History
Humans have lived and utilized natural resources in the ACE Basin for thousands of years. The first human presence in the Basin occurred approximately 6,000 years ago with the Paleoindians. Like their Asian counterparts, Paleoindians are believed to have lived in mobile hunter-gatherer groups and hunted large animals such as mammoths and mastodons. New ways of hunting and gathering marked the end of the Paleoindian period and the beginning of the Archaic period and the modern-day Indians. Until the arrival of Europeans in the sixteenth century, Paleoindian culture evolved into a more sedentary society that relied on hunting in smaller territories and agriculture. Semipermanent villages of several families were built near the hunting grounds. Villagers tilled and planted crops such as corn, beans, and squash during the spring and harvested in the fall. During the summer months, the entire village moved to the homesteads near the coast, where they subsisted on seafood and wild plants, particularly roots.
Human activities have shaped the history, and the cultural and natural resources of the Basin. Early Carolinians cleared thousands of acres of old-growth hardwood forests and planted a variety of crops including corn, tobacco, and root crops. Tens of thousands of acres of bottomland hardwoods along the navigable rivers and creeks of the ACE Basin study area were converted to rice fields (McCrady 1897). Lumber companies of the late 1800s to early 1900s logged most of the virgin pine forests and swamplands in Colleton County. The modernization of farming practices after World War II resulted in extreme increases in profit and crop production (Gliessman 1998). Improvements in farming techniques, and the construction of the Intracoastal Waterway, roads, and railways were instrumental in promoting the development of the farming industry during the early twentieth century. Today, the extensive pine plantations and rice field systems established during this period are still evident.
Many of the large plantations that once supplied the mills with timber were converted to hunting preserves. The abandoned rice fields and logged forests attracted a rich abundance of game animals, including migratory waterfowl and deer to the area. The interest in hunting led to the evolution of sophisticated wildlife management techniques that help to preserve the natural quality of the ACE Basin study area that we enjoy today.
Most of the more well-known archaeological sites in the ACE Basin date from the recent historic period, particularly the 18th and 19th centuries when the area flourished as a prosperous agricultural region. Some of the more popular historic attractions around the ACE Basin study area include the Colleton County Courthouse, Hunting Island Lighthouse, and Edisto Beach State Park. It is important to recognize that although hundreds of sites have been formally recognized, hundreds to thousands of sites may never be discovered without careful site planning, inventories, and management during land clearing. The use of appropriate planning, identification, and preservation of these cultural resources will sustain them for tourism and future generations.
Significant Natural Areas
Significant natural areas are designated by South Carolina?s Heritage Trust Program and must contain (1) endangered or threatened animal or plant species; (2) outstanding remnants of an undisturbed plant community or ecosystem; (3) unusual or outstanding scientific, educational, aesthetic, or recreational characteristics; or (4) unique landforms. South Carolina Heritage Trust has designated 246 sites in the ACE Basin study area as significant natural areas (Heritage Trust Database 1997). One hundred and fifty-five of these sites provide habitat for federally endangered or threatened species, state threatened species, and species of concern. Thirty-three significant natural areas are recognized as outstanding examples of coastal plain communities. Fifty-seven of the significant natural areas have outstanding scientific characteristics that include colonial waterbird rookeries and feeding habitats. The natural areas differ in size, natural quality, and uniqueness in regard to species and community type. Consequently, the priority ranking of the natural areas ranges from national to local significance.
Several highly significant natural areas in the ACE Basin study area are protected through purchases or conservation easements. Cowbane Heritage Preserve, the natural area that that harbors the federally endangered Canby's dropwort (Oxypolis canbyi) is owned by the state (Rayner 1984). The Nature Conservancy bought a relatively undisturbed region of Snuggedy Swamp that contains high quality freshwater wetland, including the largest grass-sedge-marsh/loblolly-bay complex in South Carolina. Otter Island located in St. Helena Sound, encompasses a full array of relatively undisturbed representatives of maritime estuarine, and palustrine communities, including dunes, maritime forests, Spartina marshes, and fresh to brackish ponds. The island also hosts several nesting colonies of rare birds and populations of rare plants, and it is a nesting site of the loggerhead turtle, a federally endangered species. The state and federal entities and various conservation and private organizations are continuing to purchase lands or acquire conservation easements to protect other areas that have high priority.
Heritage Trust staff continuously updates information about natural areas as new occurrences are found, existing populations change, and the status of species or plant communities are reclassified. The Heritage Trust Program relies on the assistance of professionals that can track and document the occurrences of rare species and communities. The staff will provide technical guidance and appropriate forms and maps to all interested in helping with this process.
Agriculture
Agriculture has been an important part of the historical, cultural, and economic heritage in the ACE Basin. Its importance to the area dates back to the 1600s when rice, indigo, and cotton were the principal crops. Historic rice production was one of the most influential factors in shaping the colonial economy and, through the creation of impoundments, the present physical condition of the ACE Basin. Agricultural lands occur throughout the ACE Basin study area with high concentrations of croplands on Edisto Island, and areas northwest of Walterboro and southeast of Yemassee. The primary crops presently grown in the ACE Basin are soybeans, wheat, corn, and hay. In recent years, commodity prices have declined and farmers in the ACE Basin are attempting to diversify. One means of diversification is truck farming. Currently, the largest truck crop is watermelons, with other vegetables such as cabbage, collards, squash, cantaloupe, and strawberries being cultivated.
In Colleton County, farming directly contributed $15.8 million in cash to the local economy in 1996, with 75% resulting from crops and the remainder from livestock. Twelve percent of the land in the ACE Basin study area has been developed for agricultural production; however, the amount of land farmed in counties within and surrounding the ACE Basin study area has declined since 1978. The number of farms has declined at an average annual rate of 1.2% during the period from 1982 to 1996. This is greater than the statewide decline of 0.98% over the same time period. Despite this decline, agricultural practices in 1996 accounted for over $15 million in revenue for Colleton County alone. Urbanization is probably a leading cause of the reduction of farmlands in South Carolina. High land prices, which exceed $950 an acre in Colleton County, mean that farmers often profit more from selling the land than from farming the land.
Agriculture can have numerous impacts on the environment. Activities such as land clearing, irrigation, impounding of wetlands, ditching, and soil cultivation have markedly altered the landscape of the ACE Basin. Agricultural effects on water quality have also had a noteworthy impact. Conservation measures have been developed to help the farmer minimize agricultural nonpoint source pollution and other impacts. The most common agricultural conservation measures used in Colleton County are crop rotation, integrated pest management, weed management, runoff management, nutrient management, and pasture management.
In order for agriculture to continue as a viable practice in the ACE Basin, prime agricultural land must be protected as a valuable natural resource, farming practices must be improved and agriculturally-based businesses enhanced (Beasley et al. 1996). The agricultural landscape adds to the quality of life by providing open space to balance that of urban areas in the ACE Basin study area and contributes in the long-term to the economic, social, and ecological fabric of the area.
The ACE Basin Characterization study area is primarily rural with only five incorporated communities. The main land-use types in the ACE Basin are agriculture and silviculture, which together generated $58 million for 1994-95 in Colleton County. In addition to forestry and agriculture, the ACE Basin is utilized for hunting, commercial and recreational fishing, and tourism. Tourism in the ACE Basin is centered on its relatively undeveloped natural environment. One of the factors that makes the ACE Basin a unique area is the large amount of land that has been protected and can never be developed as a result of the efforts of state and federal governments, private landowners, and private organizations. Another aspect which makes the ACE Basin unique is the number of sites which are deemed significant natural areas by the S.C. Heritage Trust Program.
Forestry
The forests of the ACE Basin are a vital part of the ecology, economy, and beauty of the region. Forestry is part of the Basin?s cultural heritage and is vital to its present economy with 43 million dollars in forestry-related revenue in Colleton County during 1994 (Colleton County Land Use Planning Task Force 1997). Forest survey reports for 1993 indicate that 56 percent of the land cover (1,128,960.4 ha, or 457,069 ac) in Colleton County is classified as timberland (Conner 1993). This acreage is dominated by upland planted pine and forested wetlands with evergreen upland forest, mixed upland forest, and deciduous upland forest being less important. Hardwood dominated forests constitute only 1.4 percent of the total forested area. Westvaco Corporation and Georgia-Pacific are the two largest industrial foresters in the ACE Basin; however, most of the total forested acreage (70%) is owned by nonindustrial private landowners.
Forestry efforts are primarily directed at growing loblolly and shortleaf pines, followed by oak, gum, and cypress trees. In the ACE Basin study area, 457,681.1 ha (185,296 ac) are classified as upland planted pine based on the 1997 National Wetlands Inventory. This constitutes most of the total forested land cover. In addition to directed efforts to grow pines by converting scrub oak and other low-quality hardwood stands, natural reseeding of idle or abandoned agricultural land has also favored establishment of loblolly-shortleaf pine. The overall volume of Colleton's standing timber increased an average of 6-8% (Colleton County Land Use Planning Task Force 1997). Sawtimber also increased, with pine constituting 74% of the total board feet for all species. These trends reflect an improvement in tree stocking as a result of intensive forest management.
Forestry practices have been associated with a number of negative effects over the years. These include impacts to habitat, water quality, biodiversity, and scenic vistas. Effects of forest conversion to pine monocultures include reduction in diversity of forest-dependent animals and canopy/subcanopy vegetation (Meffe and Carroll 1994). Forestry has had a major impact on "natural forests" because of monoculture of loblolly and shortleaf pines as opposed to the native slash pine. A common forest management practice in the southeastern United States and Colleton County is the establishment of loblolly or slash pine plantations. After years of rapid growth, these plantations are harvested to produce fiber, lumber, and wood-based chemicals. The affect of even-aged pine plantations on the quality of wildlife habitat has become an issue in forestry.
Contrary to early forestry practices of clearing and abandoning the land, there is presently a trend toward sustainable forestry through the protection of watersheds and wildlife habitat, conservation of soil, and maintenance of aesthetics while continuing to harvest trees. One approach being used in the southeastern United States involves development of selective harvesting techniques that ultimately produce uneven-aged stands of pine-hardwood as well as understory diversity (Hunter 1990). Several federal forestry assistance programs and landowner assistance programs are available to foresters in the ACE Basin to help them make sound management decisions based on sustainable forestry. An example of an industrial landowner that is practicing sustainable forestry in the ACE Basin is Westvaco Corporation, the single largest private landowner there.
The outlook for forestry in the ACE Basin reflects advances in science and technology, balanced with conservation. These technological advances will continue to help forest landowners meet increasing needs for renewable wood and paper products for local and global markets. An increasing awareness of forest ecology and protection of soil and water in concert with sustainable forest management will help maintain the integrity of forests and contribute to the quality of life in the ACE Basin.
Protected Lands
The protection of land and resources in the ACE Basin gained national attention in 1986 with the inception of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP). Two years later, the Atlantic Coast Joint Venture (ACJV) portion of the NAWMP made the ACE Basin a "flagship" project. This led to the formation of the ACE Basin Task Force and the protection of significant habitat areas in the Basin. From its inception, one feature that made the ACE Basin protection initiative unique was its emphasis on protecting the private property rights and developing ways to balance economic growth with conservation efforts. Due to the efforts of the Task Force, approximately 15% of the land in the ACE Basin study area is protected by state and federal ownership, or conservation easements. Approximately 40% of the protected lands are designated as public land, about 60% are private lands that are protected by conservation easements (108,680 ha, or 44,000 ac), and the remainder is protected by organization ownership, management agreements, or other means. Bear Island Wildlife Management Area, Donnelley Wildlife Management Area, the ACE Basin National Estuarine Research Reserve, and the ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge are large tracts of land managed and protected by state and federal ownership. The ACE Basin Task Force initiative is an outstanding example of how government, conservation groups, and private landowners can unite to protect important natural resources.
Tourism
History
Humans have lived and utilized natural resources in the ACE Basin for thousands of years. The first human presence in the Basin occurred approximately 6,000 years ago with the Paleoindians. Like their Asian counterparts, Paleoindians are believed to have lived in mobile hunter-gatherer groups and hunted large animals such as mammoths and mastodons. New ways of hunting and gathering marked the end of the Paleoindian period and the beginning of the Archaic period and the modern-day Indians. Until the arrival of Europeans in the sixteenth century, Paleoindian culture evolved into a more sedentary society that relied on hunting in smaller territories and agriculture. Semipermanent villages of several families were built near the hunting grounds. Villagers tilled and planted crops such as corn, beans, and squash during the spring and harvested in the fall. During the summer months, the entire village moved to the homesteads near the coast, where they subsisted on seafood and wild plants, particularly roots.
Human activities have shaped the history, and the cultural and natural resources of the Basin. Early Carolinians cleared thousands of acres of old-growth hardwood forests and planted a variety of crops including corn, tobacco, and root crops. Tens of thousands of acres of bottomland hardwoods along the navigable rivers and creeks of the ACE Basin study area were converted to rice fields (McCrady 1897). Lumber companies of the late 1800s to early 1900s logged most of the virgin pine forests and swamplands in Colleton County. The modernization of farming practices after World War II resulted in extreme increases in profit and crop production (Gliessman 1998). Improvements in farming techniques, and the construction of the Intracoastal Waterway, roads, and railways were instrumental in promoting the development of the farming industry during the early twentieth century. Today, the extensive pine plantations and rice field systems established during this period are still evident.
Many of the large plantations that once supplied the mills with timber were converted to hunting preserves. The abandoned rice fields and logged forests attracted a rich abundance of game animals, including migratory waterfowl and deer to the area. The interest in hunting led to the evolution of sophisticated wildlife management techniques that help to preserve the natural quality of the ACE Basin study area that we enjoy today.
Most of the more well-known archaeological sites in the ACE Basin date from the recent historic period, particularly the 18th and 19th centuries when the area flourished as a prosperous agricultural region. Some of the more popular historic attractions around the ACE Basin study area include the Colleton County Courthouse, Hunting Island Lighthouse, and Edisto Beach State Park. It is important to recognize that although hundreds of sites have been formally recognized, hundreds to thousands of sites may never be discovered without careful site planning, inventories, and management during land clearing. The use of appropriate planning, identification, and preservation of these cultural resources will sustain them for tourism and future generations.
Significant Natural Areas
Significant natural areas are designated by South Carolina?s Heritage Trust Program and must contain (1) endangered or threatened animal or plant species; (2) outstanding remnants of an undisturbed plant community or ecosystem; (3) unusual or outstanding scientific, educational, aesthetic, or recreational characteristics; or (4) unique landforms. South Carolina Heritage Trust has designated 246 sites in the ACE Basin study area as significant natural areas (Heritage Trust Database 1997). One hundred and fifty-five of these sites provide habitat for federally endangered or threatened species, state threatened species, and species of concern. Thirty-three significant natural areas are recognized as outstanding examples of coastal plain communities. Fifty-seven of the significant natural areas have outstanding scientific characteristics that include colonial waterbird rookeries and feeding habitats. The natural areas differ in size, natural quality, and uniqueness in regard to species and community type. Consequently, the priority ranking of the natural areas ranges from national to local significance.
Several highly significant natural areas in the ACE Basin study area are protected through purchases or conservation easements. Cowbane Heritage Preserve, the natural area that that harbors the federally endangered Canby's dropwort (Oxypolis canbyi) is owned by the state (Rayner 1984). The Nature Conservancy bought a relatively undisturbed region of Snuggedy Swamp that contains high quality freshwater wetland, including the largest grass-sedge-marsh/loblolly-bay complex in South Carolina. Otter Island located in St. Helena Sound, encompasses a full array of relatively undisturbed representatives of maritime estuarine, and palustrine communities, including dunes, maritime forests, Spartina marshes, and fresh to brackish ponds. The island also hosts several nesting colonies of rare birds and populations of rare plants, and it is a nesting site of the loggerhead turtle, a federally endangered species. The state and federal entities and various conservation and private organizations are continuing to purchase lands or acquire conservation easements to protect other areas that have high priority.
Heritage Trust staff continuously updates information about natural areas as new occurrences are found, existing populations change, and the status of species or plant communities are reclassified. The Heritage Trust Program relies on the assistance of professionals that can track and document the occurrences of rare species and communities. The staff will provide technical guidance and appropriate forms and maps to all interested in helping with this process.
Agriculture
History
Humans have lived and utilized natural resources in the ACE Basin for thousands of years. The first human presence in the Basin occurred approximately 6,000 years ago with the Paleoindians. Like their Asian counterparts, Paleoindians are believed to have lived in mobile hunter-gatherer groups and hunted large animals such as mammoths and mastodons. New ways of hunting and gathering marked the end of the Paleoindian period and the beginning of the Archaic period and the modern-day Indians. Until the arrival of Europeans in the sixteenth century, Paleoindian culture evolved into a more sedentary society that relied on hunting in smaller territories and agriculture. Semipermanent villages of several families were built near the hunting grounds. Villagers tilled and planted crops such as corn, beans, and squash during the spring and harvested in the fall. During the summer months, the entire village moved to the homesteads near the coast, where they subsisted on seafood and wild plants, particularly roots.
Human activities have shaped the history, and the cultural and natural resources of the Basin. Early Carolinians cleared thousands of acres of old-growth hardwood forests and planted a variety of crops including corn, tobacco, and root crops. Tens of thousands of acres of bottomland hardwoods along the navigable rivers and creeks of the ACE Basin study area were converted to rice fields (McCrady 1897). Lumber companies of the late 1800s to early 1900s logged most of the virgin pine forests and swamplands in Colleton County. The modernization of farming practices after World War II resulted in extreme increases in profit and crop production (Gliessman 1998). Improvements in farming techniques, and the construction of the Intracoastal Waterway, roads, and railways were instrumental in promoting the development of the farming industry during the early twentieth century. Today, the extensive pine plantations and rice field systems established during this period are still evident.
Many of the large plantations that once supplied the mills with timber were converted to hunting preserves. The abandoned rice fields and logged forests attracted a rich abundance of game animals, including migratory waterfowl and deer to the area. The interest in hunting led to the evolution of sophisticated wildlife management techniques that help to preserve the natural quality of the ACE Basin study area that we enjoy today.
Most of the more well-known archaeological sites in the ACE Basin date from the recent historic period, particularly the 18th and 19th centuries when the area flourished as a prosperous agricultural region. Some of the more popular historic attractions around the ACE Basin study area include the Colleton County Courthouse, Hunting Island Lighthouse, and Edisto Beach State Park. It is important to recognize that although hundreds of sites have been formally recognized, hundreds to thousands of sites may never be discovered without careful site planning, inventories, and management during land clearing. The use of appropriate planning, identification, and preservation of these cultural resources will sustain them for tourism and future generations.
Significant Natural Areas
Agriculture has been an important part of the historical, cultural, and economic heritage in the ACE Basin. Its importance to the area dates back to the 1600s when rice, indigo, and cotton were the principal crops. Historic rice production was one of the most influential factors in shaping the colonial economy and, through the creation of impoundments, the present physical condition of the ACE Basin. Agricultural lands occur throughout the ACE Basin study area with high concentrations of croplands on Edisto Island, and areas northwest of Walterboro and southeast of Yemassee. The primary crops presently grown in the ACE Basin are soybeans, wheat, corn, and hay. In recent years, commodity prices have declined and farmers in the ACE Basin are attempting to diversify. One means of diversification is truck farming. Currently, the largest truck crop is watermelons, with other vegetables such as cabbage, collards, squash, cantaloupe, and strawberries being cultivated.
In Colleton County, farming directly contributed $15.8 million in cash to the local economy in 1996, with 75% resulting from crops and the remainder from livestock. Twelve percent of the land in the ACE Basin study area has been developed for agricultural production; however, the amount of land farmed in counties within and surrounding the ACE Basin study area has declined since 1978. The number of farms has declined at an average annual rate of 1.2% during the period from 1982 to 1996. This is greater than the statewide decline of 0.98% over the same time period. Despite this decline, agricultural practices in 1996 accounted for over $15 million in revenue for Colleton County alone. Urbanization is probably a leading cause of the reduction of farmlands in South Carolina. High land prices, which exceed $950 an acre in Colleton County, mean that farmers often profit more from selling the land than from farming the land.
Agriculture can have numerous impacts on the environment. Activities such as land clearing, irrigation, impounding of wetlands, ditching, and soil cultivation have markedly altered the landscape of the ACE Basin. Agricultural effects on water quality have also had a noteworthy impact. Conservation measures have been developed to help the farmer minimize agricultural nonpoint source pollution and other impacts. The most common agricultural conservation measures used in Colleton County are crop rotation, integrated pest management, weed management, runoff management, nutrient management, and pasture management.
In order for agriculture to continue as a viable practice in the ACE Basin, prime agricultural land must be protected as a valuable natural resource, farming practices must be improved and agriculturally-based businesses enhanced (Beasley et al. 1996). The agricultural landscape adds to the quality of life by providing open space to balance that of urban areas in the ACE Basin study area and contributes in the long-term to the economic, social, and ecological fabric of the area.
The ACE Basin Characterization study area is primarily rural with only five incorporated communities. The main land-use types in the ACE Basin are agriculture and silviculture, which together generated $58 million for 1994-95 in Colleton County. In addition to forestry and agriculture, the ACE Basin is utilized for hunting, commercial and recreational fishing, and tourism. Tourism in the ACE Basin is centered on its relatively undeveloped natural environment. One of the factors that makes the ACE Basin a unique area is the large amount of land that has been protected and can never be developed as a result of the efforts of state and federal governments, private landowners, and private organizations. Another aspect which makes the ACE Basin unique is the number of sites which are deemed significant natural areas by the S.C. Heritage Trust Program.
Forestry
The forests of the ACE Basin are a vital part of the ecology, economy, and beauty of the region. Forestry is part of the Basin?s cultural heritage and is vital to its present economy with 43 million dollars in forestry-related revenue in Colleton County during 1994 (Colleton County Land Use Planning Task Force 1997). Forest survey reports for 1993 indicate that 56 percent of the land cover (1,128,960.4 ha, or 457,069 ac) in Colleton County is classified as timberland (Conner 1993). This acreage is dominated by upland planted pine and forested wetlands with evergreen upland forest, mixed upland forest, and deciduous upland forest being less important. Hardwood dominated forests constitute only 1.4 percent of the total forested area. Westvaco Corporation and Georgia-Pacific are the two largest industrial foresters in the ACE Basin; however, most of the total forested acreage (70%) is owned by nonindustrial private landowners.
Forestry efforts are primarily directed at growing loblolly and shortleaf pines, followed by oak, gum, and cypress trees. In the ACE Basin study area, 457,681.1 ha (185,296 ac) are classified as upland planted pine based on the 1997 National Wetlands Inventory. This constitutes most of the total forested land cover. In addition to directed efforts to grow pines by converting scrub oak and other low-quality hardwood stands, natural reseeding of idle or abandoned agricultural land has also favored establishment of loblolly-shortleaf pine. The overall volume of Colleton's standing timber increased an average of 6-8% (Colleton County Land Use Planning Task Force 1997). Sawtimber also increased, with pine constituting 74% of the total board feet for all species. These trends reflect an improvement in tree stocking as a result of intensive forest management.
Forestry practices have been associated with a number of negative effects over the years. These include impacts to habitat, water quality, biodiversity, and scenic vistas. Effects of forest conversion to pine monocultures include reduction in diversity of forest-dependent animals and canopy/subcanopy vegetation (Meffe and Carroll 1994). Forestry has had a major impact on "natural forests" because of monoculture of loblolly and shortleaf pines as opposed to the native slash pine. A common forest management practice in the southeastern United States and Colleton County is the establishment of loblolly or slash pine plantations. After years of rapid growth, these plantations are harvested to produce fiber, lumber, and wood-based chemicals. The affect of even-aged pine plantations on the quality of wildlife habitat has become an issue in forestry.
Contrary to early forestry practices of clearing and abandoning the land, there is presently a trend toward sustainable forestry through the protection of watersheds and wildlife habitat, conservation of soil, and maintenance of aesthetics while continuing to harvest trees. One approach being used in the southeastern United States involves development of selective harvesting techniques that ultimately produce uneven-aged stands of pine-hardwood as well as understory diversity (Hunter 1990). Several federal forestry assistance programs and landowner assistance programs are available to foresters in the ACE Basin to help them make sound management decisions based on sustainable forestry. An example of an industrial landowner that is practicing sustainable forestry in the ACE Basin is Westvaco Corporation, the single largest private landowner there.
The outlook for forestry in the ACE Basin reflects advances in science and technology, balanced with conservation. These technological advances will continue to help forest landowners meet increasing needs for renewable wood and paper products for local and global markets. An increasing awareness of forest ecology and protection of soil and water in concert with sustainable forest management will help maintain the integrity of forests and contribute to the quality of life in the ACE Basin.
Protected Lands
The protection of land and resources in the ACE Basin gained national attention in 1986 with the inception of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP). Two years later, the Atlantic Coast Joint Venture (ACJV) portion of the NAWMP made the ACE Basin a "flagship" project. This led to the formation of the ACE Basin Task Force and the protection of significant habitat areas in the Basin. From its inception, one feature that made the ACE Basin protection initiative unique was its emphasis on protecting the private property rights and developing ways to balance economic growth with conservation efforts. Due to the efforts of the Task Force, approximately 15% of the land in the ACE Basin study area is protected by state and federal ownership, or conservation easements. Approximately 40% of the protected lands are designated as public land, about 60% are private lands that are protected by conservation easements (108,680 ha, or 44,000 ac), and the remainder is protected by organization ownership, management agreements, or other means. Bear Island Wildlife Management Area, Donnelley Wildlife Management Area, the ACE Basin National Estuarine Research Reserve, and the ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge are large tracts of land managed and protected by state and federal ownership. The ACE Basin Task Force initiative is an outstanding example of how government, conservation groups, and private landowners can unite to protect important natural resources. Tourism is an important component of the economy in the ACE Basin. Tourism and entertainment in Colleton County (calculated as those working in restaurants, hotels, and recreational services) accounted for 8.6% of the businesses and 11.8% of the jobs in 1995. Tourism-derived income increased by 38% in the last 10 years, much of it in growth from restaurants, cafes, and hotels. Many rural communities and less developed regions, such as the ACE Basin, are typically unable (or unwilling) to support traditional, consumer-driven tourism. As a result, less developed areas must consider specialized niche markets, such as nature- and heritage-based tourism.
The South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism (SCPRT) found that visitors to coastal South Carolina spent $747 million in 1996 and that the most popular activities were going to the beach, shopping, playing golf or tennis, and hiking/fishing/hunting. Mainly through efforts by the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism (SCPRT), the commercial nature-based tourism industry in South Carolina began to develop rapidly in the late 1980s. In 1995, the South Carolina Nature Based Tourism Association was created to promote sustainable development in the industry, promote voluntary self-regulation, and provide quality assurance through education.
The nature of heritage tourism?the emphasis on authenticity, history, nature, and vanishing lifestyles?and the scale of heritage tourism in South Carolina (2.7 million visitors annually who spend $581 million and support 13,570 jobs) dovetail with the characteristics and unique qualities, as well as economic needs, of South Carolina?s ACE Basin. For this region, a place characterized as economically disadvantaged, with a rich historic and cultural past, and an exceptional natural resource base, heritage tourism offers a solid development opportunity for enhanced economic growth and resource protection.
The ACE Basin tourism industry should capitalize on its natural and cultural resources. Residents have enthusiastically supported nature and heritage tourism as an economic development path towards which to channel efforts and funds. They find that tourism can be economically beneficial to the region while also generating fewer detrimental effects on the environment than other economic activities. Some of the tourism assets in the ACE Basin are its two state parks, the National Estuarine Research Reserve, protected lands, festivals, and historic homes and attractions. Unique partnerships between landowners, conservation organizations, and government agencies have been influential in the major progress of conservation of the ACE Basin. The region, however, has yet to make full use of the ACE Basin?s unique environmental, historical, and cultural heritage in order to achieve an economic advantage. The tourism task force developed several specific recommendations as part of increasing the tourism profile of the ACE Basin:
- Develop a visitor/interpretive center near U.S. Highway 17. Plans for a center were drawn up and then shelved, but 1998 has seen the renewal of interest in the visitors center concept.
- Support the Scenic Parkway Concept Plan and designation effort.
- Develop a consistent ACE Basin graphic identity that would apply to all brochures, maps, and other visitor materials
- Develop primary and secondary environmental and heritage education programs.
-
Create a recreational river corridor by developing additional recreation opportunities along the Edisto River that might include additional campsites, a series of inns near some parts of the river, a canoe livery, and additional landings.
Chris Walters - Edisto Beach Realtor - E-Pro®
Edisto Sales & Rentals Realty (Edisto Realty)
1405 Palmetto Blvd
Edisto Beach, SC 29438
Office: 843-869-2527
Mobile: 843-708-8501
chris@DiscoverEdisto.com