Easement conserves 1,000 acres in Sumter County

WEDGEFIELD - More than 1,075 acres of forested land have been protected in Sumter County thanks to the efforts of Dixie Plantation Limited Partnership, the Congaree Land Trust, the U.S. Department of Defense's Readiness and Environment Protection Integration Program, The Conservation Fund and the Midlands Area Joint Installation Consortium programs.

Situated in the Cowasee basin, Dixie Plantation is a property with historical, geological and natural conservation value. Now under a conservation easement, this historical property will be protected in perpetuity. This is the second conservation easement with Dixie Plantation LP, adding to a previously protected tract.

"This has been a project to put lands back together that were fragmented over the last 100 years or so," landowner James Hugh Ryan said of his family's land, which he has been working to protect for future generations.

Dixie Plantation is characterized by rolling hills, forests, wetlands, open land and a 19-acre pond. The property is an important private land conservation expansion of the Cowasee Basin, a landscape scale project targeted at protecting the green heart of South Carolina's Midlands with help from federal, state and nongovernmental conservation organizations. More than 143,000 acres have been protected in the Cowasee Basin (315,000 acres in the core) along the Wateree, Santee and Congaree Rivers.

The site of a whistle-stop village along a rail line, Dixie Plantation sits along what was once The Great Road, an ancient pathway used by Native Americans, troops in the Revolutionary and Civil wars and the site of many antebellum estates and plantations.

An area of geographic importance, the property is located in the High Hills of Santee, a unique topographic area in Sumter County with varied elevations and bottomland forests resembling the Foothills and Piedmont regions in the upstate. Essentially, Dixie Plantation has a hilly, almost mountainous terrain in a coastal setting, giving it unique conservation value.

Home to a number of tree species, including loblolly pine and many hardwoods, Dixie Plantation provides habitat to hundreds of species of wildlife, including 34 species of birds of conservation importance. A working property, the private lands of Dixie Plantation will continue to be utilized for agricultural and timber purposes.

"It is a real honor to partner with a landowner like Hugh Ryan in the permanent protection of such an incredible property," says CLT Executive Director, Stuart White. "This project is a testimony to his passion for the cultural and natural heritage of this land and is a critical part of landscape-scale conservation within the Cowasee Basin."