Conservation group founder retiring

COLUMBIA, SC The leader of a conservation group credited with unifying South Carolina’s once fractured environmental community is stepping down after more than a decade on the job.

Ann Timberlake, director of the Conservation Voters of South Carolina, said the organization is on good footing and it makes sense for her to retire as her 70th birthday approaches. Timberlake told the Conservation Voters board last year she wanted to retire, but was persuaded to stay until this fall, she said.

“I’m really pleased with where we are right now,’’ she said of the organization. “We have the staff and the leadership to take the organization forward. Even though I still have a lot of passion, it’s just an opportune time to turn it over.’’

Boosters of the organization say losing Timberlake, a tenacious advocate for green causes who is known for her personable leadership style, won’t be easy to overcome.

But they expressed confidence in her successor.

John Tynan, the league's 33-year-old political director, will replace Timberlake as chief at the Conservation Voters. Tynan, a Furman University graduate, has a background in conservation issues. He is the former deputy director of the Upstate Forever environmental group and a water commissioner in Greenville. He joined the Conservation Voters in early 2016 and helped coordinate efforts to support candidates this year.

Timberlake said she may do some consulting or other work on conservation issues after leaving the organization later this fall. She made the announcement of her retirement Wednesday. One of the group’s biggest supporters in the Legislature, state Sen. John Courson, R-Richland, said Timberlake was not asked to leave but is retiring on her own terms.

The Conservation Voters, with a budget of more than $600,000, represents a cross-section of environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club, the S.C. Coastal Conservation League, Upstate Forever and riverkeeper groups. The Conservation Voters campaigns for environmentally minded political candidates and leads lobbying efforts for environmental groups in the state Legislature. It also publishes a green scorecard, giving lawmakers who back conservation high marks.

Timberlake, who is married to state Wildlife Federation director Ben Gregg, is a Columbia resident who was a leader in the 1970s in efforts to save what is now Congaree National Park. She took charge at the Conservation Voters in 2003 as part of an effort by environmentalists to speak with a more unified voice at the state Legislature. Before the Conservation Voters, the state's environmental groups pushed separate agendas that some say diluted their collective strength.

The group, under Timberlake, quickly made a splash by helping to engineer the upset of then-House Majority leader Rick Quinn in 2004 in the Republican primary.

Perhaps Timberlake's biggest single achievement was in 2007, when she led the effort to close an atomic waste dump to the nation. Despite heavy lobbying by the nuclear waste industry, Timberlake and her supporters persuaded the Legislature to close the Barnwell County dump after decades of operation. It was considered a stunning victory because waste dump lobbyists had in the past wielded great influence with the Legislature and kept the landfill open.

More recently, the Conservation Voters has pushed to restrict oceanfront development on eroding beaches and for the right of citizens to sue polluting companies.

Even though South Carolina isn’t seen as a leader nationally on environmental issues, Courson and Rep. James Smith, D-Richland, said lawmakers pay attention to what Timberlake and her staff says.

“If you look at Ann’s service, you can see the rise of influence of the Conservation Voters in our state,’’ Smith said. “It took somebody like her, with the intellect and toughness, to put that stake in the ground.’’

Timberlake and her group, however, have detractors. The Conservation Voters sometimes clashed with coastal development interests, nuclear industry supporters, and property rights advocates. Some said the group was too liberal for South Carolina, a charge Timberlake disputes.

Among Timberlake’s critics is outgoing state Sen. Lee Bright, R-Spartanburg. The Conservation Voters helped defeat Bright in the GOP primary this summer. The group persuaded Democrats to vote in the Republican primary, said Bright, who was one of the most conservative members of the Legislature. Bright said he didn’t appreciate positions the Conservation Voters took because he said they infringed on property rights. But Bright said he at least knew where Timberlake stood.

“She’s upfront about it; she’s a self avowed tree hugger,’’ Bright said.

This story was originally published September 7, 2016 at 11:11 AM with the headline "Conservation group founder retiring."