Bringing One Home for the Swamp

Or,  I guess, it's more like bringing TWO home for the swamp.

As many of you know, I'm working on a large scale project regarding swamps. Or, as I like to call them, America's redheaded step children. Historically and currently, our swamps have taken the backseat when it comes to the PR of American landscapes. Viewed as mere blemishes on the land, they have carried the scarlet letter of haunted wastelands and general impediments to civilization ever since our ancestors arrived from Europe. It seems that so much of the public disdain for these vital ecological areas comes from negative publicity and the lingering hangover of our manifest destiny mentality.

My goal is to give a new face to swamps. I want everyone to paddle through the braided channels of a cypress slough. I want them to seek out the blackwater like they seek out the ocean. I want our swamps to have a second chance at winning back the respect and adoration of the public.

Received a Highly Commended from the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the year contest this evening. 

So, today is a small step in that direction. This evening at the Natural History Museum of London, England, winners were announced for the 2010 BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest. Tens of thousands of images were submitted from all over the globe to compete for top spots in several categories. One of my images taken during a stint working in the Francis Beidler Forest in South Carolina was awarded in the category Animals in their Environment. I am so honored to be among the commended artists, but more importantly, I'm thrilled for the chance to bring the beauty of this landscape to millions of viewers. Follow this link to see other images from the competition. 

I have known about my placement in this competition for quite some time now and have been itching to tell you but was under strict instructions not to mention anything until the 21st. Officially and legally, the cat is out of the bag.

Received Highly Honored in the Windland Smith

Rice International Awards 

As if it couldn't get any better, I received one more bit of good news. The Windland Smith Rice International awards in conjunction with Nature's Best Magazine notified me that another one of my images taken in South Carolina placed in their contest as well. Just as competitive, this contest receives over 20,000 images worldwide and the winners have their images framed and hung on the walls of the Smithsonian for five months. Not only will these images help to put the Francis Beidler Forest on the map, they will be my catalysts to changing public opinions of our beloved swamps.

Farewell South Carolina

My time as a naturalist at the Francis Beidler Forest has come to an end. Looking back on my journal and browsing through a full portfolio of images I can say with some degree of confidence that I made the best of three months with Audubon. If I were to quantify this time it would break down to something like this: three full moons, two seasons, twenty-six guided canoe trips, one music video in the swamp, four large-mouth bass, one plane ride, five visits from friends, one leech, one completed guidebook, one redesigned brochure, eighteen swamp stomps, and 6,000 photos.

In one last effort to convey to the world the importance and sanctity of this little oasis, I have compiled a video highlighting some of my favorite moments I shared with the swamp. Enjoy.

Flyin High

There are many ways to see a swamp. You can canoe. You can kayak. You can walk on a boardwalk. You can slog through the water. You can even hop from cypress knee to cypress knee. Or, you can fly.

Buddy Wehman, a retired pilot lives just outside Harleyville, SC and keeps his 1939 Fleet biplane in a hanger at the Summerville airport. After months of looking at aerial Google maps I wanted to see for myself the braided channels and towering trees of the 1,600 acres. I love anything that changes my perspective. My main motivation, however, was to document the dichotomy between old growth forest and clear-cut lowcountry.

On Monday morning I met him at the airport and we waited an hour for the fog to dissipate. To kill time he dissected the simplistic anatomy of a biplane and told me about the time the propeller nearly severed his femoral artery. All alone, he used a belt for a tourniquet and drove himself to a hospital 30 minutes away. I figured I was in good hands should our plane crash into the Hudson, or in our case, the Edisto. Any fears or uneasiness about flying in a seventy year-old plane quickly vanished once I put on the leather hat and goggles.

Flying high over the eastern edge of Harleyville we had a great view of the wetland transition zones. This whole area is located along the Four Holes Swamp watershed draining some 500,000 acres of land. As seen in the photos below the dividing line between secondary growth and primary forest is pretty abrupt.

Imagine 60 miles of this landscape once again connected, uninterrupted, and allowed to flow freely to the Edisto River. National Audubon and other conservation groups are slowly buying up pieces of private land to revert logged sections back to old growth. This sort of thing takes a lot of money and of course, a lot of time.

This is what is known as Mellard's Lake. The house I live in is at the middle bend just on the left.