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.