From the ACE Basin to the Savannah River

One of the driving forces of success of the ACE Basin initiative – a thriving landscape of protected land totaling over 320,000 acres between the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto (ACE) Rivers – is that it started with just a few landowners and grew with passion, persistence and partnership. Neighbor to neighbor, landowner to landowner, state to federal agency, public park to private land trust for 36 years and counting.

A similar movement took root along the Savannah River: landowners motivated by protecting working forests and water quality for all who depend on Savannah River drinking water (ahem…all of us) have protected over 200,000 acres.

The ACE and Savannah River Basins are beautiful productive landscapes with successful conservation stories to tell. But there is a gap in the middle. That gap is more perfectly described as the Port Royal Sound and is home to the productive salt marsh, farms, and forests right in our backyard.

Imagine this landscape like a family puzzle spread out over the holiday dinner table. One by one, pieces come into view, attached to and connected to others that spread out to reveal an entire image.

We are both creating and solving this puzzle together.

Gopher Tortoise
📷 Jake Zadik

The puzzle starts to take shape

The first pieces started to come together in 2019. Buckfield a 20,000+ acre timber property was subdivided and listed for sale. The Open Space Institute was quick to negotiate a purchase of several thousand acres, and soon in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, purchased adjacent land home to longleaf pine and the gopher tortoise. These properties, assembled over the course of several transactions, are known today as the 12,000-acre Coosawhatchie Wildlife Management Area owned and operated by South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

Soon after, families nearby chose to protect their land — including our 2023 conservation easement with the Oates family to protect an adjacent 2,000 acres. In early 2024, when Gregorie Neck hit the real estate market, the Nature Conservancy outcompeted two developers and purchased the property; OLT protected it with a conservation easement later that year. And the “one that got away” Chelsea is the latest: purchased by the Nature Conservancy in May 2025, OLT is working on a conservation easement to be completed by 2026. Chelsea will become a new state forest, open to the public to enjoy soon thereafter.

Working together with our land trust partners, over 32,000 acres have been protected in the Port Royal Sound watershed over the past five years!

Completing this land protection puzzle takes us all and requires creativity, an ability to take risks and a desire to take the long view. Like the ACE Basin and Savannah River landscapes, the Port Royal Sound will be protected over time.

And like the final puzzle piece in one big image, it will tie everything together for the wildlife and people in our growing communities.