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Good-ole boys band together to protect our outdoor heritage

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Here's something you can gladly swallow hook, line and sinker: That popping sound you hear is the South Carolina conservation movement hitting the bull's-eye.

An army of good-ole-boys -- if that's the way you want to look at hunters and anglers -- just enlisted to draw a bead on two gaping South Carolina targets: Rapid loss of woodlands and the rising threat to clean waterways.

It's called the South Carolina Camo Coalition, and its goal is to defend this state's rich outdoor heritage, which is under fire. Already, 19 fishing and hunting organizations representing more than 100,000 members statewide are in the Camo Coalition.

Its charter states: "There is a need for today's conservation leaders to unify their collective strength and apply it to common challenges to protect water bodies, riparian zones, and wildlife habitat and the hunting, trapping and fishing heritage."

Open fields and healthy streams are the backbone of the Lowcountry's quality of life.

But today, the land is getting gobbled up for development at a pace that far outstrips the population growth, which is itself alarming.

Who better to get the attention of state legislators than the hunters and fishers?

"With legislators, they're looked at as being very much in the mainstream of South Carolina traditions," said Ann Timberlake, executive director of the Conservation Voters of South Carolina.

The new group is modeled after a Camo Coalition in Georgia, which can mobilize 25,000 outdoor advocates at the drop of a hat.

Hunters and anglers are known as the first conservationists. Harry R.E. Hampton, often called the father of the conservation movement in South Carolina, was born right here in the Lowcountry with the love of exploring, hunting and fishing in his blood. He used his column in The State newspaper in Columbia to rally major improvements for the state, including the first game and fish laws, formation of the S.C. Wildlife Federation and the State Wildlife Department and Commission in 1952. He fought a lifetime to conserve land we now call the Congaree National Park.

Asked why he plugged away while most others were sacrificing anything for "progress," Hampton said, "Just bullheadedness, I guess, is at the bottom of it."

We need more bullheadedness today as stormwater runoff from mile after mile of cookie-cutter neighborhoods threaten the essence of the Lowcountry life.

I hope the Camo Coalition can deliver.

Its Web site (www.sccamo.org) says, "South Carolina's outdoor sporting traditions are facing serious challenges on multiple fronts: loss of habitat, invasive species, climate change, anti-management philosophies and values, mass turnover of natural resources professionals, the decreasing proportion of our population that hunts and fishes, and the sedentary and indoor-oriented lifestyles of many South Carolinians."

Ben Gregg, executive director of the S.C. Wildlife Federation, says it's also about the economy.

He wrote for Statehousereport.com that a 2007 survey shows more than "a million hunters and anglers combine to spend a total of $1.8 billion in South Carolina."

And they're not all locked and loaded.

"Wildlife watching" activities contribute close to $500 million to the state's economy.

Gregg wrote: "Combine tourism, farming, forestry and outdoor recreation, and what do you have? The cornerstone of South Carolina's economy."

Policymakers need to connect the dots between land conservation, clean natural resources and the fate of many mom-and-pop businesses in the state.

This fight is no longer limited to hippie tree-huggers.

That old notion just got blown out of the water by the Camo Coalition.

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