About South Carolina Wildlife Television

South Carolina Wildlife TV is an idea that had floated around for several years. There were many potential stories associated with SCDNR projects and outreach activities, and ultimately a plan bobbed to the surface in August of 2003.

We had a clean slate from which to work. We decided the best approach would be something like a video version of South Carolina Wildlife magazine. So meetings were held, amused chuckles were traded and a format was chosen.

We would build a show around two main stories, one field trip segment, and a short wrap-up piece that featured natural sounds and settings. We would provide one new show per month to SCETV. Most importantly, we would hit the road…and river…and forest…and anywhere else we could find South Carolina’s special places. At last count, our tally includes just over one hundred shooting locations, about seventy guests, dozens of drive-thru cheeseburgers, four hosts and one upside-down truck (don’t ask).

Host Glenn Gardner

South Carolina native Glenn Gardner has been tooling around the state for nearly all of his forty-something years. And he has run the gamut of jobs in the field of video production. A weekend desk job at a local TV station during college turned into a career path once the video bug bit.

Several years chasing fires and felons in the television news business was followed by a stint in commercial production in the Upstate. Then came a challenging eight-month gig in corporate communications in a very busy Charlotte, North Carolina. The coat and tie was soon replaced with the boots and jeans he preferred, and his current tenure at the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources has run from 1990 through today. Since his arrival at SCDNR, Glenn has worked on public service announcements, educational and informational videos and, of course, the TV show. He also enjoys teaching classes in photography, first aid, and land navigation at Camp Wildwood and Becoming an Outdoors-Woman workshops.

The call of the wild has Glenn’s number away from work too. He and wife Cindy (and Carson the Wonder Dog) spend every opportunity in the mountains with packs on their backs. Glenn is also a longtime runner. Sadly, the older he gets, the faster he used to be. The Gardners both hail from Spartanburg originally, and they spend too much of their current lives trapped in traffic on the way to their Lexington home. But it sure is nice and quiet once they get there!