[Music]
[Applause]
good morning in the late 1950s a young
Charles Frasier had a vision for the
property his family owned on Hilton Head
Island during the next decade Frazier’s
passion and power as a storyteller
helped transform that vision into
reality in the process Frazier also
helped create a culture for Hilton Head
when we look at Harbour Town lighthouse
Sea Pines Nature Preserve or the network
a bicycle paths across the island all of
these are legacy parts for Frazier to
understand how Frazier has such an
impact I introduced you what I call the
community culture paradigm Frazier
understood that vision and culture
interacted in a positive feedback loop
and that it was the storytellers telling
the right stories that added energy and
power to this positive feedback loop
while many of Frazier’s legacy items on
the island such as the bike path still
exists there were some parts of his
original vision that did not work some
of these were due to unintended
consequences but some were lessons
learned about how local governments
operate our question today is can
lessons from Charles Frazier’s legacy
help Hilton Head plan for its future
Frazier’s legacy extends well beyond the
boundaries of Hilton Head because in the
process of developing sea ponds he was
also training the next generation of
community developers who repeated
Frazier’s stories and in the process
reaffirmed his vision taking the lessons
learned from Frazier two of his
protegees Jim Chaffin and Jim light
developed a master plan for Spring
Island which is located between Bluffton
and Buford they appreciated how
special this place was and so their goal
was to create a place where people could
live and the special features that made
spring on special be preserved their
idea was to have a community within a
nature park thereby protecting the
cultural and natural beauty of the place
this would include nature would dominate
even the net the home sites on the
island remembering back to a lesson
where Frazier found out that some of the
areas that he had set aside for nature
preserves and sea ponds were later
developed by the Community Association
Betsy Chaffin Jim Chaffins wife who had
had over a decade of experience with
community associate nonprofits
recommended that on spring island a
nonprofit should own the nature
preserves and that nonprofit should have
its own source of funding that nonprofit
became the spring island trust in 1998 I
was hired to become the executive
director of the spring island trust and
one of the first things that happened
was that I learned Frazier’s stories
from the Chaffins and it was Frazier’s
vision that helped shaped how I worked
with the trust the spring island trust
has its own governing board that works
in partnership with the spring on
property owners association but it’s not
under it the two major purposes of the
trust on spring island are to wisely
manage the natural resources and also to
educate both the people who live there
and work there for example this includes
educating the landscapers who work for
the homeowners as well as the homeowners
themselves the staff of the trust are
the storytellers to introduce the new
residents to the culture of spring on
through the stories they tell them the
leadership on spring island the boards
of the POA and the trust
institutionalized the spring island
vision for Future Leaders by developing
and putting on the website both a spring
a landfill
and a list of core values so when it
came to spring island with the community
culture peal of paradigm what we have is
both the leadership of the PIO and the
trust maintaining this positive feedback
loop of the vision and the culture
whereas the trust staff are the
storytellers that continue to tell the
stories which also reinforce that
culture the early leaders of the spring
island community however also recognized
that to maintain the special sense of
place from Spring Island they had to
protect the salt marshes and tidal
rivers that surrounded the island with
that in mind the spring island trust
through its sister organization the
Lowcountry institute partnered with
Clemson extension to create the Master
Naturalist program the first one for the
state in this program residents from
throughout the low country come to learn
the important nature stories and in the
process they turn around and tell these
stories to others in addition Tony mills
our education director partnered with
Rob Lewis at the Buford County TV
channel to produce coastal Kingdom
listen as Tony tells one of the most
important nature stories about our area
port roll sound is a marriage of ocean
and land a relationship created by a
combination of rising sea level
extremely high tides a big deal
this ecosystem was created when rising
sea levels submerged valleys along the
coast the result is port roll sound a
marine habitat that extends inland for
over 20 miles
since our tides average eight and a half
feet and we get minimal freshwater
inflow our salinity is influenced by
tidal waters from the ocean not fresh
water from the uplands massive oyster
rakes colonize our flats these shellfish
reefs filter our waters and provide a
safe place for marine creatures to feed
and hide Spartina grass is the basis of
our marine food web is the grass decays
the waters become turbid with detritus
giving the smallest marine organisms a
rich source of nutrients these plankton
provide plenty of food for crabs shrimp
and a high diversity of fish species so
the goal of these two programs is to
create a large army of storytellers to
help promote the culture of protection
of the environment with all the people
that they encounter so how does this
apply to Hilton Head
Hilton Head has what about its stories
what about its storytellers
like spring island to protect the marine
environments around Hilton Head requires
protecting all the land that’s within
this yellow line what happens on the
land impacts the port roll sound and the
quality of the Port Royal sound
determines the quality of life on Hilton
Head
for example let’s see what’s have been
happening on the mainland here’s an area
within the OTT area in 1994 follow what
happens within these three circles here
it is in 1999 here it is in 2006 storm
water runs off pavement and roofs and so
the more storm water coming off this
environment runs into the nearby salt
marshes this not only changes the water
chemistry it can actually change the
structure of the salt marsh itself by
channelizing the tidal creeks crust
are the key to the food web in the Port
Royal sound because they represent the
major food source for our populations of
sports fish so through storm water what
happens on the land affects our quality
of life the Port Royal sound foundation
was created to help be one of the
storytellers to help everyone know this
story there are many stories to be told
about Hilton Head that are important to
its culture coastal Discovery Museum st.
Helena foundation the Mitchellville
foundation project all of these are
important so Hilton Head has many good
stories important stories and
storytellers that relate to the culture
the challenge now is going forward as
Hilton Head looks at revisiting its
vision it’s important to recognize the
close interconnection between vision and
culture stories and storytellers because
this gives the community resilience as
we face a time of rapid impending growth
or the next cataclysmic event that may
occur with these we can survive all of
these thank you
[Applause]
[Applause]
good morning in the late 1950s a young
Charles Frasier had a vision for the
property his family owned on Hilton Head
Island during the next decade Frazier’s
passion and power as a storyteller
helped transform that vision into
reality in the process Frazier also
helped create a culture for Hilton Head
when we look at Harbour Town lighthouse
Sea Pines Nature Preserve or the network
a bicycle paths across the island all of
these are legacy parts for Frazier to
understand how Frazier has such an
impact I introduced you what I call the
community culture paradigm Frazier
understood that vision and culture
interacted in a positive feedback loop
and that it was the storytellers telling
the right stories that added energy and
power to this positive feedback loop
while many of Frazier’s legacy items on
the island such as the bike path still
exists there were some parts of his
original vision that did not work some
of these were due to unintended
consequences but some were lessons
learned about how local governments
operate our question today is can
lessons from Charles Frazier’s legacy
help Hilton Head plan for its future
Frazier’s legacy extends well beyond the
boundaries of Hilton Head because in the
process of developing sea ponds he was
also training the next generation of
community developers who repeated
Frazier’s stories and in the process
reaffirmed his vision taking the lessons
learned from Frazier two of his
protegees Jim Chaffin and Jim light
developed a master plan for Spring
Island which is located between Bluffton
and Buford they appreciated how
special this place was and so their goal
was to create a place where people could
live and the special features that made
spring on special be preserved their
idea was to have a community within a
nature park thereby protecting the
cultural and natural beauty of the place
this would include nature would dominate
even the net the home sites on the
island remembering back to a lesson
where Frazier found out that some of the
areas that he had set aside for nature
preserves and sea ponds were later
developed by the Community Association
Betsy Chaffin Jim Chaffins wife who had
had over a decade of experience with
community associate nonprofits
recommended that on spring island a
nonprofit should own the nature
preserves and that nonprofit should have
its own source of funding that nonprofit
became the spring island trust in 1998 I
was hired to become the executive
director of the spring island trust and
one of the first things that happened
was that I learned Frazier’s stories
from the Chaffins and it was Frazier’s
vision that helped shaped how I worked
with the trust the spring island trust
has its own governing board that works
in partnership with the spring on
property owners association but it’s not
under it the two major purposes of the
trust on spring island are to wisely
manage the natural resources and also to
educate both the people who live there
and work there for example this includes
educating the landscapers who work for
the homeowners as well as the homeowners
themselves the staff of the trust are
the storytellers to introduce the new
residents to the culture of spring on
through the stories they tell them the
leadership on spring island the boards
of the POA and the trust
institutionalized the spring island
vision for Future Leaders by developing
and putting on the website both a spring
a landfill
and a list of core values so when it
came to spring island with the community
culture peal of paradigm what we have is
both the leadership of the PIO and the
trust maintaining this positive feedback
loop of the vision and the culture
whereas the trust staff are the
storytellers that continue to tell the
stories which also reinforce that
culture the early leaders of the spring
island community however also recognized
that to maintain the special sense of
place from Spring Island they had to
protect the salt marshes and tidal
rivers that surrounded the island with
that in mind the spring island trust
through its sister organization the
Lowcountry institute partnered with
Clemson extension to create the Master
Naturalist program the first one for the
state in this program residents from
throughout the low country come to learn
the important nature stories and in the
process they turn around and tell these
stories to others in addition Tony mills
our education director partnered with
Rob Lewis at the Buford County TV
channel to produce coastal Kingdom
listen as Tony tells one of the most
important nature stories about our area
port roll sound is a marriage of ocean
and land a relationship created by a
combination of rising sea level
extremely high tides a big deal
this ecosystem was created when rising
sea levels submerged valleys along the
coast the result is port roll sound a
marine habitat that extends inland for
over 20 miles
since our tides average eight and a half
feet and we get minimal freshwater
inflow our salinity is influenced by
tidal waters from the ocean not fresh
water from the uplands massive oyster
rakes colonize our flats these shellfish
reefs filter our waters and provide a
safe place for marine creatures to feed
and hide Spartina grass is the basis of
our marine food web is the grass decays
the waters become turbid with detritus
giving the smallest marine organisms a
rich source of nutrients these plankton
provide plenty of food for crabs shrimp
and a high diversity of fish species so
the goal of these two programs is to
create a large army of storytellers to
help promote the culture of protection
of the environment with all the people
that they encounter so how does this
apply to Hilton Head
Hilton Head has what about its stories
what about its storytellers
like spring island to protect the marine
environments around Hilton Head requires
protecting all the land that’s within
this yellow line what happens on the
land impacts the port roll sound and the
quality of the Port Royal sound
determines the quality of life on Hilton
Head
for example let’s see what’s have been
happening on the mainland here’s an area
within the OTT area in 1994 follow what
happens within these three circles here
it is in 1999 here it is in 2006 storm
water runs off pavement and roofs and so
the more storm water coming off this
environment runs into the nearby salt
marshes this not only changes the water
chemistry it can actually change the
structure of the salt marsh itself by
channelizing the tidal creeks crust
are the key to the food web in the Port
Royal sound because they represent the
major food source for our populations of
sports fish so through storm water what
happens on the land affects our quality
of life the Port Royal sound foundation
was created to help be one of the
storytellers to help everyone know this
story there are many stories to be told
about Hilton Head that are important to
its culture coastal Discovery Museum st.
Helena foundation the Mitchellville
foundation project all of these are
important so Hilton Head has many good
stories important stories and
storytellers that relate to the culture
the challenge now is going forward as
Hilton Head looks at revisiting its
vision it’s important to recognize the
close interconnection between vision and
culture stories and storytellers because
this gives the community resilience as
we face a time of rapid impending growth
or the next cataclysmic event that may
occur with these we can survive all of
these thank you
[Applause]
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