Three exemplary acquisitions in South Carolina create new opportunities for recreation, wildlife habitat, and history.
Open Space Institute Secures Addition to Waccamaw Refuge’s Historic Hasty Point Plantation
Acquisition is key part of Refuge master planning initiative for new recreational opportunities and educational interpretation
Located along the western border of the WNWR, the 237-acre “Triangle Tract” property is directly adjacent to the 773-acre Hasty Point Plantation and ricefields that WNWR purchased in 2020 with assistance from Ducks Unlimited, OSI, and other partners. With the protection of the Triangle Tract and Hasty Point Plantation, WNWR has embarked on a community-based planning initiative that will include educational interpretation on the painful slave history of Hasty Point Plantation, while enhancing recreation at Hasty Point Plantation and the larger WNWR. LEARN MORE >>
OSI Acquires Critical 481-Acre Sumter National Forest Inholding in South Carolina Piedmont
Newly conserved property key for public access and wildlife habitat
In its 12th significant land acquisition in the South Carolina Piedmont over the last five years, OSI secured important publicly accessible habitat for the wild turkey thanks to support from the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) and in partnership with the USDA Forest Service (USFS). The 481-acre Duncan Creek property is surrounded by more than 170,000 acres of the Enoree District of the Sumter National Forest near Clinton, South Carolina. The Duncan Creek property has nearly a mile of frontage on Duncan Creek, the largest tributary of the Enoree River. The tract is a priority focus area of the USFS due to its intact habitat, climate-resilient connections with other protected lands, and protection of the nearby Philson Shooting Range from incompatible development. LEARN MORE >>
OSI Adds 1,450 Acres to Francis Marion National Forest, Secures Largest-Ever Charleston County Greenbelt
Property featuring longleaf pine habitat and a rich history, to be managed for hiking, bicycling, birding & hunting
Land that was once part of Peachtree Plantation on the Santee River — owned by Declaration signer Thomas Lynch III and celebrated by poet laureate Archibald Rutledge — will now belong to the public, as the latest addition to the Francis Marion National Forest by the Open Space Institute (OSI) in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and the Charleston County Greenbelt Program. Located just north of the Town of McClellanville, the 1,450-acre White Oak Atlantic Creosote tract contains an extensive network of dirt roads through some of the most beautiful native longleaf pine woods in the Lowcountry. LEARN MORE >>