River advocates heard the story and wanted to cry. They hope a new festival on the Columbia scene will raise awareness of the plants and prevent similar, devastating harvests.

The Rocky Shoals Spider Lily Festival, which premieres Saturday at Riverfront Park, aims to celebrate the rare and beautiful plants.

“We thought this would be a fun way to educate people,” said Karen Kustafik, Columbia’s coordinator of park rangers.

At the event, visitors can tag along on guided hikes, paddle in kayaks to view spider lilies on the Broad River or listen to bluegrass bands playing at the park stage.

Money raised by the festival will go to restore the nearby spider lily populations.

The festival grew out of the re-licensing of the Columbia Canal hydroelectric plant, owned by the city of Columbia and operated by SCE&G. In granting the license, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission required public outreach programs related to the river, said SCE&G engineer Jim Devereaux.

Any festival might have met the obligation. But the group planning the event wanted more than a good time. They wanted a cause.

Spider lilies fit the bill.

Rocky shoals spider lilies — scientifically known as Hymenocallis coronaria — grow naturally only where rivers flow over rocky shelves. Those spots also are perfect for dams and canals.

Man’s manipulation of the rivers in the 1800s and 1900s wiped out prime spider lily habitat. The regulation of water flowing through dams also meant spider lilies downstream didn’t get the frequent floods that help propagate their seeds. By the turn of the 21st century, only a few healthy populations survived in South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.

The plant’s population on the Broad and Saluda rivers, near Columbia, is struggling. The S.C. Native Plant Society, Riverbanks Zoo’s botanical staff, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the S.C. Department of Natural Resources have studied the plants and done restoration work.

More than 1,000 bulbs were planted in 1998 in Columbia. But many didn’t make it through the droughts and floods of the next few years, according to Natural Resources botanist Bert Pittman.

In May and June, the white flowers atop dark green stalks can be found around islands in the rivers. Their showy blooms are tempting to pick.

People like the kayaker who pulled up dozens of them last year probably don’t realize the spider lily is rare. Plant lovers are working to get legislation passed to make it a crime to disturb the plants.

Other species of spider lilies can be found in commercial nurseries. They are more likely to thrive in a home garden than the variety found on river shoals, Pittman said.

Several of the spider lily clumps in the Broad can be seen from the Riverfront Park trails. If you don’t make it to the festival, take a hike on the trail some other day and look for the flowers along the edges of river islands.

But don’t wade out and pick them.