Under the direction of Dr. Chuck Gresham with Clemson University’s Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science at Hobcaw Barony, the eradication of beach vitex from the coast of Georgetown County continues. Beach vitex is a non-native, invasive plant which has spread at an alarming rate along our beaches since the early 1990s, when it was planted in an effort to restore dunes destroyed by Hurricane Hugo.

With an emphasis on high priority sites, many of which are on Pawleys Island, the project is now geared to removing the plant from beach-front property and replanting it with native species, such as sea oats and bitter panicum.

“We have half of the high priority sites cleared already,” Gresham said. “I want to continue clearing and planting through the month of June. Then, if the soil is moist we will continue to plant, but if it is a dry summer there is no point planting in dry soil.”

He says they have until May of 2008 to complete the first phase of the project, but they should be finished “well before that.”

Pawleys Island Mayor Bill Otis says that it is important to continue efforts to completely eradicate this plant from the island and that Pawleys Island Town Council is willing to help any way it can.

“We’ve made a really good start eradicating it from the dunes in the front beach area,” Otis said. “However, I think that getting rid of it all is the council’s main concern.”

He adds that property owners on the island have been very cooperative in the process of eradication. Although some of them were initially reluctant to remove the vitex from their property, these property owners soon came to realize that keeping any beach vitex on the island will eventually spread to other parts of the Town.

Pawleys Island now has an ordinance that states that property owners must remove Beach Vitex from the face of primary dunes and they must not allow it to spread to adjoining properties.

“I think there is an understanding by the property owners that they would be in a position, year after year, to remove vitex from adjoining properties,” Otis said. “I think that had something to do with those property owners eventually deciding to remove it from their property totally.”

New grant

Gresham says that a new Private Stewardship grant awarded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will help with the eradication effort.

It was announced recently that this project, presently involving removal and replanting of almost 20,000 square meters of 75 beach-front lots in Georgetown and Charleston counties, has received a grant for $135,000. This additional funding will allow Gresham to expand the project to include 71 more sites.

“This grant allows us to go to our B list, which includes sites not as heavily covered by vitex and not as much of a threat,” Gresham said.

According to a press release from Clemson, the goal of the Private Stewardship Grants Program is to help private landowners manage their land to benefit rare and endangered species. Dr. Gresham’s work is important for promoting nesting habitat for sea turtles, which are all federally listed as either threatened or endangered in South Carolina. When female sea turtles come ashore to lay eggs, they abort their attempt to dig a nest if they encounter vitex at the base of the dune.

Field technicians have already identified the next properties they would like to target, but have not contacted the property owners yet. These priority lots have been evaluated for level of vitex infestation and accessibility to infested areas. It costs approximately $1,500 per lot to remove the vitex and replant native dune grasses.

The labor intensive process takes place in four stages. First, the highest priority areas are identified and evaluated, and written permission from the property owner is obtained.

Next, field crews use a machete to wound larger vitex stems. An herbicide is dabbed into the wound, and the area is left alone for four months. After four months, the dead stems are sawed off at ground level so that there is minimal disturbance to the dune.

The debris is chipped up into mulch and hauled away. The final phase of work involves hand-planting sea oats and bitter panicum, which are naturally occurring species that trap sand and build dunes.

Gresham says that he is grateful to Betsy Brabson and the Carolinas Beach Vitex Task Force for all of their work to attain the grant and make this eradication project possible.

“We will not rest until all of the vitex is gone form our coast because there is no such thing as a partial eradication,” Gresham said.

Otis says that some property owners on the creek side of the island are concerned about vitex on their land.

“There are some property owners on Pawleys Island who have beach vitex in their yards (who) are not on the beach-front,” Otis said.

“That may require some additional education of those property owners by Dr. Gresham and the Carolinas Beach Vitex Task Force.”

Council has set aside $15,000 in this year’s budget for eradication and they will require a five-to-one leverage to make this contribution, he said.

That means that in order to use the $15,000, it would require a $75,000 match from other funding sources.

“These funds count toward that,” Otis said. “We’ve been pleased to cooperate with this project in order to enhance the eradication of beach vitex generally, and specifically on Pawleys Island.”

For more information about beach vitex or the Carolinas Beach Vitex Task Force, visit their website at www.beachvitex.org.