In our current issue...

Last year's "Our Wild Heritage" special issue of South Carolina Wildlife was incredibly popular. So popular, in fact, that we decided to do it one more time before retiring the notion for awhile. (Well, it wouldn't be "special" if we did it every year, would it?) And so we are pleased to bring you "First Light."

The SCW Sportsman's Calendar and Almanac hanging on my office wall says that "official" sunrise of each great new day in South Carolina lights the eastern horizon over Little River and Myrtle Beach before sweeping inexorably westward in four-minute increments, falling next on Georgetown, Florence and Chesterfield; then Charleston, Sumter and Lancaster; Beaufort, Columbia and York; Hampton, Aiken and Cherokee; McCormick, Anderson and Greenville; and finally, Oconee — not to mention all points in between. Impossible to capture it all, but we gave it a try. During this past year, DNR photographers Michael Foster, Stewart Grinton and Phillip Jones, and many others (including some of you!) spent lots of time in the wee hours, waiting to capture first light moving across the land. It is a marvelous photographic journey — one that we hope you will enjoy.

But that's only half the story. The other half is, well . . . the story. Besides trying to capture the essence of "First Light" visually, we also asked four of the very best writers we could find to tackle the theme of first light, focusing on four different regions of the state. The results, I am pleased to report, will knock your socks off. Fans of the magazine often tell me how much they enjoy the beautiful pictures we publish, and I hope that never changes, but to all you fellow English majors and other readers out there — you lovers of language and poetry, of metaphor and detail — this one's for you.

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