News
A beautiful example of community support for the Heritage at Lowman is that we have received ten new bluebird boxes to be placed around our campus. Jay Keck, son of John and Carolyn, who reside in the Courtyard apartments, in cooperation with Chapin Women’s Club and the Heyward Career and Technology Center of Columbia provided these in the latter part of April.
Shaw Industries has been a valued WAIT partner in the Midlands since 2016. Located along the Saluda River, Shaw's property is a wintering place for waterfowl such as wood ducks and bufflehead. The property's habitat, which includes maturing forest, a wetlands area, and thickets, provides nesting opportunities for neo-tropical migrants like the summer tanager, white-eyed vireo, and hooded warblers.
Michelin US5 in Lexington has reinvigorated their WAIT program with many nature-loving employees at the property. Two bird baths, 10 Bluebird boxes, a bee and butterfly house, along with 17 wildlife feeding stations, have been placed on the property. A new walking path made out of recycled tires directs employees through the beautiful, wooded area in front of the factory.
Schneider Electric has been a proud WAIT partner for over 10 years! In that time, they have created a nature trail through portions of their property that is rich in biodiversity. SCWF Partners with conservation-minded businesses throughout the state who want to help wildlife thrive by enhancing their properties and providing educational opportunities for their employees and communities.
Nature lovers gathered at the Hopelands Gardens guest cottage on Friday morning for a lecture on identifying birds by their sounds…… “There’s a language of birds, and they’ll tell you a lot,” said Keck about the benefits of learning to recognize bird calls. “When you hear certain birds, it can tell you things about the landscape.” Keck’s lecture emphasized birds that are in decline and what people can do to help them thrive.
Bird watching is a great way to connect with nature, and no birds put on a better show than the Mississippi and Swallow-tailed Kites that migrate through South Carolina each summer. From mid to late July, the birds stop to feed before migrating to South America for winter, says Jay Keck, habitat education manager for the South Carolina Wildlife Federation. The fields of Allendale County are a particularly great place to see the small raptors in action.
Thanks to a grant from Wells Fargo, SCWF joined together with Brittons Neck residents to install a pollinator garden. This new habitat will serve as a publicly accessible demonstration garden for visitors to replicate at their own homes and communities. The garden is located at the future site of the New Alpha Community Development Corporation’s Environmental Justice Training & Sustainability Center.
Thank you to the Columbia Metropolitan Magazine for featuring SCWF in their September issue!
Conserve, Advocate, Restore, Educate: these are the four pillars of the South Carolina Wildlife Federation. Together, they comprise the acronym CARE, which Sara Green, executive director of SCWF, explains is most befitting for the organization.
Thanks to grant funding from the Richland County Conservation Commission (RCCC), the S.C. Wildlife Federation (SCWF) recently applied a material to the library’s windows to eliminate reflections on the outside of the building, making it easier for birds to avoid colliding with the structure.
Everyone knows the phrase. Say it with me: “The only good snake is…a dead snake.” Yikes! That’s a little aggressive, don’t you think? –Especially when snakes are such an important part of our ecosystem and provide so much food for wildlife, as well as services to help keep us healthy and free of some diseases.
Bird. Say it out loud. It’s not the most exciting word in our dictionary, but it represents one of the most extraordinary classes of animals inhabiting our amazing planet. Birds are capable of filling our lives with an overwhelming amount of joy, wonder, and beauty. They quite literally shine as brightly as flames when reflecting the sun’s rays, and (figuratively) shine while singing their sweet melodies during our springs and early summers.
Last fall, SCWF's Habitat Education Manager, Jay Keck, was interviewed by Michael Falero, a contributor to the popular national nature podcast, BirdNote. They chose to talk about the prothonotary warbler, a declining species, and SCWF's efforts to help save it by installing and monitoring nesting boxes on public land at the Congaree Creek Heritage Preserve in Lexington county, SC.
SCWF has completed a nesting box restoration project with funds from a generous grant with Duke Energy’s Habitat Enhancement Program, along with partnerships with SCDNR, the Lake Wateree Association, as well as SCWF employees and volunteers. The grant allowed installation of eighty wood duck boxes along the shores of Lake Wateree, Fishing Creek Reservoir, Rocky Creek, Cedar Creek Reservoirs, the Wateree River, and adjacent floodplain habitats from early 2018 to the summer of 2020.
