The oldest living tree in the eastern continent has stood for more than 2,000 years in a cypress swamp just over the North Carolina border.

Seventy miles to the south, young cypress trees are dying from salt intrusion on the Sampit River in Georgetown.

The contrast is just that stark between how the vibrant South Carolina coast looks today and how it could largely look not so far into the future — skeletal patches of drowning seascape and dying wetlands.

The outer barrier islands in the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge already are getting overrun by tides. The sand needed to create new islands and beaches has been blocked by lake dams, coastal groins and jetties.

The 400,000 or so acres of marsh in the South Carolina estuaries — the miles of sweeping grasses that are a vital water […]