SC Wildlife features 12 species in need of conservation in new calendar

South Carolina Wildlife has published a calendar every year for decades showing iconic hunting and fishing scenes around the state.

Now comes an additional calendar: one showing species of greatest conservation need.

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources has created a State Wildlife Action Plan every 10 years, beginning in 2005. The 2025 report includes more than 1,700 species, both considered threatened by federal and state agencies, endangered species and other rare, declining, or what DNR calls “data-deficient species.”

No small task to boil it down to 12 selections for the new calendar.

“These twelve species are just a small representation of the complete list of species that are included in the SWAP plan,” said Cindy Thompson, editor of South Carolina Wildlife.

“Due to many factors, such as habitat loss and degradation, numerous species of flora and fauna are dwindling in population,” she said in an email. “Biodiversity is dwindling.”

The hope is for the calendar to build awareness of struggling animals and plants and to encourage habitat management and conservation, she said.

Among those picked were the Eastern spotted skunk, which live along river banks and are hunted by owls, southern hognose snake, not venomous and living along the coast and the eastern black rail, a small marsh bird that are hard to find but endangered and salamanders.

There are mussels, turtles, sunfish, crayfish, darters and the Carolina hammerhead shark featured.

For plants, the calendar includes the May-White azalea and Waccamaw Sunflower.

“The calendar also spotlights how local conservation efforts are, in large part, made possible through the sale of hunting and fishing licenses and related sporting equipment,” Thompson said.

Also available is the tried and true Sportsman’s Calendar.

“Spectacular photography has been the hallmark of this beloved calendar through the decades, with action-packed outdoor images and beautiful nature photography that draw us into the great outdoors,” South Carolina Wildlife said.

Calendar orders will be shipped after Nov. 17 and may be ordered via GoOutdoorsSouthCarolina.com.

You can also manage your hunting and fishing licenses, apply for lottery hunts, register and renew watercraft, and report game harvests at that website or corresponding app as well as buy a subscription to South Carolina Wildlife.