50 Houses on Kiawah Sand

Celie Dailey is working with botanist Dr. Richard Porcher and the Coastal Conservation League to protect the Kiawah Spit from development. CoastalCare.org published their evaluation of the Spit, May 1, 2016. See the latest news here, Category Archives: Kiawah Spit

50 Houses on Kiawah Sand is a video produced by Mary Edna Fraser, directed and edited by Celie Dailey, 2009.  Included are interviews with Dr. Orrin H. Pilkey, professor emeritus of Earth Sciences at Duke University, and Nancy Vinson, Coastal Conservation League’s director of Air and Water Quality. Diagrams used with permission from geologist Miles O. Hayes.  

Watch Video Runtime: 11 minutes, 18 seconds

Synopsis: The south end of Kiawah Island, South Carolina, is an unstable geologic feature called a spit, a small peninsula of low elevation. Barrier island run the length of the East Coast and have survived their changing environments because they are dynamic. The Kiawah Spit was acquired by Kiawah Development Partners and is now slated for development of 50 new houses and infrastructure. Bulkhead construction here would devastate wildlife habitat.

Dr. Orrin H. Pilkey, renowned coastal geologist, speaks out again this development he calls “madness.” Nancy Vinson represents the Coastal Conservation League, the organization engaged in continued court battles to keep this area as a nature preserve. Artist Mary Edna Fraser provides stunning aerial photographs of tenuous dunes whose development would be a clear folly.

Southern tip of the Kiawah Spit

Section of Kiawah Spit, showing average elevation