Folly Beach adopts dune and bird migration protections

FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCSC) - The City of Folly Beach is taking precautions to protect the dunes and birds that contribute to the island’s habitat and integrity.

Folly Beach Leaders approved updates to the Dune Management Plan, which protects the dunes that protect the island at the edge of the beach and serve as a critical habitat. Coastal Consultant Nicole Elko wrote part of the plan and calls Folly Beach home.

“The dune management plan is really one of many city plans that helps to address climate change and sea level rise, and this one in particular, really helps the city fulfill the requirements of the federal renourishment agreement,” Elko says.

The dune management plan provides checkpoints and projects to make sure the dunes are not eroding. As a part of the plan, the city is finishing installing protective wooden fences that trap and retain sand on the dunes during the windy winter. Come spring of 2025, teams will plant grasses on the dunes to help root them into the environment.

“Some of the goals are to monitor, restore and protect the dunes. And under each of those goals, we have action items, for example, under monitoring, we measure the beach and dune annually. So we’re looking at the vegetation, how much the dune has grown, if it’s gotten taller, if it has eroded. And these types of metrics help us plan for future renourishments,” Elko says.

Elko says aside from being an aesthetic addition, the dunes serve the island in a lot of ways.

“A wide beach is great, but you need the elevation of the dune to kind of act as a levy against storm surge and protect the community. Then the dunes also provide habitat for nesting sea turtles, for shore birds. Then the final element is, sort of the aesthetic,” Elko says.

Concerning the wildlife and birds, Folly Beach City Council also approved promoting ‘Lights Out Nights’ and asking residents and businesses to turn off non-essential lights at night during critical bird migratory periods in the spring and fall.

Jen Tyrrell is an ornithologist who works with the Audubon Society and lives on James Island. She is working with leaders to raise more awareness about light pollution interfering with bird migration.

“Most songbirds migrate at night to avoid daytime predators, and when they migrate at night, they use celestial cues and stars and polarized light to navigate. And so when they’re flying through the night and buildings are lit up and there’s a lot of reflection from the ground, they get disoriented, and they can run into buildings and structures,” Tyrrell says.

Folly Beach will participate in campaigns to encourage conscious light usage during the upcoming migration times between March and May, and August through October.

“60% of birds that hit a structure like that will die, even if they get up and fly away. You think it was just stunned, but most of them will die within a few days. So it’s very important for their population. And about a billion birds a year will die from building collisions and window collisions. So it’s a huge problem,” Tyrrell says.

Tyrrell says she has seen it herself at Folly Beach City Hall and has plans to petition Charleston to participate in the program before the spring migration. The program asks people to take actions similar to sea turtle protections, and while the birds in question are not endangered as the sea turtles are, Tyrrell says they deserve the same protection from light pollution.

“If you’re looking to reduce your outdoor lighting at home, think about how you need your lighting, or what’s the purpose of your lighting. Is it for safety, using motion sensors? Use it only when needed, and then also have it pointed downwards so it’s not reflecting into the sky causing glare,” Tyrrell says.

Folly Beach leaders like Public Works Director, Eric Lutz, say these are year-round considerations the town looks at to protect the integrity of the island for the people and animals who live there year-round and for all visitors.

“It’s important out here, we try to protect all of our habitat, and we have lights out for turtles, but we realize it’s extra important to cover the birds as they’re migrating. And the dunes are starting to build up now, with the sand fencing that went in, all that will help build and restore the dunes and keep them healthy for habitat,” Lutz says.