N.C. professor may know mountains, but sure as heck doesn’t know beaches

It was great to read an article in the Aug. 18 edition of The Sun News (Sammy Fretwell-The State) showing that there is interest in the Grand Strand shoreline -- even in the mountains of North Carolina more than 300 miles away.

Professor Rob Young, who heads a program for The Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University, spoke disparagingly about efforts to maintain our beaches. (I couldn't help but wonder if Coastal Carolina has a program on mountain wildlife). Mr. Young states that he believes it is a waste of taxpayers’ money to nourish our shoreline and maintain economic viability along the coast. He expressed concern about beach nourishment's impact on sea life and animals that live on the beach.

Let’s look at some of his thoughts:

1) He stated that Kiawah Island beach is healthy and has never had beach renourishment - but it has.

2) He stated that birds disappear after beach renourishment. But only a few months ago, The Post and Courier published an article titled, “The Birds Have Returned.” This was in reference to the fact that the birds had disappeared from Folly Beach as the beach disappeared and returned after the very successful beach renourishment.

3) Mr. Young states that there are “...wiser coastal development policies” than beach renourishment. That statement reminded me of a statement made by a Coastal Conservation League representative back in April, that there were “realistic alternatives” to Myrtle Beach's beach renourishment. The article was quite extensive; however, no “realistic alternatives” were identified.

Now, Mr. Young states that there are “wiser coastal development polices,” but once again, none are identified.

It is estimated that tourism contributes $18 Billion to the South Carolina economy, and the Grand Strand is responsible for a major portion of that amount. I hope that the “realistic alternatives” and the “wiser coastal development policies” address the fact that when tourism and the jobs it creates are gone, the lost jobs will need to be replaced.

In a way, it is ironic that the same group opposing maintaining our beaches opposes the interstate which would bring job creating businesses to the Strand -- which could replace some of the jobs lost if their policies were enacted.

Across the pond, the people of Holland are happy that a mountain college of North Carolina is not studying their coastline.

The writer lives in Georgetown.

This story was originally published September 5, 2016 at 3:54 PM with the headline "N.C. professor may know mountains, but sure as heck doesn’t know beaches."