Winyah Rivers Foundation, Inc.

The Winyah Rivers Foundation services the following rivers in the great watershed that empties into the Winyah Bay at Georgetown, South Carolina:

• Waccamaw
• Lynches
• Lumber-Little Pee Dee
• Black
• Great Pee Dee
• Sampit

We are a grassroots organization of people from both North and South Carolina who are convinced that the preservation of our Winyah rivers and their watersheds would best be served by hiring advocates to guard these waters from further harm. The Foundation is building rapidly and membership is now over 400. We have hired our Riverkeeper®, The Waccamaw Riverkeeper®. Join the Winyah Rivers Foundation now to help us preserve this valuable resource!

Mission Statement

Our mission is to protect, preserve, monitor and revitalize the health of the lands and waters of the greater Winyah Bay watershed, focusing on local activism through the Waccamaw Riverkeeper® program.

Statement of Service

In serving this mission, the Foundation seeks to ensure that the land and water uses in the watershed support a high quality of life for all human and natural uses. The Foundation intends to hire and fund Keepers for the waters of the Winyah Watershed. Clean water is a vital essential for a healthy human and wildlife habitat. The Foundation will engage in researching, teaching and promoting the use of preventive and restorative measures. It makes no sense to foul our waters and then have to clean them up. Future generations depend on our wise use of land and water.

Initial Focus

The Foundation hired the first Waccamaw Riverkeeper® in 2002. Hamp Shuping served in this capacity until August of 2006. Christine Ellis now holds this position, which focuses on promoting the ecological, social and economic health and integrity of the Waccamaw River and its watershed, from its headwaters around Lake Waccamaw in North Carolina to Winyah Bay in South Carolina.

Current Winyah Rivers Foundation Officers and Directors

Officers:

Richard Moore of Conway, SC, President

Richard earned a BA degree in General Biology from Vanderbilt University and Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Zoology from the University of Texas at Austin. He is currently Professor of Biology and Assistant Vice President of Grants and Sponsored Research at Coastal Carolina University where has been a member of the faculty since 1974. He is a founding member of the Waccamaw Audubon Society of which he currently is the Treasurer and Newsletter editor. He has also served as President and on the Board of Directors of that organization. He is the author of numerous scientific papers, chapters and books on fishes, aquatic biology and zoology.

Judith Ellis of Myrtle Beach, SC, Vice President

Judith is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio where she earned a dual Master’s degree from Xavier University in Psychology and Educational Administration. She had a 30-plus-year career in education, which included being a teacher, school psychologist, administrator, principal and educational consultant. Her final position before retirement was as Executive Director for First Steps of Horry County. Judith has completed her Master Gardener’s certification and is an active member of the North Myrtle Beach Master Gardeners Club and serves on beautification, landscape and Backyard Habitat Project committees in Briarcliffe Acres. Judith is also an active member of Sierra Club where she was first introduced to the Winyah Rivers Foundation.

Valerie Moliterno of Myrtle Beach, SC, Secretary

Valerie earned a B.S. in bacteriology from Cornell, and a Masters in Curriculum planning and a Doctorate in Curriculum development from the State University of New York. She has taught and worked in public relations. She has a long-term involvement with environmental issues, serving on the Lake Erie Basin Committee, the Erie County Water Quality Committee, and the Solid Waste Committee for the Town of Amherst. She is the recipient of the Lifetime Service Award from the Amherst Public Schools, a Western New York Citizen Engineers Award, and a New York State Citizen Engineers Award.

Peter MacIntyre of Murrells Inlet, SC, Treasurer

Peter was born in Saranac Lake, NY and attended St. Lawrence University earning a BA in Political Science. Later he earned an AD in Hotel Motel Restaurant Management. He served in the Army in military intelligence and later held in various tourist related positions. In 1982 Peter began work with Ripley Entertainment, Inc. and has the current position of General Manager of Ripley’s Aquarium in Myrtle Beach. Hobbies include photography, hiking and canoeing.

Directors:

Reg Daves of Conway, SC

Reg is a retired obstetrician-gynecologist.  He received his udnergraduate degree in biology from the University of the South.  He is an active member of the Waccamaw Audubon Society and the Carolina Nature Photographers Association. He lives on the Waccamaw River near Conway.

 

Dwight Fee of Murrells Inlet, SC

Dwight is a graduate of Miami University, Oxford, OH, and received graduate training in organizational development from George Washington University in DC. He consults to organizations in strategic planning, leadership development and team building.  He relocated to the area from Annapolis, MD in 2000. An active canoeist and sailor, he says, "The Waccamaw River is the reason they call this place paradise."

 

Bill Marsh of Conway, SC

Bill holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Coastal Carolina University. He is president of Palmetto Chevrolet Co., Inc. in Conway. Currently, he is Chairman of the Coastal Educational Foundation, and is also a board member of Coastal Federal Bank and the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce. Bill is a native of Horry County and has enjoyed spending time on the Waccamaw River since he was a boy.

 

Greg Mitchell of Surfside Beach, SC

Greg was born in Deland, Florida and attended the University Of South Carolina earning a BS in Business Administration. He later earned a masters degree in Management from Webster University, as well as a graduate degree in Higher Education Leadership from the University of South Carolina. Greg currently serves as Vice President for Workforce Development and Continuing Education, and Provost (Grand strand campus) at Horry-Georgetown Technical College. Greg’s hobbies includes, bicycling, camping, fishing and cooking for friends and family.

P. Hutson (Hut) Moody of Myrtle Beach, SC

Hut holds a BA in economics and formed and operated his own radio communications company, specializing in Radio Paging (Beepers) until 1984, when he retired to the beach. He has been a member of the Waccamaw Riverkeeper Middle Squadron for several years. Hutson has served on many Boards during his 74 years on this planet and looks forward to working with the Foundation, in whatever capacity the Board may see fit. His hobbies over the years have been with Boy Scout leadership; motoring, paddling and sailing boats; swimming; tennis; continuing education; and continuing his Spiritual search through several church groups, including one of which he became the local president.

David Scott of Lake Waccamaw, NC

Davis has a BS in Wildlife Biology. He is a retired business owner and a lifelong environmentalist, sailor, paddler, and camper. He is interested in spiritualism as it relates to the religion ⁄ environment interface. David is cofounder, with wife Donna, of the Lumber River Basin Committee, a local environmental group that succeeded in getting the Lumber River designated National Wild and Scenic and later established a NC State Park. The group is a past recipient of the NC Wildlife Federation and Mid-Atlantic Country Magazine’s Conservation Group of the Year awards.

Becky Westbrooks of Chadbourn, NC

Becky attended Austin Peay State University earning a B.S. in Biology and Chemistry in 1974. She earned her M.S. in Biology/ Botany at the University of South Carolina in 1990. She has taught in several sciences in public schools in Tennessee, Kentucky, S.C. and N.C. Becky currently teaches at Southeastern Community College in Whiteville, N.C., where she developed the Environmental Science Technical Program and the Agricultural Biotechnology Program. She is also the lead faculty for the Natural Resource Area on campus and is the keeper of the Nature Trail on campus. She and husband Randy have two sons. Her leisure time is spent kayaking the local rivers, attending environmental organization meetings, reading, botanical illustration, gardening, promoting native plants, and spending time with her family.

Hal Vivian of Murrells Inlet, SC

Hal is an electrical and mechanical engineer and a trained facilitator.  He is an active member and volunteer with the Waccamaw Audubon society and Brookgreen Gardens.  Hal served on the Board of Directors for Winyah Rivers Foundation during its early years and is returning to take a leadership role in promoting the mission of Winyah Rivers Foundation.

 

Scientific Advisory Board

The Winyah Rivers Foundation is most fortunate to have four well-known and respected scientists who are intimately familiar with the Waccamaw River.

Dr. Dennis M. Allen

Dr. Dennis M. Allen is a Research Professor in the Baruch Institute and Marine Science Program at the University of South Carolina. He has been Director of the Baruch Marine Field Laboratory–USC in Georgetown since 1978. He received his graduate degrees from Lehigh University (PA). Dr. Allen’s broad research interests are in the dynamics of estuarine and coastal systems. He has studied short- and long-term responses of estuaries to natural disturbances and has focused most of his field studies on fishes, shrimps, and zooplankton in the salt marshes and waterways of North Inlet and Winyah Bay.

Promoting the role of scientific knowledge in coastal decision making and advancing the effectiveness of environmental education are among Dr. Allen’s top priorities. He is the current president of the Estuarine Research Federation, the primary international association of estuarine scientists.

Dr. William Conner, Professor, Department of Forest Resources, Clemson University, Georgetown, SC

Dr. Conner is a Forested Wetlands Ecologist at the Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science in Georgetown. Dr. Conner has worked in forested wetland systems for over 30 years and has developed a worldwide reputation in the ecology of these systems. He co-wrote and edited a textbook entitled Southern Forested Wetland Ecology and Management and is currently completing a book on Ecology of Tidal Freshwater Forests of the Southeastern United States.

Dr. Stan Riggs

Dr. Stan Riggs is a Distinguished Professor of Geology at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. Dr. Riggs is known throughout the Carolinas for his work on the Waccamaw. The report of his five-year study with Ames, Brant and Sager was published in September of 2000. It is entitled The Waccamaw Drainage System: Geology and Dynamics of a Coastal Wetland, Southeastern North Carolina.

Dr. Riggs’ specific fields of research and teaching have included sedimentation, stratigraphy, coastal and marine geology of continental margins, environmental geology, sedimentary mineral deposits and economic geology. Most relevant to the Waccamaw River is his research on the origin, evolutionary development and dynamics of coastal plain riverine and pocosin wetland systems.

Dr. Susan Libes

Dr. Libes is a Professor of Marine Science and Chemistry at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, SC. In 1992 she authored a textbook entitled Marine Biogeochemistry. Dr. Libes is the Program Director of Coastal’s Environmental Quality Laboratory that has been working for the past seven years to address water quality issues in Horry County. She is currently funded by the US EPA to study pollution problems on the Waccamaw around the city of Conway.

Dr. Libes has been instrumental in starting a program called Waccamaw Waterwatchers that is funded by the National Science Foundation and a Clean Air Water grant from the Wal-Mart Corp. Coastal Professors, students and recent graduates, as well as the Waccamaw Science and Math Hub, monitor water quality and biota along the river. They have recently expanded this effort, with an EPA grant, to include citizens groups.