The headline "A devastating loss" immediately caught my eye when I opened the Aug. 3 edition of The Post and Courier. As I sipped my morning coffee and read the story, my hands began to shake.

Flooded with memories of my former life, I flashed back to the early 1990s when I worked as a legislative aide in Washington for Congressman Arthur Ravenel Jr. Fresh out of the College of Charleston in 1992, I had little idea what serving as his environmental legislative assistant would truly involve — especially in his world.

To Rep. Ravenel, South Carolina’s lands, waters, swamps, tree sanctuaries, fisheries and wildlife were sacred. He believed these were among the most precious resources that our state and communities possessed.

We often spoke of red wolves, sea turtles, red-cockaded woodpecke

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