Partnership with Audubon South Carolina to Protect the Four Holes Swamp Watershed

LOLT is working in a cooperative conservation program with Audubon South Carolina to help protect the 450,000 acre Four Holes Swamp and the Edisto River Basin. Other partners in the project include US Forest Service, SC Department of Natural Resources, US Fish & Wildlife Service, Ducks Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy, and Friends of the Edisto.

The approximately 14,400 acres of the Francis Beidler Forest (FBF) and its unique hydrology and habitat make this globally significant Important Bird Area one of the largest and significant wetland reserves on the East Coast. In the land adjacent to existing and potential Sanctuary holdings, there are habitat components that add species, structural and functional diversity to the habitat components of the Sanctuary. It is not possible for Audubon to protect all this critical adjacent land through purchase of fee simple ownership.

Specifically, the Land Trust is working with Audubon South Carolina to educate owners of property adjacent to the Francis Beidler Forest about the benefits of conservation easements. Our objective is to protect these private lands through donated conservation easements. By doing so, we will be protecting not only the habitat of the Four Holes Swamp, which is significant in its own right, but also the downstream habitat of the ACE Basin. 

LOLT signed three easements around the Francis Beidler Forest and the Four Holes Swamp Area in 2004, totaling 426 acres.  We are steadily moving toward closing on other easements to add more protection for this important natural resource.  In addition, we participated in two landowner information meetings in partnership with Audubon South Carolina and held a member outing at Francis Beidler Forest in 2005.

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