Great and Snowy Egrets, White Ibis and Wood Storks gather in the morning mist. This representative collection of white wading birds meets by a marsh pond on Bear Island in the ACE Basin, South Carolina. The ACE Basin is a 350,000-acre area of diverse habitats formed by the Ashepoo, Combahee and South Edisto River basins. It combines publically managed lands with private property to protect one of the largest undeveloped estuaries on the east coast of the United States.