Preservation in the News

CONGAREE

The (Columbia) State

By: Joey Holleman

The Trust For Public Land is poised to announce it has an option to buy a 1,840-acre tract for $5.6 million from Riverstone Properties, with the intention of selling the land to the National Park Service to add to Congaree National park, a trust spokesman said.

Chris Deming, a project manager for the trust, said adding the Riverstone tract would increase the park's acreage to nearly 26,500. Combined with neighboring Manchester State Forest and wetlands protected by Santee Cooper in the Upper Santee Swamp, it would give wildlife an open corridor along nearly 30 miles of rivers.

Congress enlarged the park boundary in 2003, and the S.C. congressional delegation is working to include funds for the purchase in the Department of the Interior budget.

Wildlife advocates pushed for the expansion to link the park's core property along the Congaree River with the Wateree River and the Upper Santee Swamp.

The park is considered the largest remaining bottomland hardwood forest, which once covered most Southern river flood plains before farming and logging wiped them out.