Wendy Pollitzer

Wendy Pollitzer has always loved her home. A Lowcountry native, she enjoys all the things you'd expect-boating, beachcombing, water sports of every description-but her appreciation goes beyond the superficial. If, as a child, she took the fun times at face value, coming of age meant experiencing a new curiosity about the land and sea she'd known since birth.

"In my adult life, I became interested in what makes this all happen," said Wendy, the interpretive program manager at Hunting Island State Park. "What is this? What am I loving? You need to know why you enjoy a place."

For example, take the barrier island where Wendy works: any casual visitor can see that it's a great place for a picnic, a swim, a walk or a bike ride. But what does it mean to the birds, animals and marine life that populate it? Or to the coastal ecosystem as a whole?

"Barrier islands protect the bigger sea islands," said Wendy, explaining that Hunting Island is comprised of four interconnected types of habitat: beach, sand dunes, salt marsh and maritime forest. "There's a natural reason for this. But when you tell a child not to walk on a sand dune, it's not as
effective as teaching a child how important a sand dune is, how it protects the maritime forest from storms and saltwater, and how if there's no maritime forest there's no place for the birds and animals to live. What I'm trying to instill in children is love for the environment, and that there's more to this life than just the human element."

It's not hard to get children's attention when you have such great material to work with, endemic attractions like dolphins, sea turtles and the endlessly thrilling snakes. As part of her job description, Wendy runs the park's nature center and develops educational programs which are designed to give visitors a vested interest in doing the right thing: no littering, no trampling the turtle and shorebird nesting areas, no bright
lights on the beach when baby sea turtles are hatching, etc.

Along the way, Wendy's had some enlightening experiences of her own, such as the two times she's been called upon to remove a dead sea turtle from the marsh. (Both times death was the result of the turtle being hit in the neck by a boat propeller.) She knew she'd done a good job of transmitting her love for Nature to her two daughters when they took an active interest in helping bury the stinky carcass. Those girls, along with all the other children growing up today, are ultimately going to be entrusted with Hunting Island and every other wild space we have. That's why it's important for Wendy to encourage them to love the Lowcountry as much
as she does.

"Children are natural stewards of good messages," said Wendy. "When they come home, they tell Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa what they've learned. Maybe, just maybe, the more I teach, the more the message will spread."