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The purpose of this website is to encourage public awareness of Long Island and the potential loss of one of the last remaining undisturbed marsh island habitats left in the United States.

Long Island is a 2 1/2 mile inland estuary marsh island located in the vicinity of Charleston, South Carolina and within the city limits of Folly Beach.

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Long Island has been relatively undisturbed for many years since it has no easy access and requires traversing thick mud and challenging terrain to fully travel its entire length.  The isolated state of Long Island has separated it from external contact and can be perceived as a protected ecological oasis.  Influences such as toxins, pets and introduced exotic plant species which commonly destroy or replace mainland species had little opportunity to negatively impact the island ecology and has left Long Island as an essentially quarantined habitat.  Few people fully understand or have viewed Long Island's diversity and its unique ecology.  It is the lack of public exposure that has enabled Long Island to be held within private ownership when it should, ideally, be a protected, public natural resource.

The function of this website is not to encourage inflammatory reaction or resentment towards the rightful and legal owner of Long Island, but to respectfully work with him towards a positive end.  The most recent and amended plans presented by the owner, Joe Kimmel, and his colleagues call for an attempt of a less intrusive development and an objective of sensitivity to the environment. I much appreciate the group's interest in projecting this idealism and if the plans were to be exercised in many other environments I would consider them noble.  It is my hope that we can reach an end with mutual benefit for all concerns and avoid development altogether. This is reliant on an interested appropriate entity to purchase Long Island from "The Kimmel Group" and maintain it as an eternally preserved natural environment.  In an ideal situation, the community and future generations benefit, Joe and The Kimmel Group benefits and everybody's happy.

I have come to believe, while speaking with ecologists and reading related literature, that it is not possible to have development with little impact on this sensitive island environment. No matter how sensitive an approach, the shrinkage of habitat forced upon endemic species of the island due to human presence would render their natural range quite compromised.  Aside from individual species being forced to relocate, every part of the island is a unique experience of its own and it would be a shame to see any of it destroyed.

Building material pollution, leaching from treated lumber, endless applications of Malathion from mosquito trucks to control Long Island's mosquito population (I cannot imagine possible residents not demanding such), runoff from domestic herbicide and insecticides, etc., there are many factors that, when combined, would have no choice but to threaten the natural life of the island and its surrounding wetlands. A stable landlocked environment can more easily absorb a limited amount of toxic runoff but the aqueous environment that surrounds Long Island has no choice but to immediately receive any toxins shed into it. Let's not forget that within the estuary system surrounding Long Island is the base for the larger food chain, which it supports. Dolphins, pelicans, off shore deep-water fisheries and all of the local seafood that we local humans consume are at risk.  How much arsenic, pesticides and herbicides do we want in our oysters, shrimp and wahoo? 

The natural world is forever dwindling. Every subsequent generation has less and less: less to feel part of, less to interact with, less for our children and their children to understand our integral and dependent relationship with the natural world around us. Many in our current generation suffer from lack of ecological understanding and we can only look forward to more careless apathy from upcoming generations unless we immediately plant a more educated environmentally conscious view in the minds of our young.  As the current adults of our world, we have a responsibility to those that will inherit our actions to use our inherent human intelligence to safeguard the natural world in which they will live. I hope that all who read this will feel the same way and share my feelings of urgency to act on their behalf, while we can. If you do not resonate with these feelings, I encourage you to try. If you do, I believe you will feel better about yourself as a responsible adult and a sober, more selfless and less destructive human being.

I do not know everything there is to know about Long Island nor can I pretend to. I am not an environmental scientist and am mostly naive to political and legal structure. I only know what I feel is correct for my local human and natural communities and that this beautiful island needs as much protection and respectful consideration as possible. 

Please view the photographs and let the island speak for itself.

Please let your concerns be heard and post a (considerate) comment. This is an opportunity for everybody concerned, including potential conservancy interests, to know how people feel about Long Island development.

                                           Please Speak Up!

Best Regards,

Michael Dietrich

website published 02-24-2006