Written and Photographed by Mark Schmerling

As someone who grew up with a love of nature and being in wild places, Pam Torlina, Pacolet Area Conservancy’s director of stewardship and land protection, has found a large degree of satisfaction in helping protect many special places of ecological significance in and near Polk County. She often finds herself on steep hillsides, away from trails, and immersed in the beauty of her surroundings. There, she can blend with her surroundings, and observe undisturbed wildlife.

 “I feel like there are a few places I’m able to go, that few humans have been,” Torlina, who is in her 11th year at PAC, said recently. “It’s so gorgeous, not to mention exciting.”

 She was hired by PAC, a 27-year-old local and regional land trust nonprofit, in June 2006 on a six-month contract. In January 2007, she was hired as the full-time land protection specialist. In June 2013, PAC promoted her to director of stewardship and land protection.

 In her tenure, she has worked with area landowners to help protect over 2,366 acres on 40 properties, preserving habitat for native flora and fauna forever.

 “I have my parents to thank for my love of the outdoors, and interest in the natural world,” she related, having grown up on a lake in Michigan. She spent as much time as possible outdoors, thanks to the recreational opportunities that her parents provided, and, she says with a laugh, “to stay out of my mother’s hair.” She and her brothers took advantage of many opportunities to swim, boat, water-ski, fish, ice-skate, ice-fish, snowmobile and downhill ski.

 Torlina’s parents took their children on walks in parks and recreational areas, and also took them camping all over the U.S. and Canada. “We had some amazing experiences during our travels,” Torlina relates, “and I was exposed to many different ecosystems, all with their unique animal and plant life.”

 One of Torlina’s memorable experiences was seeing a crow struggling on the surface of a stream—an unusual occurrence. When unsuccessful at pulling the bird free, she and someone else noticed that one of the crow’s legs was caught. The two were able to separate the crow from a snapping turtle that had grabbed the crow’s leg!

  Her early hiking, backpacking and canoeing experiences continue today. 

“While observing the things around me, this instilled a drive to know... to know about the plants and animals around me, including what you could eat and what might harm you. This passion eventually led me to pursue an education in environmental science, but at the time it was a new discipline in universities, so I was ‘guided’ in the path of geology, which I found fascinating. But in my junior year, I realized that I wanted to learn more about the living world. I then pursued an education in fish and wildlife management, which I loved!”  

That path took Torlina to Canada, where, as part of her studies, she and her classmates stayed at a hunting camp in the bush. They were immersed in learning field research techniques on birds, large mammals, small mammals, wildflowers, fish, etc. 

“It was fantastic, and I fell in love with the place!” Torlina said. “I was offered an opportunity to stay in Canada and took it! I wound up working for Haliburton Forest as a field biologist, studying migratory and breeding birds, terrestrial salamanders, and ground beetles, all of which are indicator species of a forest’s health.”

 In her duties with PAC, Torlina works with landowners interested in protecting their land, and learning what those landowners are interested in protecting. Then, she works with an attorney to create a conservation easement that best describes the landowner’s intentions in perpetuity, for the particular property.

 Torlina writes baseline documentation reports that accompany each easement. Maps, GPS waypoint data, and a list of flora and fauna observed on each property on the date that the conservation easement was placed on that property are included. She monitors PAC-protected land annually. This includes walking the land, making photographs of current conditions, documenting any changes to the property, especially changes that contradict the terms of the easement, by the landowner, a neighbor or a trespasser. 

Other responsibilities on preserved properties include record keeping, trail maintenance, exotic plant and pest management, and habitat restoration, which includes control of the hemlock wooly adelgid (an insect responsible for the ongoing demise of many native hemlock trees); kudzu eradication in the Norman Wilder Forest (a PAC site along U.S. 176) and in the Town of Tryon; creating monarch and other butterfly habitats; and American Chestnut restoration.

She also coordinates trash pick up, works with the South Carolina Geocachers Association, the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and 4-H students.

Under the education and outreach umbrella, Torlina organizes free monthly educational presentations at Walnut Creek Preserve, free educational talks at Landrum Library, and presents education programs to local garden clubs, plant societies, universities, primary-education (including home-school) students, service organizations, churches, youth groups, and summer camps. She frequently attends public events, places displays in libraries and writes grants.

 Two of Torlina’s favorite land protection projects were accomplished for the family of Beryl Dade, and Bob and Babs Strickland.

 “There was an African American woman, Beryl Dade, whose family, the Hannons, were one of the first to settle in Tryon, in the 1760s. The woman’s father purchased the family lands, part of the original Scriven lands, in 1924. The woman had been interested in protecting her family lands in perpetuity, creating a legacy for her family,” Torlina explained.

“She had first started talking with PAC before I started working for the organization in 2006, and after several years of getting all of the necessary details worked out, in December of 2013, we were finally able to help her realize her dream and we protected the land with a conservation easement that year! Sadly, in July 2015, the woman passed away, but I feel so rewarded to have been able to help her complete her dream before her passing.”

 Another memorable land protection project involves a couple who moved to the area from Florida with the mission, purpose, and determination to create a nature preserve in honor, and in memory of, their daughter who died tragically in a private plane crash during her fourth year at the University of Illinois. Their daughter had hoped to become an astronaut and she always had a passion for hiking and enjoying the outdoors as well as space exploration. 

“So, Bob and Babs Strickland thought it only fitting to create a preserve in her memory. In 2003, the Stricklands purchased land which is now Walnut Creek Preserve, a 2,100-acre equestrian community of forest and pasture land that shelters a tremendous variety of indigenous plant and animal life, including several rare and threatened species,” Torlina explained. “To assure the survival of this native flora and fauna, only 25 wooded and equestrian home sites, averaging 20 acres each, will ever be offered for sale on the property, and the remaining 1,500 acres of wilderness are protected in perpetuity by deeded conservation easements held by PAC.”

 Most properties protected by PAC are easements, but PAC owns others. Some protected properties have been transferred to state agencies.

 “I think that people are happy to live next to our protected lands,” Torlina remarked, adding that PAC has always focused on trying to get more protection along the waterways, even if it’s only a riparian buffer.

 Not only does Torlina help PAC preserve tracts of natural areas, she is the organization’s hike leader, providing a valuable service to outdoor recreationalists, including those who prefer to hike in a group. She organizes and leads spring and fall hikes free to the public. She also leads hikes for students and for other local entities.

“The hikes serve many purposes. They give people a chance to hike in areas that they may not have visited or known about. If it is a person who is not comfortable hiking alone, it gives them the encouragement to get out in a group situation. It offers an opportunity to meet like-minded people in our community and it is great exercise. They offer the opportunity to learn about the plants and animals that we share the natural world with, it gives PAC a chance to share the great work that we are doing in the community, and it gives people the opportunity to think about the benefits of land protection,” said Torlina.

 “I know that my time and my work, which is very diverse, and which I enjoy immensely, is benefiting our world and its ecosystems, for all, now and in the future — forever. What more could I ask for? I love what I do,” Torlina noted, “and I believe in what we do.” 

If you see Pam, thank her for helping preserve and enhance what’s important to so many residents and to our native wildlife.

For more information on hikes or other PAC work and programs, visit PAC’s website, pacolet.org. •