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. LOLT's primary role is to protect the private lands that provide vital upland buffers to the Four Holes Swamp where Audubon owns and protects over 15,000 acres of globally significant old-growth swamp forest. These buffers provide further protection to the water quality of the Swamp and provide important habitat for the diversity of species that live within this unique ecosystem.  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 15,000 acres of the Francis Beidler Forest and Sanctuary 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.  The Sanctuary includes approximately 1,700 acres of the largest old growth cypress-tupelo swamp forest in the world, with some cypress trees as old as 1,500 years. 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. More than 300 vertebrates and 300 plants depend upon the Four Holes Swamp for survival, and a number of threatened and/or vulnerable species are present.  The Forest was named a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance in 2008 and is recognized as a National Natural Landmark.

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's partnership with Audubon began in 2004 and has experienced tremendous success.  The cooperative effort has resulted in the conservation of 11 conservation easements to date, protecting over 1,900 acres, all of which are either directly linked to the Francis Beidler Forest or to Four Holes Swamp.  (These numbers do not include Brosnan Forest, 12,488 acres nearby, portions of which are also within the Four Holes Swamp drainage, which was protected in 2008.)  We are steadily moving toward closing on other easements to add more protection for this important natural resource.   

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