EDITOR ' S LETTER
PHOTOGRAPH BY PAMELA COHEN
There are a few places I ’ ve traveled in my life where time seems to stand still . In the rainforest of Washington state ’ s Olympic Peninsula the hush of silence hangs heavy over the evergreen trees and the forest feels ancient and undisturbed . Hiking through the boulders in the Mojave Desert in California , the sun always seems to be suspended at the highest point in the sky , unmoving and unrelenting . At home in the Lowcountry , I start to feel a similar sense of timelessness during that languid season in the middle of summer , when the days are long and even the bugs seem to buzz around in slow motion .
As the summer heat finally starts to ease in early autumn , it feels like time eventually resumes its familiar pace . In this issue of ROOTS , we dive into the paradox of a place like Kiawah Island , an environment that feels eternal and slow to change , yet has experienced some significant evolutions in the past few centuries . In stories of the constant shifting of river patterns ( Shifting River , pg . 36 ) and the arrival of invasive plants and animals — and humans — that have altered the island ’ s ecology ( Sense of Place in Constant Change , pg . 22 ), we begin to discover the resilience of the natural world : that nature exists in a state of constant flux . This issue is also dedicated to the memory of the Kiawah Conservancy ’ s founder , Dave Elliott , and his legacy of a life devoted to the preservation of wildlife and habitat on Kiawah Island .
BLAKE SHORTER | EDITOR
ROOTS 2023 • 3