Get tougher on loss of trees in Beaufort County

Here we go again: another clear-cutting of trees in Beaufort County. This time it is within the Town of Port Royal.

When are city and town officials going to learn that this practice is unacceptable to the bulk of our citizenry? It really does not matter whether the “rape” of our environment is within the city of Beaufort or Port Royal or on Lady’s Island. The end result is the loss of the very things that attract us to the Beaufort area, and why new residents keep coming.

The contractor designated to build the 48-unit Marsh Point apartment complex is apparently within the law. The developer was allowed to pay a “tree mitigation fee.” How much? $4,000. Carried to its logical extreme, a developer could therefore clear a property of 1,000 large or very large oaks for an egregiously low “penalty” of $4 each.

This is important when one considers that the South Carolina Ports Authority is selling 317 acres along Battery Creek in Port Royal, a tract holding hundreds, if not thousands, of live oaks and other specimen species. Are we to clear cut this as well, with “tree mitigation” penalties of just $4,000?

It is past time for the public, especially that of Port Royal, to organize and require a stronger voice in development decisions. If the public can no longer rely on their elected officials to make good decisions for their community, it would do well to get educated and organized before that special place they call home disappears.

This story was originally published August 30, 2017 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Get tougher on loss of trees in Beaufort County."