St. Christopher is partnering with Clemson University, continuing to work to trap and identify the invasive Yellow-Legged Hornet. Yellow-Legged Hornets prey on local honeybees and other native bees, causing reduced foraging and pollination. With the support of USDA APHIS, Clemson’s Honeybee Protection Program and the Barrier Island Program have deployed baited grape juice traps in four locations on St. Christopher Property to detect the hornets and locate nests. Traps are monitored and checked monthly.

We are also working with the South Carolina Botanical Garden (SCBG) at Clemson with focal research on the Tough Bully plant. According to Executive Director of the SCBG, Martin Hamilton, “Tough Bully, Sideroxylon tenax, which is endemic to the outer Coastal Plain of North Carolina (very rare in the far southwestern coastal counties), South Carolina (rare in coastal counties), Georgia (uncommon in coastal counties) and Florida (uncommon in coastal counties). The species predominantly occurs in maritime scrub and maritime forests.” There are several known occurrences of the species on St. Christopher Camp property, as denoted via observations on iNaturalist. The project focuses on surveying, collecting (seed and cuttings), cultivating, and distributing material of Tough Bully from South Carolina to safeguard the species and create a reserve of plants that can be used to bolster populations in the future.

Coastal Gardening for Native Pollinators: September 17th, 2026.

At this workshop led by Associate Director of Barrier Island, Tyler Harris, members of the Seabrook Island community discussed the importance of native plants and native pollinators found in the Lowcountry and the best practices to support these organisms in a coastal environment. Tyler highlighted St. Christopher’s gardening initiatives and led a tour through our brand new Barrier Island Pollinator Garden. We thank the Town of Seabrook Island and the Seabrook Island Garden Club for financially supporting the creation of the garden, which otherwise would not have been possible!

Wildlife Monitoring: February 2nd, 2027

Stay tuned for another installment of our wildlife monitoring efforts and data analysis at St. Christopher!