “I’m not a tourism expert, per se, but I’m interested in the ecology of the salt marshes,” said Dr. Joe Staton, USCB professor of biology, who is working with fellow biology professor Dr. Steve
Borgianini on the fiddler crab research. “We’re in the midst of a shift in the thinking here. Golf and tennis are important to citizens, but evidence suggests that people are showing that the ecology of the Lowcountry around them is just as much of a draw. We’re trying to provide the data to get residents thinking more and more about the ecology of the region. “If you’re studying how to sustain and grow tourism dollars here and you’re not looking at the environmental component, you’re missing part of the picture.” But equally important are the economic and sociological studies the university coordinates, such as its obesity analysis of Beaufort County’s third-, fifth- and eighth-graders, public transportation analysis and the economic impact of second homes on Hilton Head Island. Salazar and his colleagues, including biology professor Dr. Eric Montie and environmental science professor Dr. Alan Warren, wanted to make sure this work and the findings weren’t living in a vacuum. “It’s not just one department, it’s multiple departments at the university making inroads toward sustainability,” he said. “And we know the more we work with leaders around the community, the more meaning the research will have. This history of advocacy and stewardship is not new here, but making sure the leaders are sharing information, that’s so key.” So the group won a grant from the Community Foundation of the Lowcountry and organized the first-ever Charles E. Fraser Sustainable Resort Development Conference, held May 6-7 at Sea
Pines Resort on Hilton Head. The conference was organized by the USCB Center for Event Management and Hospitality Training in coordination with USCB’s Office of Continuing Education. The event featured panel presentations on water quality and land management; how to best practice sustainable tourism; the community balance between economy, social and environmental factors; and an update on the current state of tourism in the Lowcountry. The event was attended by members of the Fraser family and 70 developers and key players in current and future resort development. USCB professors were joined by representatives from groups such as the Hilton Head IslandBluffton Chamber of Commerce, the RBC Heritage, the Hilton Head Island Motoring Festival and Concours d’Elegance, Visit Savannah, Telluride Ski and Golf, the Sonesta Resort, Sea Pines Resort and the Urban Land Institute. Salazar said that the gettogether sparked a conversation that continues today and hopes to make the conference a yearly event. “We’re enthused for the future,” he said. “When people are talking about next year already and the need for more breakout sessions, it tells me we hit a nerve. “We wanted to spark that dialogue, not necessarily to come out of it with a laundry list of to-do items. More so to openly discuss the challenges in front of us.” It also helped bring to light the multiple research avenues USCB is pursuing. “It was funny but enlightening to hear developers and key
players here say, ‘I had no idea that you science guys were doing all that work,’ ” Salazar said. The research continues daily on campus and around the community, as does the advocacy for responsible development. “People move here, they want to replicate their experience from other places, build their dream homes,” Staton said. “Places like Bluffton, they’re still developing, there’s still time to proactively manage that sprawl, whereas Hilton Head is more of a retrofit. How do we grow in a small enough area without negatively impacting the environment? It’s the million dollar question that we’re trying to help answer.” Warren said the thing that impresses him most about USCB is how it embraces that leadership and makes sure its professors are practicing that stewardship. “At a lot of universities, the research is purely theoretical,” Warren said. “Everything I heard at the conference and since, that’s applied research at its best, trying to solve real world problems. We can serve as that hub that integrates all the information.” Montie, one of the newer members of the research team and to the area, said he’s impressed with what he has seen of the Lowcountry’s efforts thus far. “I see places like Palmetto Bluff truly making an experience of the environment, preserving the area they develop, it’s exciting,” he said. “We’re here to do the science. We as academics often don’t know what that next step in applying the information is, but I’m seeing impressive outreach here. It’s exciting to be a part of.” M July 2014 51
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