Mac Stone Photography

05/29/2026

Summer is here, the swamp is calling

12/25/2025

New address, same Christmas chaos.

The tradition continues and the kids really enjoyed this one. I’m not sure how the new neighbors felt, though. Merry Christmas and happy holidays from ours to yours!

08/25/2025

Santee Cooper wants to expand a power line right-of-way 200 feet for 1.3 miles into one of the world's most striking and last remaining old growth swamps: Francis Beidler Forest. There are only approximately 12,000 acres of old growth swamp left out of the historic 40 million acres that used to define the southeast. Every acre matters and we owe Audubon a great debt of gratitude for protecting this national treasure until this point. Here's a piece I wrote for The State. Please speak up if it moves you. 🙏

Concerned about a Santee Cooper transmission line project, Mac Stone offer a look inside Francis Beidler Forest with his words and photos, “holy land not as humans have manifested, but as God built.”

04/08/2025

Go Gators!! National Champions again!

04/02/2025

Thank you, wildland firefighters!
South Carolina owes you all a tremendous debt for your rapid and unwavering response to the Table Rock Complex fire. Thank you to the agencies coordinating these efforts, the local fire departments and volunteers who supported them through food and supply donations. The Mountain Bridge is strong, thanks to you. 🙏🙏
.s.forestservice

03/31/2025

Throughout the course of the Table Rock Complex fire, more than 700 aerial water drops have been provided by chinooks, black hawk helicopters and single-engine air tankers contracted by the with assistance from SC Law Enforcement Division and SC National Guard. Very large air tankers (VLATs) were also called in, dropping up to 9,400 gallons of fluorescent pink fire retardant in a single load from DC-10s. This is the first time VLATs delivered fire suppression east of the Mississippi, another marker of how extraordinary and challenging this fire has been to fight. No fire retardant was dropped within the Greenville Watershed, where the City of Greenville gets its drinking water. On the ground, the swaths of retardant were deployed to slow the spread of wildfire, particularly around homes and communities creating an otherworldly landscape in the Mountain Bridge Wilderness. Please follow for updates. With

03/30/2025

Delta Division was dispatched to Sky Ranch Road just east of the Table Rock fire line. Along the western perimeter of Asbury Hills Methodist Camp, they met up with the .s.forestservice to clear out debris from Hurricane Helene and remove potential fuel hotspots, using the camp road as a fire break. They felled dead trees along the right away, preventing them from holding heat and spotting over should the fire make its way into the camp and around the residences that line Sky Ranch Road. The Table Rock Complex fire is 13,546 acres and 13% contained. Rain in the forecast is giving wildland crews hope of slowing the spread of the fire. With and

03/28/2025

Wildland firefighters with and in Charlie Division spent 14 hours on March 25th back burning and holding the line on Piney Mountain, the eastern side of Table Rock State Park. With sustained high winds and lack of rainfall, the fire has spread north and east, augmenting the size of the Table Rock Complex to more than 10,000 acres. Friday March 28th will mark a week since the fire started. Nine years ago, the Pinnacle Mountain Fire devastated a similar footprint and over the course of a month it burned 10,000 acres. The winds, dry conditions, and debris from Hurricane Helene have made this wildfire spread quickly. Combined with the steep terrain of the Southern Blue Ridge, it is extremely difficult to bring under control. Thank you to the wildland firefighters and the many volunteers and community efforts who support them. Please follow for updates and evacuation notices.

03/26/2025

Wildland firefighters dispatched from the Wesleyan Camp in three groups on Tuesday to contain the Table Rock Complex fire. I joined a team on the eastern side of Table Rock starting on Piney Mountain whose mission was to set a line of prescribed fire to prevent uncontrolled burning towards homes and communities to the east. The .s.forestservice wildland teams secured the line with bulldozers, personnel and assistance from Blackhawk helicopters dropping water. Towards the end of the day, high winds funneled down the valley and ignited the northern side of the Greenville Watershed. The sound of burning trees and understory echoed like a freight train, torching hundreds of acres nearly instantly. From our vantage point on the ridge, we couldn’t see the fires because of the wall of smoke, but you could hear the blaze across the reservoir. The crews worked late into the night holding the line and insuring no spot overs occurred on the south side of the mountain. By this morning, the fire grew by 1,900 acres to 3,289 acres causing a mandatory evacuation for residences between Jones Gap and Table Rock north of Highway 11. Please follow to track the development of the fire and any notices for residents in the area.

03/18/2025

From this month's issue of National Geographic magazine | The Everglades is a tough place to survive. Violent storms, floods, droughts, fires and hurricanes define the southern tip of Florida and toothy predators, native and non-native, lurk around every corner. It’s incredible to watch the ingenious ways that animals adapt to these fickle and harsh conditions. For great white herons in Florida Bay, one of the most striking forms of behavioral change is their decision to nest on the ground on the remote islands. While surveying wading birds with , we found a nestling and soon-to-be sibling tucked safely inside a fortress of cacti. Perhaps these parents had too many nests fall apart in the mangroves from past storms and sought out a new solution. Whatever the reason, as a parent of two young children, I couldn’t think of anything more brilliant and callous than this approach to discourage your kids from wandering off.