The Carolina Low Country Girl Scout Council has permanently protected its 153-acre Girl Scout Plantation on the East Branch of the Cooper River in Berkeley County by placing it under a conservation easement with the Lowcountry Open Land Trust. The Girl Scout Plantation is surrounded by the 10,697 acre Bonneau Ferry tract, which was acquired in 2004 by the S.C. Department of Natural Resources from MeadeWestvaco to be preserved for recreational and hunting use by the public. (See Map) The camp is located 15 miles east of Moncks Corner on Route 402. Formerly known as Richmond Plantation, the property is on the National Register of Historic Places and contains a manor house and outbuildings constructed in 1927 as a hunting lodge for George A. Ellis. There are approximately 30 acres of historic rice fields on the East Branch of the Cooper River and three ponds. The property includes the Harleston-Rutledge Cemetery and archeological features associated with an earlier eighteenth and nineteenth century rice plantation. The Girl Scout Plantation possesses significant ecological and natural resources, water quality protection, open space, scenic, historical and cultural values. The Girl Scout Council acquired Richmond Plantation from Westvaco in 1963, and  camp’s natural setting and rural charm.

Girl Scout Council Board member Jane Locke was instrumental in the protection of this historic property and said, “Being a believer in preservation and conservation, I felt that an easement for the Girl Scout Plantation was the right thing to do. I hope that other landowners on the Cooper River will realize and will see that putting their land with the Lowcountry Open Land Trust is the only way to maintain its integrity for years to come. It is the only guarantee that our land, history, and resources can be preserved.”

Lowcountry Open Land Trust executive director Will Haynie commented, “We are proud to be partners with the Carolina Low Country Girl Scout Council in the preservation of this significant property. Not only is this property significant by itself, but it is also an important patch in a quilt of preservation that Berkeley County landowners are sewing together along both branches of the Cooper River to preserve the natural beauty and rural character of their area.” The Lowcountry Open Land Trust has four other protected properties along the East Branch of the Cooper River.