Nov. 3 -- JACKSON -- S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster received the Audubon Society's Conservation Champion Award Nov. 1 at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Silver Bluff Audubon Sanctuary.
The sanctuary, about 30 minutes from downtown Aiken, spans 3,400 acres along the Savannah River and provides vital habitat for more than 200 bird species
The property was given to Audubon Society in 1975 by the estate of Philadelphia investment banker and avid outdoorsman Floyd Star, who had purchased it in the 1930s. Star requested that Audubon manage the land to support healthy and diverse wildlife populations.
"This land has regrown and reshaped itself over the last 50 years. We have gone from a place of agriculture and silviculture to a place of restoration where we're still a working land, but we're doing it for the birds," Rebecca Haynes, executive director of Audubon South Carolina.
"Hopefully in the next 50 years we are celebrating Silver Bluff as the demonstration site for working lands restoration in South Carolina," Haynes said.
S.C. Sen. Tom Young and S.C. Rep. Bill Hixon presented the Audubon Society with recognitions from the S.C. Senate and S.C. House in honor of Silver Bluff Sanctuary's 50th anniversary.
"This spot represents over a half century of conservation, community and natural wonder," Young said, calling it "one of South Carolina's most treasured ecological gems" and "a place of peace, purpose and inspiration" as well as "a bold conservation experiment."
Marshall Johnson, Audubon Society's chief conservation officer, said South Carolina has "deep roots of conservation legacy and leadership."
"Right here, generations of staff and volunteers have worked to restore wetlands, brought back longleaf pines and protected vital stopover habitat for migrating warblers, herons and wood storks, not to mention a pretty healthy bobwhite quail population here," Johnson said.
Johnson oversees Audubon's strategic conservation efforts in eleven countries in the Western Hemisphere and 247 sanctuaries in the U.S.
In presenting the Conservation Champion Award to McMaster, Johnson called him "a transformational leader, someone who has made conservation a true priority here in South Carolina," mentioning that on Oct. 29 the governor announced the largest conservation easement in the state's history, setting aside more than 62,000 acres of forest in Georgetown, Marion and Williamsburg counties, along the Black, Pee Dee and Santee rivers.
McMaster said 3 million of South Carolina's 20 million acres have been protected. He said his hope is for the state to more than triple that.
"We can set aside 10 million acres out of those 20 that will be preserved forever for the next generation and the next and the next," McMaster said. "There's no reason in the world why we can't preserve this paradise that we have here."
"We've got to educate the young people. We've got to keep them safe. We've got to have business coming in. We've got to have business growing within," McMaster said. "But we have to protect this environment."
McMaster said protecting the environment and growing the economy can be achieved simultaneously, and require each other.
"This debate, I believe, particularly in this state, is over, about can the beautiful environment and heritage survive or prosper along with economic development. The answer is yes," McMaster said.
"We do not have to pave and concrete the whole state. It's not necessary."