Marshland with tress in background and person in the midground standing in the grasses

Saint Helena Island, South Carolina

Building Blocks for Regional Resilience: Greening Gullah/Geechee Communities

Note: The links below open in a new browser tab or window.

01 / 06

What is the Building Blocks for Regional Resilience project?

The Regional Resilience Toolkit focuses on the regional scale because disasters happen at a regional scale, and a coordinated process across multiple jurisdictions can result in safer communities. Looking to promote an inclusive approach, the toolkit’s design allows for jurisdictions and levels of government as well as nongovernmental partners and local groups to collaborate on regional-scale actions. Guided by core community values, the toolkit includes five steps: engage, assess, act, fund, and measure, which all emphasize the need for action. In addition to addressing multiple hazards, the flexibility of the toolkit also allows for the user to jump in at any point in the process, depending on their progress in resilience planning.

EPA’s Office of Community Revitalization developed the Building Blocks for Regional Resilience program to help jurisdictions come together to identify shared natural disaster risks and develop a common action plan for the region. Through a series of pre-and post-workshop conference calls, a self-assessment, and an on-site meeting with stakeholders, the program supports communities and their partners as they set resilience goals, prioritize assets to protect, and develop resilience strategies and funding plans.

Following this regional scale planning assistance, EPA provided a second phase of assistance through the Greening America’s Communities program. Through on-site design workshops, this follow-up work helped take the regional resilience strategies down to the local level through site-specific design assistance. This Storymap highlights some of the green infrastructure designs and next steps that are helping Saint Helena Island and the region build more sustainable, resilient communities.

What is green infrastructure?

Green infrastructure strategies slow down and store stormwater, reduce flooding and improve water quality. using soil and plants to filter pollutants from stormwater, green infrastructure can help protect water quality, especially for areas where fish and other wildlife live, and can create benefits for the fishing industry.

Click the right arrow for more information.

Overview: Saint Helena Island, South Carolina

St. Helena Island is located within the Sea Islands archipelago that runs along the coast of much of the southeastern United States. The coastal and salt marsh habitats are important to the biodiversity of Beaufort County, South Carolina, and the Island is the epicenter of Gullah/Geechee culture which is also included in the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, a National Heritage Area established by the U.S. Congress. In 1999, a Cultural Protection Overlay (CPO) District was created to limit the impact of development and is reflected in Beaufort County’s 2040 Comprehensive Plan. EPA’s assistance resulted in green infrastructure designs that can protect not only the Lowcountry environment, but also the Gullah/Geechee way of life. EPA will continue to work with Saint Helena Island and partners at Beaufort County, the State, and other federal agencies to support next steps and secure funding for implementation of the designs.

Protecting Landscape & Culture

_{“We will use the community engagements to pour that resilient energy and our history into green infrastructure in order to increase the sustainability of our environment and create places in which people can learn more about our Gullah/Geechee culture and how it is inextricably tied to our land."}

_{-Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation and Chair of the St. Helena Island Cultural Protection Overlay District Committee}

Queen Quet's Website [EXIT]

Photo of Gullah/Geechee Chieftess, Queen Quet, in front of rock wall

What problems (and solutions) exist for the Island?

Development on the Island has threatened local salt marsh habitats and has contributed to coastal erosion. Sea level rise and increased frequency and severity of coastal storms are causing worse flooding and impacting freshwater access. These problems threaten the health of the fishing industry and cultural practices on Saint Helena Island.

This project—a collaboration between the Environmental Protection Agency, the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, Beaufort County, and other partners—identified green infrastructure projects that will buffer storm surge and mitigate sea level rise impacts while also protecting local food production, historic sites, and cultural traditions.

One project site includes redesigned causeways that could withstand sea level rise, provide reliable access on and off the Island during storms, and provide safer spaces for cyclists and pedestrians. Active protection of salt marsh ecosystems and new bioswales would slow erosion and filter pollutants from the roadway. Read more to see specific projects that may be instituted to improve life on the island.

What are examples of green infrastructure?

These strategies—along with the specific examples that follow—are examples of the types of green infrastructure that can help Saint Helena Island protect ecosystems and the cultural practices that depend on them.

Permeable Paving: An alternative to traditional concrete, permeable pavements infiltrate, treat, and/or store rainwater where it falls.

Trees: Tree canopies intercept rainfall, catching water on branches and leaves, as well as drinking it up via the roots. This reduces runoff and increases the ground’s ability to soak up water.

Bioswales: These vegetated channels reduce stormwater runoff and breakdown pollutants. They also provide a habitat for birds, butterflies, and local wildlife.

Rain Barrels: By capturing rainwater from a roof or gutters, rain barrels reduce flooding and help conserve water for use in yards and gardening.

Rain Gardens: A rain garden is a low-lying area planted with grasses and flowering perennials to collect stormwater and allow it to soak into the ground, rather than the sewer system. This reduces flooding, erosion, and pollution. Rain gardens also provide aesthetic and educational value to the community.

The Bottom Line

Through community and external support of these initiatives, Saint Helena Island can protect its waters and lands, reduce the impacts of storms and sea level rise, and preserve Gullah/Geechee culture and livelihoods.

01 / 08

Elevated Causeways

Causeways are raised roads across low or wet ground, and they connect much of Saint Helena Island to smaller neighboring islands. Proposed designs would raise sections of these important routes and make them more flood-resistant so that residents will be able to get where they need to go during emergencies. Pollution from motor vehicles would be filtered by bioswales and salt marshes. During non-emergency times, the causeways would be able to function as paths for walking and biking, granting residents a safe place to exercise and get around.

Martin Luther King Jr. Park

This important place for community recreation and historical relevance could be improved with stormwater management systems, such as permeable paving and rain gardens. These would both mitigate flooding and improve water quality. Because of its central location and status as a trusted community space, this park is crucial to disaster response, and the design proposes improvements that would allow the park to provide reliable power access, food distribution, and other necessities during natural disasters.

Bioswale Ditch Improvement

Bioswales help slow water during flooding, provide a habitat for local wildlife and vegetation, and help filter pollution through natural systems. By planting water-cleaning flora and correctly designing the shape of the ditch, this design option would help the site better manage runoff and improve water quality.

Community Campus

A series of trails could be created to link important places like Penn Center, the Leroy E. Brown Service Center, and the St. Helena Branch Library. Walking paths with shade trees could give the community a cohesive feel and also offer spaces for education and recreation. Health and Wellness trails could be used for residents to get exercise and spend time in nature. A Gullah/Geechee Botanical Trail would highlight the connection between Gullah/Geechee traditions and native plants. Elsewhere on campus, a rain garden could help manage stormwater, and a meadow could be used for agricultural demonstrations.

Boat Landing

This design for a shared community boat launch includes picnic areas for residents to gather, and by providing a single site for a boat landing, the salt marsh could be protected from the damage of additional boat docks. This design includes permeable paving to protect the water from pollutants and living shorelines that could buffer storm surge. As a gathering place complete with restrooms and shaded areas, this community boat launch would be useful for community recreation and as gathering places during emergencies.

Salt Marsh Preservation

Salt marshes are coastal grasslands routinely flooded by seawater and are an important frontline in protecting communities from storm impacts, as well as a crucial habitat for local wildlife. Salt marshes absorb rainwater, slowing flooding and improving water quality. They also work as barriers against coastal erosion by trapping soil and buffering waves. Moreover, they capture carbon emitted from cars and boats, improving water and air quality. Because salt marshes are an important home for many aquatic species, protecting them will secure the future of Gullah/Geechee fishing traditions, such as crabbing, shrimping, and clam harvesting.

Living Shorelines and Oyster Reefs

Living shorelines are coastal edges stabilized by natural materials like plants, rocks, and oysters. They effectively prevent coastal erosion and are more cost-effective than concrete seawalls. As another benefit, they also help filter water. The proposed design includes sizeable oyster beds that could clean thousands of gallons of water per day, supporting a healthy habitat for invertebrates, forage fish, and various shellfish. To ensure the health of these oyster beds, restoration projects may distribute oyster shells in suitable places that allow the population to attach onto and stabilize.

South Carolina Silver Jackets

Silver Jackets are interagency teams that work all over the country to prepare for, reduce risk of, and recover from floods. EPA partnered with Silver Jackets from the US Army Corps of Engineers Charleston District [EXIT] to provide outreach and education materials about mitigating the Island's flood risk from sea level rise and extreme rain events. In collaboration with the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, they created seven placemats on the above green infrastructure topics. The goal of these materials is to increase community awareness of green infrastructure and stormwater management, improve water quality, protect the landscape, and reduce flood risk.

Watch a 6-minute video produced by The Weather Channel on Climate Change Impacts on the Gullah Geechee Nation