SCDNR Director addresses Southeastern Wildlife Exposition

Mullikin reflects on the Biblical mandate to cultivate and conserve the natural world

By W. Thomas Smith Jr.

Four days before his article about “protecting the Lord’s Garden” was published in THE CHRISTIAN POST, Dr. Tom Mullikin, director of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR), was in Charleston for the 2026 Southeastern Wildlife Exposition (SEWE) speaking about the very same thing he’s been writing and speaking about for years. And why not? He’s long-been the veritable flag-bearer when it comes to protecting our natural environs, locally, regionally, and around the world.

Speaking before SEWE’s Ducks Unlimited panel at The Citadel Friday, Feb. 13, Mullikin expounded on what he refers to as a “Biblical mandate” and why he’s passionate about it.

Mullikin opened his remarks with Scripture: Genesis 2:15 in fact. “The Lord placed man in the garden ‘to work it and to keep it.’” Mullikin said. “That charge to cultivate and to conserve is one of the earliest mandates given to humanity.”

According to the SCDNR director: “Conservation, properly understood, is not a modern political invention. It is ancient stewardship. And here in South Carolina, stewardship requires partnership.

“Because the numbers tell us something urgent. South Carolina contains approximately 4.6 million acres of wetlands which is roughly one quarter of our land area and more than any other state on the East Coast except Florida. Those wetlands are not idle land. They are natural infrastructure.

A single acre of wetland can store between one and 1.5 million gallons of floodwater. In a coastal state regularly impacted by hurricanes, that storage capacity translates directly into reduced disaster costs.”

A world-renowned global expedition leader and retired military officer (former U.S. Army captain and retired commanding general of the S.C. State Guard) who also served as chair of the gubernatorially established S.C. Floodwater Commission before assuming the directorship at SCDNR, Mullikin’s research is sound.

NATURAL DISASTERS COST

“Nationally, NOAA [the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] reports that since 1980, the United States has experienced over $2.6 trillion in weather and climate disaster losses,” said Mullikin. “South Carolina alone has suffered tens of billions in hurricane-related losses over the past several decades. Hurricane Matthew in 2016 caused $1.376 billon in damages alone ($332-million in infrastructural damage, $828-million in commercial insurance claims, $166-million in flood insurance payments).

“Every acre conserved upstream reduces costs downstream.

“That is not just environmentalism.

“That is fiscal conservatism through conservation.

“This is where Ducks Unlimited shines.

THE VITAL WORK OF DUCKS UNLIMITED

“Since its founding in 1937, Ducks Unlimited has conserved more than 19-million acres across North America, including tens-of-thousands of acres in South Carolina alone,” said Mullikin. “In the ACE Basin, an international conservation model of success, is one of the largest undeveloped estuaries on the East Coast. Here we see public agencies, private landowners, Ducks Unlimited, and conservation partners have protected more than 350,000 acres through voluntary agreements and conservation easements. That did not happen through mandates. It happened through trust. It happened through partnership.

“Conservation supports migratory waterfowl, commercial fisheries, carbon sequestration, and storm buffering for our coastal communities. Salt marsh alone can sequester carbon at rates several times greater than upland forests. That means when we conserve wetlands, we are not only protecting ducks we are protecting climate resilience and coastal economies.”

THE PALMETTO STATE’S RECREATION ECONOMY

“South Carolina’s outdoor recreation economy contributes over $29-billion annually and supports more than 200,000 jobs (my research is showing $33.4-billion to S.C. for natural resource based sectors and supported over $218,000 jobs). Waterfowl hunting, fishing, wildlife viewing are not fringe activities. They are core components of our history, our culture and economy.

“Public–private partnership allows us to multiply impact,” said Mullikin. “Federal dollars are leveraged by state funds. State funds are amplified by nonprofit investment.Private landowners contribute land value through conservation easements. One dollar becomes three. Sometimes five. The result is durable conservation that respects private property rights while serving the public good.”

WORKING TOGETHER

“As director of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, I can say this clearly: the most successful projects in our state are not the ones done in isolation,” said Mullikin. “They are the ones where Ducks Unlimited biologists sit at the same table as SCDNR scientists, where landowners open their gates voluntarily, and where we align ecological science with moral responsibility.

“Because stewardship is both practical and spiritual.Psalm 24 reminds us: “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” We do not own these lands permanently. We hold them in trust.

“Public–private partnership is how we honor that trust in a modern world of complex pressures — sea-level rise, extreme weather, land fragmentation, and population growth. The challenges are large. But so is the opportunity.

“When faith informs our values…
When science informs our decisions…
When partnership multiplies our capacity…
Conservation wins.”

CONSERVATION WORKS

“Ducks Unlimited has proven that voluntary conservation works,” Mullikin concluded.
“South Carolina has proven that partnership scales. And together, we can ensure that the skies over the ACE Basin and our beautiful Palmetto State still darken with waterfowl — and that our children inherit not just stories of abundance, but living proof of it.”

– For more information about the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition, this year and next, please visit https://www.sewe.com/.

– For more information about SCDNR, visit https://www.dnr.sc.gov/.