Crab Bank had almost disappeared from Charleston Harbor by 2021. The South Carolina island was once a nesting ground for shorebirds and seabirds, but storms and erosion gradually stripped away its high ground. After Hurricane Irma in 2017, the remaining nesting habitat was lost, and birds stopped nesting there. That year marked the last breeding season before the island effectively vanished as a functioning bird rookery. Four years later, South Carolina and federal agencies attempted an unusual restoration: instead of simply protecting what remained, they rebuilt the island with sand dredged from Charleston Harbor.
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