I am proud to witness the evolution from The Kiawah Island Natural Habitat Conservancy, Inc., to KINHC, to the Kiawah Conservancy, and now to the Conservancy of the Sea Islands. From its founding, led by resident David Elliot and a committee of volunteers, the dedication to conserving natural habitat in which wildlife could thrive has remained the goal. The new name indicates the wider area of commitment.
The consistent driving force for the Conservancy staff has been its executive director, Donna Windham, who built it from a humble beginning in 1997 in one room of a shed shared with the resort’ s bike shop at Night Heron Park. An office manager and part-time bookkeeper joined Donna on staff when the Conservancy later moved to rooms in the Kiawah Island Community Association portion of the first Kiawah Island Town Hall.
As the reach of the mission and its message expanded over the next decades, so did its staff to include specialists in ecological sciences, land preservation, educational outreach, communications, restoration enhancement, and advancement.
Working through the years with a succession of volunteer boards, Donna and her enthusiastic staff steadily purchased properties and accepted easements for preservation. They also actively supported studies on changing wildlife movement patterns, especially among bobcats and migratory birds.
Concerned always with protecting this elegant and fragile ecosystem, the Conservancy called attention to impacts to our rivers and estuaries from development. This led to its current Living Shoreline Program and watershed planning efforts.
In an early foray off-Island, the Conservancy Board accepted the gift of Plenty’ s Island in the marsh at Seabrook. The Board always understood that wildlife fail to honor municipal borders but travel where they need to go for food and protection. Still, the complexity of extending work off-island blocked action until the intense development of the Island sent an alarm. Places for wildlife were diminishing at a rapid rate.
The in-depth work of the 2020 Board in designing a plan for the Conservancy’ s future expressed new enthusiasm for preserving land in a natural state, both on and off Kiawah Island. More than that, it imagined preserving the Betsy Kerrison corridor, restoring acquired lands, and taking a watershed-level approach to conservation moving forward. To match its expanded vision, the organization needed a new name. I believe it found it in the Conservancy of the Sea Islands.
- Joan Avioli
ROOTS 2026 • 13