Big Cypress

DATE PROTECTED ACRES PROTECTED

07/2016 1,232

“Our focus is on protecting important properties like Big Cypress that help secure wildlife habitat corridors and sustain water quality for our growing communities.”

- Raleigh West

Thanks to the generous support of our members, the Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust secured a conservation easement on the 1,232-acre Big Cypress property, preserving more than 3.5 miles of the headwaters of Four Holes Swamp, a principal tributary of the Edisto River. This will help ensure water quality downstream and contribute to the broader conservation goals of the ACE Basin (Ashepoo, Combahee, Edisto).

Big Cypress expands the connective corridor of protected lands associated with Audubon South Carolina’s internationally-renowned Beidler Forest, one of only two remaining virgin blackwater forests left in South Carolina. Beidler Forest has been named a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance and is consistently acknowledged as a critical habitat for migrating songbirds and other rare species.

The Big Cypress project was supported by a generous donation from the owners and a grant from the South Carolina Conservation Bank.