Guy on a Gator: The New Predator

Image by A. Larrimore

Remember this: It is always a good idea to have your bases covered before planting a foot on foreign terrain.

I had to sit with this one a while. By the time you finish reading this you are gonna have to sit with it a while as well. 

(This is information to remember: a dark SUV found trespassing onto unsuspecting property owners' land to place cameras to track deer as caught on another device without trespasser knowing it.)

As people who hunt, fish, or do the outdoor sports, we should be well aware that the Grim Reaper is patiently waiting in the wings for our turn to punch the old time clock and get in his boat to darker, greener, pastures. There are also others that are not from the spiritual realm that lay-in-wait.

While we are waiting, lets talk about the new predator. 

This predator I speak of comes in the form of other hunters, land brokers, real estate agents, and anyone else that is looking to capitalize on some elderly person's mental deterioration or impending poverty be it a scam or not. Sometimes this poverty or homelessness is imposed by unscrupulous people that trick these elderly people into signing away their rights and security for a fast payday, or to steal a slice of a landlocked area that is in great demand. Calling such people vultures doesn't give it justice. 

There are the real estate agents, including those that claim they can put your land up as a hunting preserve to sale. They send workers out to the local land and deeds office to see who is about to die and whether they can be approached to sell. The other tactic they use is somehow getting a cell phone number to text message or cold call and sending things to e-mails when no one has not requested solicitation.

Have you ever received e-mails where you thought you might have requested or involved yourself in something only to find out that you didn't do anything but there it is....waiting on your panic and lightning fast response to figure it out. This is what the elderly are subjected to and what their caretakers have to stay vigilant on lest the poor old dying soul be left to the caprice of the world because of dementia and a cruel soulless person(s). 

One could ponder that this is their Karma. Maybe they did bad things in their life, treated people cruelly, or kicks small dogs and cats. 

Wait until you uncover a parent has been ripped off in the amount of $20,000 or more by some person getting Lyft rides in Canada. The elderly victim has to take out a loan to cover their debt and simultaneously hide this while going into denial and blaming someone else for the money being taken/given away. 

Have you asked your Nanna which K-pop singer she is married to? Is she sending him money because his management is holding him hostage? Wait until she pulls out the marriage certificate stamped by some anonymous lawyer's office in a foreign country. 

Or maybe its an aunt that has been seduced into signing a purchasing contract on a million dollar mansion where the K-pop star claims she can live in her old age while he travels the world singing to the masses?

You better go right now and check on your people. There might be 120 Kneau Reeves love bombing the death and money out of your beloved relative on Tiktok. Imposter Kneau is broke. The Matrix really took a toll on him.

For every elderly person, the scammer finds out their weakness. Some scammers aren't on the internet. They sit in small country eateries checking pulses and looking up obituaries trying to find out if there is an heir or two that could block their evil plans. 

What has brought all this own? The recent story out of Conway of some dastardly healthcare worker, in the absence of the out-of-state relative, somehow got title and monies signed over to her, and thieved away with the patient's livelihood without telling the relative her parent is dead for three days. This perpetrator worked through a healthcare business. 

I already ran into this with a senior living rehabilitation center. The facility wanted an audit of Patient Zero's financials even though his insurance was paying for the two week stay.  The facility was suppose to admit Patient Zero for two weeks for physical therapy and tried to diaper-lock him in a wheelchair, not let him walk, or let him leave his room due to a contagious cold going through the facility. This place said he could leave when he wanted to and when the two weeks were up they were trying to hold onto him. It became a potential confrontation. 

What the hell does this have to do with hunting? Okay, you ask. 

A day ago I am out in a property cutting grass. This property has hunting leases on it. It is a small place but a nice place especially if you want peace and quiet to meander to sit in the woods. I turn toward the soy bean field with the mower when I see something moving over the six acre field on that side. I realize it is a person. They have wandered over onto the property, heading for the deer.  The deer are standing out in the field like a herd of dumb cattle. I am unaware someone has put a deer stand in a tree there.  

I begin to yell across the six acre field that I see him and ask if he has permission. At this point, the person squats down in the soy beans so he can hide himself. He must have called the person on the zippity-doo gator because the ATV comes back.

The guy on the Gator pulls up on me. He tells me who he is. My name is Zippity-Doo from the S-curve area.

I asked him did he know the guy in the field? Yes.

I ask did he have a hunting lease or pay for land rental? No, I have not signed or paid anything yet. 

When are you going to do that? Cricket sounds.

Here he is telling me that he has no instruction on what he can and cannot do in this location. If I was an officer an asked him to present evidence it would not appear. 

Zippity-Doo doesn't have anything on paper or a receipt that he has done any of the things to secure his argument. Yet he is out there with friends with guns walking all over the place. He places his right for himself to hunt on a verbal agreement with a person that has health problems. He states  he is unaware of this, or so he says. This verbal agreement has no witness or verification. It doesn't stipulate any other person that is brought to the location to take part in hunting activities. He claimed to know the property owner. He tells me that he saw the property owner at this local eating place, where no doubt he started his campaign on how to access the property because he is desperate to get into that area by hook or crook. 

When a man tells me he will come back and pick up rocks, that tells me he has absolutely no standard on his behavior and is willing to sell himself out to get what he thinks he wants, or lie his way into getting the instant gratification of killing a deer when the memory of it is now sullied. All this just to access a property.

There is a lot of ways to do things. This isn't one of them. 

I realized he is potentially the same guy setting up game camera pre-hunt season. All I hear i the flapping of gums trying to convince me that he is a noble hunter when he was out in these dirt roads trespassing to place cameras to monitor a herd of deer on other people's land without the property owners knowing it. I just happened to be the one seeing him do it with evidence.

Where is the honor in that? Who raised this guy? Better yet, who is he emulating because someone failed and failed epically.

I excused myself to go get the elderly property owner. The property owner came out and I asked the guy in front of the property owner about him hunting. Property owner said that he said he could but also told him he wasn't going to be liable for the hunter, or anyone else doing themselves harm while out in the field. The property owner tells him that he is going to let me handle it. Zippity-Doo doesn't internalize this.

This is the intersection where this turns South. When a elderly property owner gives a verbal okay from another era to a hunter for them to hunt in a time where verbal agreements aren't the best foundation to stand on. This verbal agreement takes a turn because instructions and specifics are not documented. The verbal yes to one becomes a verbal yes to anyone that wasn't there for the conversation. The friends of the hunter are the people you have no idea what caliber of person they are and if they will honor the original verbal agreement. You have no idea of a person's criminal past either if they have one, or what they have been into. You are just going on the word of the one you know and not the one you don't.

This person decided to go ahead and put up deer stands, invite people, and do what he wanted in the absence of anything tangible. Is that not the best way to take advantage? No boundaries. No limits. No specifics. 

He even tried to convince me he was managing something there. I told him he was on someone else's property.  A farmer planted soy beans on the plot and all he did was pull up, put up a stand and shoot a deer off of it. He put no effort in it other than to grunt and groin putting up  a stand that wasn't even that high. The audacity of some people. 

Where is the tribute? 

If someone accidentally shoots a person, gets bite by a rattler, or should fall out a tree or break a leg, then they or someone they know will want to race up to a lawyer's office. They will try to put a claim in and hold the land owner responsible even though that land owner might be cognitively compromised in some way.

I talk to this guy about signing a hunting lease with specifics so the hunter on the other plot isn't menaced. I ask him for a number to call to let him know when the paperwork is ready. He leaves and I go back to mowing. I eventually finish and go back to the house. I sit down and try to change the stipulations for locations and need to talk to this wanker. I call the number he has given me. It goes to some young man that doesn't have a clue what is going on and why he is getting the phone calls. Now I have been mislead and deceived. We got a dodger!

Zippity-Do on the Gator informed me that per the property owner's request for him to talk to the other hunter with an abutting hunting lease. He discussed his presence out on the main farm and he reported the hunter in the back was okay with it. I was not informed and circumvented around by this young man in the stead of the property owner just coming back from a doctor's visit. He was emotional for three days prior and doing things out of the ordinary. The doctor decided to give him treatment and hope it cleared up the problem lest there might be a reoccurring silent stroke. 

Before I could determine the nature of this situation, I have another unknown person(s) running amuck in an area the property owner has been known to watch deer movement from his door and shoot a 308 in that area at deer by the place the young man put a deer stand. In low light that is a recipe for disaster. I don't want to come back and find a body. If it can be avoided, avoid it. 

This is where communication is key. Key, I said. So is safety.

So now I got someone hiding in a soybean field, another one trying to convince me of all the hunting jargon bird-spit-swallow and then to make it worse for himself give me a bogus number to someone else that has no clue what is going on. He still has not signed a hunting lease, submitted payment for a receipt but I got his treestand in the tree. The treestand at this point is trespassing. There is also the fact I have a property owner with questionable discernment skills on overlapping hunters in a small area while making promises his rear end can't cash in the long run. Smirk.

You give a bad hunter an inch and he is gonna take up the whole national park system. 

On top of this, Zippity-Do tells me that he spoke to the hunter in the back and that guy is okay with it. That guy didn't say nothing to me about getting a call so I sent him a voice mail. Guess what? He wasn't okay with what that guy was doing. Now I got another deception and another hunter not saying a word to me when something is amiss. This makes me think long and hard on next year's seasons. 

Hunters will screw the pooch on their self.

Whatever happened to truth, justice, and the American way?  Meh. 

This doesn't make sense to me that a elderly property own would cause that much dissension on his own land. This could cause him legal problems unless he just doesn't grasp it. He doesn't discern the legalities or the danger to self or others.

Does he need a situation where a SCDNR officer now has to investigate a shooting/death on his land that was executed by imbeciles that have nothing in their hands to refute their claims? 

I am thinking this person was doing what he thought was lowkey get-in, shoot the deer, and get-out then tell the property owner he never shot a thing so he could get out of signing an agreement and absconding with a dead deer to never pay for the hunting lease. I wouldn't be surprised if he fabricates a story on the way he epically went out to hunt the deer and post it on some page at Facebook.

My headache is as wide as the Grand Canyon and I haven't even see it yet.

Image by Adam Zubek-Nizol

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Pickled Earth: A Tad Bit Salty

 

Remember this: What was, will be once again. 

I am reading an episode in The Post and Courier/Pee Dee newspaper I grabbed from the hospital. The title of the article is "Hunting for hidden Ghost forests: What SC's spectral woodlands tell us about the future" and is written by Jonah Chester in the March 19-April 1, 2026 distribution.

Jonah Chester goes on to bring up the concept of spectral woods and ghost forests that give birth from coastal shores, estuaries, and tidal rivers. Fits my mythos of creepy southern forest with whispers and hoots of spooks. Is this a tale of dire warning? Most likely.

We would assume that everything of matter that doesn't have progeny, or flourishes will eventually disappear and die. Letting Nature take its course can  mean in the long run Nature will begin to deteriorate to its fatal end. Whatever lives upon it will move on to higher ground in hopes of a way to maintain its survival and existence. 

Jonah Chester goes on to talk about the rising sea levels that are generated by weather patterns known to the region that push the salt water inland. In walks the University of Virginia with a project that is trying to make a case for dead forest prevalence across South Carolina using artificial intelligence and satellite data. 

One such data point in this study is a 350,000 acreage of land called the ACE Basin that boundaries by the Ashepoo, Combahee, and the Edisto. These dead zone locations are across South Carolina but perfuse near the coast. 

This is where I should point out that South Carolina from the coast to the Sandhills use to be a large coral reef. Deep underground there is history. Divers pull it out the Charleston rivers all the time when they dive for shark teeth fossils. 

When migrating people decide they want to move down for the weather, they need to fact check that location the residence is built on. We love a good subterranean termite especially when they float into the yard during floods to remodel the innards of a house with their form of mud artistry in the beams of the wall. Trust me. They are there.  

Let us see if we can transverse a thought process and compound on Jonah Chester's article.

Yeung and his partners are using AI to analyze imagery that will identify dead tree species missed by traditional methods, confirm cause of death for the trees, consider the widespread impact on individual and collective data point locations, configuring ground truth validations, and collaborations. 

Here in this excerpt, Henry Yeung, a lead author on the project states, "For example, if you have a drought eating the landscape first and it dries off the soil and then a storm surge hits, basically you don't have the groundwater storage to resist against the flooded salt water." (Chester B5)

Now mind you, the human termites have been digging all over the South for the Sands of Time without the thought God put it there, so maybe not remove it. Everyday I think about how the Earth is a structure run off of everything that compromises it. Humans are always uprooting a necessary part of the system and moving said thing somewhere else. All that activity leads to substances trapped in the ground coming to the surface and polluting what is above. 

Now let us ask the current question. If this is an issue with saltwater eroding inland due to ocean acidification, climate change, pollution from a variety of sources, humans being humans with entitlement and the ability to not see their habits/actions are causing a lot of damage, what is going to happen when you slap a data center near that location?

Lets just imagine a textbook photo of erosion from the top of a mountain to the sea. One such event is the flood in North Carolina that took out a large area. This flood brought with it trickle down economics from the casebook in ecological destruction. Anything of a waste product is eroding down the slope. It has to go to the lowest point; river to ocean. Along that path things tend to settle here and there. 

The article points out consistency is the one factor when elevation is plotted against a data set of dead trees. It begins to illustrate lower elevations will appear to have more dead trees than upland stands. In a 2020 study, Chester states, "once coastal forests succumb to the salt, they stop capturing carbon and begin releasing it instead." (Chester B5)

But why? Why does it do this? Salt seems to be a major vulnerability. 

As I read further, here it comes.....

Chester writes, "Yeung said one of the project's goals is to provide a "common language" for policymakers to help address the growing issue. As he notes, it's difficult to come up with solutions when there's not a common data baseline to work from. He said potentially installing flow-control structures or flood gates along vulnerable corridors could help curb the ghost forests' spread." (Chester B5)

It all comes down to Law and Order, loss of land, habitat loss, and freshwater scarcity.  Let's get back to the salt of the Earth on them roots.

When salt intrusion occurs in coastal areas, the ground stores organic compound rather than releasing it. Salt disrupts the soil structure and triggers microbial breakdown of old organic matter. What is the salt doing to the ground?  What happens when all this stored up old organic matter is completely gone? Salt intrusion brings in sulfates. Sulfate-reducing bacteria activate and produce chemicals that dissolve iron-mineral bonds that previously held the carbon secure. Dissolved iron releases the carbon and it decomposes. 

Soil stores carbon aggregates that keep the carbon-eating microbes away from the organic matter that is food. Microbes need detritus to survive and flourish. This is the basics of a forest floor. It needs the composting process of litter, soil humus, flora and fauna. This process gives rise to nutrients into the lower levels and soil. What happens when you have areas where the erosion from high to low is pushed by the tide that brings in the salty brine. 

Pickled Earth. 

Sodium ions replace things like calcium and magnesium from soil particles. This causes soil dispersion where aggregates break apart. These broken aggregates uncover and convert hidden carbon to oxygen. Bacteria and fungi are sensitive to salt. Moderate salinity stress can force them to consume more energy to deal with the osmotic stress of the salt. This results in increased microbe activity leading to higher rates of respiration that turns solid soil carbon into gas that is release into our good atmosphere. 

Coastal environments store carbon because soil is anaerobic with low oxygen, bound to minerals, and it is wet. 

Let us ask the question about them tree roots. If a tree is sitting in Earth that has a high salt content, what do we expect the tree to be in a state of? The surrounding environment of its roots are hypertonic relative to the cells inside of the tree. I don't know if you have taken a biology or chemistry class but they teach about solutions. Most plants and trees depend on turgor to move fluids in and out. Its like trees have a heart or kidney problem with all that salt. Trees aren't humans, but can you relate?

The salt concentration outside the root is higher than the solute concentration inside the root cell which cause the water to be drawn out of the roots. This water extraction leads to dehydration, water stress, and potential death aka osmotic stress or plasmolysis. Plasmolysis shrinks and pulls away the cell wall causing the cells to lose turgor pressure. You see this in house plants when they appear to wilt. 

The tree experiences a condition called physiological drought. The tree can't access the water even if the soil is wet. This leads to disrupted nutrient uptake, root cell die-off, leaf burn caused by salt uptake that destroys tissues, and reduced growth. Now, go look at your potted plants. Are they okay? Check on your people. 

Trees move, but slowly, and they can't run away fast enough from a spot that is a salt gestapo. The tree's internal environment becomes hypotonic. The solutes are lower relative to the surrounding salty soil. The tree is in a situationship with a hypertonic environment. 

But how? How do you revitalize the trees that are stuck in this type of environment. Some of these areas are in places where isolation is the word. 

I have read the different engineering ideas. It sounds more like the trees affected by being to close to the high salt areas would be swamped and efforts would be on the trees not affect yet. What could be done? Being nosy, I looked into it.

For salt-locked trees elevated/raised planting beds could be implemented. The trees could be elevated by building raised planters or berms which would improve drainage and prevent roots from sitting in saline water. 

Small diversion ditches to redirect the high-salt stormwater runoff could be built to redirect the runoff away from the trees. 

Constructing high-density fencing or plant dense evergreen buffers to block salt spray and high-speed winds from reaching delicate species. This would be eastern red cedar or wax myrtle. 

Soil amendment management which would incorporate organic matter such as compost to improve soil structure, increase nutrient retention and water filtration in sandy, salt-affected soil. Activated charcoal can be used into the soil around the dripline to neutralize some salts.

The dripline is the outer circumference of the tree's canopy and is reduced on the seaward side while the foliage is denser and more developed on the sheltered, landward side. This gives rise to description being windswept or salt-pruned shaped. The tree can present as highly modified, asymmetric and stunted. 

Fresh water can be used to flush or leach the salts out of the root zone periodically if there is adequate rainfall that doesn't occur soon after high exposure events such as a storm surge or heavy road salting. Interject a question here. Can salt poured on the ground in another place work its way out to the coast? Ergo, the salting doesn't happen that often but what about high salted areas when it comes to road salting like up North? What is there coastal forests like?

A system called a Gabion-Break can be engineered where porous woody breakwalls or gabion mats are placed to protect the coastlines and reduce wave energy that allow for health salt tolerant tree growth behind them. 

At the rate that people like to cut down the Mighty Oak during clear cuts on swampy areas out in Charleston near Francis Marion Forest, species that are recommended as a first line solution are Live Oaks, Cabbage Palm, and Eastern Red Cedar. A second line of defense would be Southern Magnolia and Bald Cypress, or River Birch. 

These tree types can be group planted to form a windbreak. Protecting existing root zones by using wood or wire fencing to avoid soil compaction and damage to the tree's dripline. Chemical control which would limit the use of fertilizers and pesticides near salt marshes to prevent runoff damage to the surrounding environment. 

So these are some of "all the things". If anyone has other thoughts and prayers put that out into the Internet Ether.

As you can read, this is a problem. It has been a problem because it affects farmland that becomes barren. The land is returned to a salty marsh or open water. It affects freshwater stores as well. People don't want to believe that climate change is a thing, but everyday conditions show themselves as a loss that someone has to fix before its to late. 

Should the word Climate Change be rebranded? Should it be something snazzy with a one word reference?

Why can't we go to the dessert and plant some trees? Live in bubbles under the sea? No, people want to spend their effort shooting off into Outer Space to live on another planet because they broke this one. I would be salty to Trees. 

The further problem that exists is high salinity can lower carbon dioxide but long term the net effect will be loss of soil carbon stores and and increase greenhouse effects from coastal wetlands and local farmland. The Ghost Forest enters the chat because the freshwater depend trees start to die, the new organic carbon reduces the input in the soil, this in turns causes an upturn in decomposing plant matter that lead to an increase in net carbon emissions. 

I wondered why we could go back to building a oyster bed reef like a barrier island to brunt the storms during high weather seasons for hurricanes. 

This is an involved subject. Knowing this, how do you feel that a group of people running around in the woods is trying to solve our problems?

On behalf of the trees, they are a little salty about this.

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

If you would be interested in a class, click the link: 

https://www.clemson.edu/extension/living-shorelines/training-education/

The Living Shoreline course is designed to teach participants all about living shorelines in estuarine environments, and includes information on site assessment, installation materials and methods, and evaluating performance of living shoreline installations. This "hybrid" course combines online learning from self-paced lecture videos, quizzes, and a final exam with face-to-face learning and hands on activities from the field day. Participants will receive an electronic certificate upon successful completion of the online course. 

Try it out!

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

© 2026 All Rights Reserved AOFH LLC

Sources cited: 

Chester, Jonah. "Hunting for hidden Ghost forests. What SC's spectral woodlands tell us about the future." The Post and Courier/ PeeDee, 19 Mar-1 Apr. 2026, p. B5

Confidentially speaking: A New AI Data Center Approaches

Remember this: When the water is high, it is high. When the water is low it is almost gone. I hope the AI isn't thirsty.

Due to the duck hunter noting he thought the duck pond was a tad dry, it got me to ruminating on water availability in the area, be it from the sky, under ground or coursing through as a natural water body. 

Of course, a new fear is unlocked or hope emerges...

Eagle Myra, LLC (Stream Data Centers) has been approved by the county to build a billion dollar data center in my county that plans to use a closed-loop cooling system which uses up to 43,050 gallons of water per day over six buildings. Like all corporations, they were given the discount treatment due to the approval coming via the Fee-in-Lieu of Taxes agreement that include special source revenue credits for covering the costs of infrastructure. 

The system this company is using is called closed-loop cooling. This closed-loop cooling system doesn't require high volumes of water extraction from local environments. My wee brain googled, what could this mean?

I feel like an owl regurgitating a damn pellet of knowledge and questions. Oh that after taste of biblical answers. This is a complex subject to traverse. 

Yet you can not find the details for this plan on the internet to read. It would appears the use of a code name and a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with the local officials acknowledging limited public information caused concern with the citizens. Appears shady right out the gate and the company hasn't told them the location or the river that it is going to leach off of. 

I wonder what the environmental impact statement is going to read like. Zoning, environmental impact and infrastructure would have to be addressed throughout its phases to make sure it is up to code. Where or what are the bills that will monitor these conditions?

I decided as a concerned citizen on behalf of environmental stewardship, God-given right to water, water availability, and keeping tabs on the local politicians making decisions based around secrecy, it makes me ponder.

The Council held a public hearing on Ordinance #2026-01 (Project Liberty) on 2026/01/22, where community members and the Pee Dee Lynches Riverkeepers raised concerns about the river drainage and water competition. 

I googled the County Minutes. There are more to come. The date for these minutes is February 10, 2026:

"Mr. Anthony Bolner, along with his colleague Santiago Escobar representing the developer of the proposed data center within the Marion County Industrial Park. He stated that the project is still operating under confidentiality. Eagle MYRA1, LLC is backed by a long-standing American Data Center development company with more than 26 years of experience designing, building, and operating data center campuses across the United States. Data Center projects like this one represent long-term local investments with development results that are designed to be quiet safe, environmentally responsible neighbors and strong contributors to the local communities in which they operate. At its core, a data center is a clean and secure facility that supports the digital services many of us rely on every day. Unlike heavy industrial uses, data centers do not involve manufacturing chemicals or industrial discharge, and they operate with very limited daily traffic and staffing. From an environmental and infrastructure standpoint, this project has been intentionally designed to minimize impacts. This facility uses a closed-loop cooling system, meaning there is no daily water consumption for cooling and no cooling-related discharge. Water use is limited to basic domestic needs, similar to a small office building, and there is no impact to groundwater or surrounding agricultural operations. Noise impacts are also minimal. Mechanical equipment is enclosed or screened, emergency generators operate only during limited testing or outages, and the site layout incorporates setbacks and buffers to further protect nearby properties. The developer will fully fund the required electrical infrastructure and utility upgrades, ensuring that no financial burden on existing customers or taxpayers will result from this development. Economically, this project represents a significant long-term investment in Marion County. Each building is projected to contribute at least $12-14 million per year to the County’s tax base, providing meaningful, sustained support for public services while also creating permanent, well paying local jobs. Mr. Bolner stated that Eagle MYRA1, LLC is committed to being a responsible, transparent partner, one that invests in Marion County, protects its natural resources, and delivers long-term economic benefits while remaining a clean, safe, and low-impact neighbor. Councilman Floyd appointed Mr. David Owens to the Marion County Zoning and Appeals Board. Motion was made by Councilman Rogers to appoint the County Administrator, David Crotts, to the Pee Dee Regional Council of Governments Board. The motion was seconded by Councilman Foxworth and carried unanimously. Minutes, February 10, 2026, Page 6 Motion was made by Councilman Foxworth, seconded by Councilman Gilchrist, and carried unanimously, to go into executive session for a legal briefing -Watford vs Marion County/CPST (Capital Sales Tax) matter. Motion was made by Councilman Foxworth, seconded by Councilman Gilchrist, and carried unanimously, to close executive session and reopen the regular meeting. Chairman Tennie stated that no action was taken during executive session called for a legal briefing -Watford vs Marion County/CPST (Capital Sales Tax) matter. Motion was made by Councilman Gilchrist that on February 24th, a meeting will be held at 6:00 pm, and on February 26th, a meeting will be held at 9:00 am, to identify any questions that the citizens may have regarding the data center. Chairman Tennie stated that, as a Council, they came up with two (2) dates. He stated that the County is doing its best to get the information across to the citizens of Marion County about the data center. The motion was seconded by Councilman Foxworth and carried unanimously. There being no further business to discuss motion was made by Councilman Foxworth, seconded by Councilman Floyd, to adjourn the meeting at approximately: 12:53 PM."

You can always depend on the local county government to either throw you under the bus on issues, address the issues, or the odious but expected sound of crickets. They are the first line of offense to sell out the community with the promise of something greater. 

For future reference this statement says it has a low impact on natural resources as a transparent partner, yet everything is confidential? Side-eyes.

                                          Photography by  Adam Zubek-Nizol

It would appear if you have no educational meetings addressing citizen concern, an online PDF to read about the project, or other tools to address questions and concerns by the locals, it would be expected that the company would have some sort of pushback? Better to educate constituents on the process that the AI data center would be utilizing than to leave them in the dark and expect them to do a trust fall after all the shenanigans of the Government, Federal, state, and local since forever. 

Local citizens are concerned about the AI data center usage versus residential and commercial businesses due to times of drought, competition with agricultural needs, and water table dropping. We still have to deal with the damming of water Upstate since the floods. There is the statement this facility is not suppose to impact residents electric and water bills. We will see.

The burning question here is: If you come to the table with secrecy, an NDA, and claims to be a transparent partner, with no data, how do you expect anyone to greet you with open arms and great expectations? What does this mean for the natural environment and where is your data? Are you collecting impact data? You want to use the land, the river, the water, and that has occupants of Nature that can't speak for themselves. 

We, as constituents, are among those living in this ecosystem that we speak of and can be just as affected by poor water quality, system malfunctions that could pollute the areas and impact wetlands that we go hunting on for duck, deer, hog, alligator, and fish out the rivers where heavy metals are already an issue. Now we have to worry about stormwater runoff impacting water, soil, and air quality in local habitats. Yet, is is implied that this facility is low use but if not managed correctly could impact wetlands and surround communities and farmland. Farmland in itself has become problematic due to real estate agents selling large tracts for cul-de-sac and elderly farmers being preyed upon by those types of people because they see a better vision for the property that doesn't include you living on it. To the nursing home with you.

With new business types such as the AI data centers, new regulations have to be formed to address special considerations for the possible fallout from its existence. One particular legislation is SC HB 4583, which mandates closed-loop systems and required data centers to report surface and groundwater usage for projects impacting sensitive areas. 

Swinging back around to natural habitat impacts and water availability when it comes to the forest, swamp, and byways, what could be so concerning?

Drought vulnerability, ecosystem disturbance and destruction, noise and light pollution and regional context.

We live on a living plane requiring water for living things to flourish. In the face of drought, those creatures and plants can't get the nutrients that feed them and become at-risk species. Animal, plant, fair or foul thing could disappear because we elected to keep our data contained or protected in a structure that shares an environment. Data doesn't care about the outside world. It is data. If there is a considerable uptake of water then that means more fires on the landscape. There may not be enough to grow crops to feed people, or your hunting harvests. You might not be able to buy corn to bait with because its not viable in the face of water scarcity. 

Indigenous people have been screaming and fighting on this topic for years, yet here we are. Mind-boggling.

While we focus on the local struggle, what kind of impact are these centers going to have on the larger area? Now you have to plot the locations of all these data centers by a water source and while they are running simultaneously, collectively what would there impact be?

Considering ecosystem disturbances, stormwater runoff and sediment entering waterways could affect hydrology and water quality. 

Noise and light pollution is to be expected. The cooling fans and security lights could disrupt humans and animals but at this point people are afraid to go with a light source, day or night. The next county over has become so over grown with human habitation that it lights up the sky from fifty miles away and disturbs the constellations in the sky. 

Larger data centers in the state are procuring stricter mitigation plans and required to report for all the incoming data centers.

It is concerning. When you have lived a long time to watch fifty miles one way get mowed down for the sake of industry and growth, you wonder is it all worth it if it is all gone. The green turns to grey and that is sad to think about.

Upcoming Public Meetings in Marion County at the Marion County Administration Building (2523 East Highway 76)

March 26, 2026  Thursday  Regular meeting 7:00 pm

April 14, 2026  Tuesday   Regular meeting 9:00 pm

April 23, 2026  Thursday  Regular meeting 7:00 pm 

There are several bills currently moving through the SC State House to create a state-level permitting process for data centers that are currently being handled by local governance.  

The following are proposed bills:

Proposed Moratorium (H.5286)

Introduced in 3/2026, this bill would temporarily halt final approvals for new data center projects until 2028, to include rezoning and building permits to allow for more environmental impact research. 

Data Center Development Act (S.867)

This bill would establish a new office within the Department of Environmental Services (DES) to oversee siting. It would require

efficiency mandates used for closed-loop cooling systems to recycle water than draw from local sources and ratepayer protections that require data centers to pay 100 percent of their infrastructure costs or prevent residential utility bill increases. 

Data Center Responsibility Act (H.4583)

This is a strict proposal that would require facilities to be energy independent and maintaining $50 million in environmental liability insurance and generating 100% of power on-site. 

Water Usage Transparency (S.724)

This bill requires any commercial data center consuming over 3 million gallons of water /month to report its usage annually to the state. 

After watching what corporations and government has been doing, you can't trust anything, especially the intentions of others. So bring on the regulations I say. 

The world is filled with data and now we have become hoarders of that data. But why?

These are useful links to help you start your AI learning journey.

Useful Substacks

https://samueleburns.substack.com/p/solar-farms-in-marion-county-the?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=6i708h&triedRedirect=true&_src_ref=google.com

Ground Water Monitoring Network

https://des.sc.gov/programs/bureau-water/hydrology/groundwater-program/groundwater-level-monitoring-network

The State of the World

 

Remember this: There is always room for improvement even in the current Global climate.

Social media allowed the world to keep up with the truth, lies, propaganda and rhetoric at mercurial speeds of different subjects and topics. People, put in power by vote or other, has become the bane of existence for countrymen around the world. The power elected by vote, or power grab have unscrupulously besieged nations with the adjective of our time: Absurdity. The world entered an Age of Absurdity that could rival Alice in Wonderland. The people following in behind this are drunk off of the Wine of Folly that Dionyses himself could not have squeezed from a grape cluster. 

Not unlike the novel, The Counte of Monte Cristo, you have a person in power fueled by his need to avenge himself at any cost; for he has been done a great wrong. If you have ever read this piece of literature, you find our good character, Edmond Dantes, set on the path of avenging false accusation and his subsequent incarceration in the French Chateau d'lf, against himself by his beloved friend, Fernand de Morcerf. 

There are people in this life that can't handle being turned on. The Would-be Sage would tell you to choose who you have around you carefully to remind you that social circles can influence your character and destiny. You do not want to suffer the fate of the unlucky, or unfortunate person.  When you have someone making decisions on your behalf without your input, you could be subject to the outcome of whatever that decision is and suffer the consequence in a most painful and violent way. Imagine if the leader does this and you get the brunt of it, how do you think you are going to feel? Trust is a very hard thing to get back once it is lost. Some people throw trust right out the window with little care of the boomerang effect it has.

Why do I bring this topic up on this particular page? 

The behaviors of one followed by the many have become a Great Nothingness that wants to gobble up the world as we know it. It is spilling over into the dominion of the hunter, the fisherman, the hiker, game warden, park ranger, traveler, camper, naturalist, animal activist, botanist, anyone who loves a national or state park, anyone living in the vein of an indigenous spirit, and so on. 

This is an army of people. We pay our state dues to government agencies to have a privilege that is a God given right, along with water. We know it is limited and thus require someone to monitor our intentions to make sure we do right by ourselves, our kids, and the Natural World. Greed and apathy are not options.

So yeah. I am making it my business-unasked and unannounced. I have seen a mass of videos, writings, news reports and the concerned citizen reporting the ever-spiraling news around the Natural World's present state. The bulk of this is influenced by human activity. We live in a stratum of existence where each level is living in its own bubble of affairs with little thought to the effect it has on the other. Within those bubbles are entities inflicting harm based on petty childish lick-backs. 

Power is great but can lose itself when over-extended by fear of being powerless. We must think of what drives the need to seek power and how power can go unchecked and out of control to become a destructive force. 

Do we have to get to a point where we are sitting in the rubble of our own existence before we think it might be a good idea to stop and reassess the trajectory that humanity is going?

The next question should be: where is the character of Jacopo when he faces Edmond on the road he is following? Who are these people that appear to let the misguided soul bent on revenge to destroy his own reputation, good standing, and legacy? Why do they not step in and make reason and commonsense a stop-pause to the potential devastation that there is no back-tracking from?

This is what Jacopo had to say to redirect Edmond from his own disaster:

Jacopo: "I understand you are mad."

Edmond: "My enemies are falling into my traps perfectly."

Jacopo: "Mad your Grace for ignoring this. You have a fortune, a beautiful woman who loves you. Take the money, take the woman, and live your life. Stop this plan. Take what you have won." 

Edmond: "I can't!"

Jacopo: "Why not?"

(Lots of stares)

Jacopo: "I am still your man Zatarra. I swore an oath to protect you. I will protect you even if it means I must protect you from yourself."

If you are a person that votes, now is the time to recognize that what you hold dear is in jeopardy.

 

We need more Jacopos.

Jacopo: "I swear on my dead relatives-and even the ones who are not feeling to good-I am your man forever!"

Adieu!

Developing Florida State Parks 2024

 

 

Remember this: Let Nature Be.

Recently, I have become aware of the issues Florida residences are experiencing in regard to developing infrastructure in Florida State Parks for tourism and entertainment. 

Historically, when you consider the weather and subsequent flooding alone, it makes you wonder who came up with this idea? I know the need for money has everyone squeezing the soul out of a lemon, but this gives new anxiety to humankind's progression to a nature-less dystopian reality. 

The executive office of Govenor Ron Desantis has proposed nine amendments to nine existing management plans of nine state parks in Florida. This is coming from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). 

The argument for this is economic growth, expanding public access, increasing outdoor activity, and to improve Floridian quality of life, but does it? Is it a great argument? Is this based upon what is best for the location, or what goes in the state, federal, or local coffers? What about the ecosystem and the biological participants existing in mostly untouched areas? When you are looking for the devil, it is usually county, state then federal. Everything follows suit. The county is all about progression and how it can expand town out into the country. The first sign is the infiltration of energy, cell service, and water companies into areas that are not on a grid. Once you are on a grid, then you become an unwitting hostage to its dictates. Not that those systems are directly bad, but it brings housing and structure that eats away at land and Nature like the Nothing. This is when you have human population growth because people need place to go. This needing a place to go out competes wildlife and Nature. The only predator(s) we seem to have is bad food choices, disease, virus, bacteria and human incompetence among other things. 

These are the state parks that are listed as targets for outdoor recreation economy. 

• Honeymoon Island State Park in Pinellas County (lodging, pickleball, and disc golf)
• Hillsborough River State Park (lodging, pickleball, and disc golf)
• Oleta River State Park
• Jonathan Dickinson State Park
• Doctor Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park
• Anastasia State Park
• Camp Helen State Park
• Topsail Hill Preserve
• Grayton Beach State Park 

There is a proposal for putting a golf course on the state parks. Why? Are there not plenty of those everywhere else?  Don't build another one because you are bored and unchallenged.

Let's look at a real-life golf course that is in the lowlands of South Carolina: The Witch Golf Links. The Witch Golf links was closed (2021-2022) due to excessive flooding that cause the course to be under-utilized or not utilized at all during its golfing seasons. One of the co-partners stated flooding would be a regular thing. This course has 38 acres of wetland and floodplain within its boundaries. Initially, the plan was to build 326-home residential development consisting of 115 townhomes, 211 single family dwellings, and six acres of commercial development. The county had plans to develop this property flood or no flood. At some point, someone made the good decision to not put structures over the wetlands. 

This makes you wonder. How can you look at a property and think this is a bad idea and do it anyway? This is the resonating thought in the Floridian brain pan when this was put on the table for them to eat and it was a definite no go meal. 

The golf course was sold to which the Horry County Council decided it would be developed into a multi-family housing to give a wider birth to the wetlands and swamps where the front nine ran through it. Here you have a property that went from golf course to housing development. 

Who did Horry County decide would be desperate enough to market to and those people would buy an expensive house on a flooded area? Then live with taxes, debt and consequences.

The lesson/idea here for Florida is once DeSantis plunders the state parks with the upgrades and it fails then will it be turned into a housing development? Is it really just a prep for this sort of thing. Gives new meaning to buying Swampland in Florida. 

Not to be a bad cookie, sometimes you can mesh lodgings with state parks. Santee state park has yurts that you can stay in, but they are on the bank of the lake with a pier. People stay there because its down in the woods and they don't want to stay in a hotel. You do have to come to God on the fact you will be visited by insects and snakes. There can be a good balance to the situation where the money goes back to the park. This park has a sink hole problem so that would go to repairing the road system inside the park. When you think of lodging you get into the realm of the wastewater management that comes with people. When you have natural disasters and rising water tables the issues are real.

The pickle ball activity should be left to the towners because you would have to build a court and that takes up surface area and needs to be built to withstand increment weather, as does disc golf. Is anyone going to use it regularly? Upgrades to parks tend to not be used as often and fall into disrepair. Now it is money in and lost. 

Of course, there is always gateway development. What is that? When the local governance decides they want to ease development on constituents and do a little then when that fails go all in and put a bigger spread down because you have now accepted the buildings, gardens, and structures that are there. What you see every day becomes unseen in the long run. You get desensitized to the reality of it because you don't see the minuscule damage going on under the surface.  

The most pressing issue with having our state parks developed is that it falls into the hands of corporations that will see the area as a cash cow or moneymaker on its way to being privatized.  

If you are going to develop over an area, get creative and build things that are engineering feats, work with the nature ecosystem and can withstand a Category 5 hurricane. When you think of life over dollar, dollar is going to win depending on who wants it in their pocket.  

Ultimately, the concern of Floridians on their state parks is the gentrification towards a house development through cherry picked alterations onto the landscape of the park. It is the impact these alterations have on the now existing residents, wildlife and surrounding ecosystems. 

We know our state parks as a place that we can go to get away from the ever-increasing dystopian quality of human life. We resound with Nature by unplugging from it all. Now, someone wants to push an aspect we do not want in that landscape for availability's sake. That is something we already have at home, work, or our daily lives. When you look at human population growth or even migration from other countries, I am surprised that there are not tent camps up everywhere.  Why does everything have to have the life squeezed out of it till all that is left is empty casings with nothing left to give? 

If you would like to learn more, click the link and head over to the Florida DEP page to keep current on breaking news for this situation. 

https://floridadep.gov/about-dep

Just remember, if it is worth it, it is worth fighting for. Once it is ruined, that is a struggle to get it back to a semblance of what it once was. 

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

  

Man Will Be Nature's Equal

Remember this: The thing that a lot of people cannot comprehend is that Mother Nature doesn't have a bullet with your name on it, she has millions of bullets inscribed with "to whom it may concern.

~Anonymous Sage~

Thank the Great Unknown, all the scientists, geeks, and nerds for our technology. As hunters, we rely on the meteorologists of the world, cell phone apps, and gadgetry to tell us when it will forecast rain, blazing sun, icy snow, sun rise/set, and when the tides are high or low. At times, we use the old finger-lick technique to see which way the wind is blowing. I guess you could fart and see if you could smell it by the wind coming up from behind.

There are certain initial weather conditions that we can determine beforehand and the secondary fallout from such blights of natural disaster via meteorologic information. In some cases, tornadoes, twisters, tsunamis, etc. just seem to appear out of nowhere with little warning. There are also long burning forest fires from lightning and dry conditions, snow storms, flooding, disease pandemics, and other surprises on the horizon. Nature's good graces and wrath are upon the landscape of Earth in varying degrees.


Rain was pelting my window, slowly lulling me to sleep as I watched television. The reason for this foray into Nature's weather was based from a boot commercial running in between hunting shows. It wasn't a boot issue for sure. The commentator stated something to the effect, “...Man will be Nature's equal”. I heard the sour sound of a bad string being plucked on my inner banjo. Not wanting to be nit-picky, I cleared my mind to focus on the question: how could this partial statement be interpreted?

As Hurricane Arthur breezed its way passed, people breathed a sigh of relief. I thought about the relationship between hunting participants and Nature, as it stands from a human perspective. Hurricanes definitely can serve up a terrible dose of Mother Nature's wrath if you've never experienced one. Unprecedented damage to life and limb, displacement of families and animals, rebuilding and problem-solving for communities for years to come. If you have long endured such a beast during your lifetime, you learn what to do and not to do. The most you can do if you are a local is: ride it out like a big kahuna wave and hope you don't crash under the wave itself.

What could be the possible human perspectives of living as a part or separate from Nature? The human perspective is: you live with Nature as a functioning contributor, live outside/inside of Nature as the competitor, or live life as the spectator who just exists. There are probably otherways not mentioned.

These ideas on the approach of the hunting participant's role in Nature is a pie chart. A little of this and a little of that. These divisible parts show a trend to temporarily visit as a lifestyle choice instead of a way of living as a mutually benefiting organism. The wordage of lifestyle choice makes it sound just that; a choice which can be picked up or thrown down at will depending on your fancy. A portion of hunting participants do consider Nature to be the enemy that one must overcome and vex to feel like a hunter/adventurer. I scratch my head at this. Yet there are hunting participants that want to be a part of the hunting act, involving their need for the intimacy of nature and not its conqueror. There are hunting participants who are integral parts of the maintenance and upkeep of Nature. The list of differing roles goes on. People exist that do not hunt but act the same way. You don't have to look to far; oil spills, deforestation, and displacement of indigenous peoples to assimilate into the civilized world.

The concept idea for marketing this boot lead me into my next critique of how true this statement is. Can Man every truly be equal to Nature? Is there anything right or wrong about this endeavor? Why do divisions of humanity strive to conquer all in a sundry?

There is also the view that Nature is the enemy and fractions of hunting participants exists outside of Nature instead of being a crucial part of the narrative. This seemed to be the idea the commercial was selling. A canine with blue eyes that I observed was to represent a wolf or agent of Nature. Was I to believe that to kill a wolf was to conquer Nature? Maybe it should have been a double twister with the hunter running for his life. He'd be running in the boots. It is truly proven that this animal type, the wolf, can be hunted and killed. There is also the suggestion to employ dogs to hunt wolves. I wondered why hunting as is, was not good enough. Whoever participates in this hunting activity might better think of spay or neutering their dogs. Once in estrus, they are going to be mongrels bred up in them there hills. Dogs will tie up through a kennel fence, as I have seen this. Nothing to stop them out in the bushes chasing after their own kind. On a funnier note, I once saw a chihuahua breeding a female rottweiler who laid down on the ground for him. Naughty. Naughty. That is a hard urge to ignore.

I figure to help with the economy, if someone is going to do a hunt with dogs on wolves, it should be monitored by the DNR through listing the dogs used. The dogs used should then be taken to a veterinary with a 24-48 hour period to be checked for excessive wounds and treatment with follow-up care. This paperwork should be submitted by the veterinary; not the hunter. Ethically, if you're going to endanger your hunting dog, you should not toss the dog in the pen after they do the work. Bite puncture wounds do get infected and turn into abscesses. These hunting dogs should also be pre-monitored by the DNR through submitted paperwork by the hunter listing all vaccinations, neuter, spaying and deworming. The DNR should also charge an extra fee for the administration of this function to ensure hunter ethics, hound health, and wolf hunting regulations. Pen it down as going to conservation and Angelia's love/hate relationship with veterinary medicine. Now write the check.

Humanity's relationship with Nature in the past was, man survives Nature's wrath. Things have not changed, except we can make it rain by dumping particles in the clouds with planes. Covert operations could possibly bring about an earthquake, plague through biological warfare, and let us not forget the secret death ray in outer space (tips hat to conspiracy theorists). I forgot the Aliens. These are man-made versions of Mother Nature's wrath by our own hand.

There are probably times when hunters go into the mountains or the woods to hunt only to find the weather is shifting moods. Clear now. Foggy later. You could start out sunny and dry then end up wet, naked, cold, and afraid. Add the unseen in the dark, staring at you like a piece of bacon then you're in for a treat. Going into unknown terrain would dictate that the guide be knowledgeable of the changing weather patterns, how it will affect the hunt, and the possibilities of waylaying the goal of procuring the animal. I am sure there is not one client that feels uneasy when stuck out in bad weather while wondering if they are going to get trapped out in the bush.

We could even observe commercial fishermen out on the ocean. Introduce a bad storm or some other atmospheric anomalie and you're Mark Walhberg's character in The Perfect Storm, drifting to your death in monster waves. Commercial fishermen experience this all the time when the ship topples over, gets stuck in an ice bank, the waves could push the workers over board, or strand them out to sea. There are just things you don't see coming.

My survey of life infernal on the planet is: a good portion of its inhabitants are actually working on ways to co-exist with nature instead of against or to conquer Nature. This exertion of energy would be more beneficial to all inhabitants. Why has this taken so long?

People don't want to die. The impending threat of extinction on humanity's part is enough to scare people to action and clean up their act. When the Grim Reaper is reporting for duty, people will pray for a miracle, sell their soul, sacrifice chickens, or check-out emotionally. Others will dance in the street having a party. I guess if you have to die; die happy.

I penned this commercial down as a poorly worded advertising slogan. There are people that do have the mentality Nature is a thing to overcome. Participants in Nature's cycles, who have this relationship with Nature as the enemy to be conquered, are arrogant.

I will interject that I disclude adventurers who have goals to do things like climb Mt. Everest. These goals do not intel changing the world but changing or manifesting some need inside. There is little carbon foot print on the Earth or the taking of life; unless they lose their own during the expedition.The implication is not to overcome Nature but issues that block them from finishing goals from within.

Humanity's unchecked fingers produce products and services with poor minds sets that bring about global dysfunction. It breeds pollution on the landscape of Nature and we have debilitated the functioning of the Earth to some degree. There are global changes that humanity will not have control over. We must be accountable for trespasses and find solutions to clean up our leftover, messy wake.

Nature reminds us how strong and fragile we are. There is no need to conquer the wilderness. As hunting participants, we need the landscape to exercise our technical and spiritual skills. These skills carry one through life. Propagate that. There is no conquering Nature or being its equal. To do so could possibly cause a dynamic shift in our perception of the wilderness as a thing to trample under foot instead of protect. People say we have conquered space. The universe is big and we have conquered nothing because we barely understand or know where the boundaries are.

Participants in this life can be stewards of Earth and its creatures. We can learn to manage components of the ecosystems to the benefit of inhabitants. Utilizing sustainability to continue cycles and propagate life is a better endeavor than conquering it.

Participants that strive to be God-like by manipulating the course of life, as it is, should be weary of the outcome. Usually we perceive a goal but the different outcomes could be beneficial or tragic. We can't control everything. Just as Jeff Goldblum's character stated in Jurassic Park, “Life will find a way.”

Man will be equal to Nature doesn't seem so relevant. Once humanity is done there will be nothing but a bare, raped landscape filled with deserts, death, and void of its animals. There again, shifting ideology and behavior is going toward the improvement of the environment. Where does one stand in the throws of Nature's wrath? Where ever it is, it had better be humbled. I subscribe more to Cody Lundin's stance of keeping my ass alive; socks or not. All you can do in the end is survive it.

Written by: W Harley Bloodworth

~Courtesy of the AOFH~