Message From the Executive Director:
Articles:
- Sprawl Report
- Dan Burden Rocks the Upstate!
- The ReGenesis Project
- The Saluda-Reedy Watershed Project Receives 1.5 Million!
Upstate Conservation:
- First Easement in Union County
- Chauga Watershed Project
- "The Cotton Patch"
- Green Space Donated to Greenville
Upstate Forever News:
Chauga Watershed Project
Upstate Forever has teamed up with the Chattooga Land Trust to conduct an assessment of privately owned lands in the Chauga River watershed in Oconee County. The project is funded by a grant from the Land Trust Alliance, with matching grants from Naturaland Trust and the Page and George Bradham Family Foundation.
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The Chauga River is one of the most biologically diverse, geologically fascinating and spectacularly beautiful areas in the Southeast. About half of the land in the watershed is part of the Sumter National Forest and is managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The remaining, privately owned lands are at serious risk because of rapid population growth in the region and the lack of any meaningful local land use controls. The main objective of the project is to identify the privately owned lands in the watershed, to determine which of these tracts are most important, and then to work closely with the landowners in voluntarily protecting as many of these tracts as possible, primarily through conservation easements.
The Chauga is the only South Carolina river that traverses the Brevard fault zone, the site of a massive fault through which deeply buried metamorphic rocks, richly laden with carbonate and graphite, were tectonically thrust onto the Blue Ridge rocks eons ago. This geology has created a rich assemblage of plants, including even some coastal species. In fact, the diversity of plant life is so unusual that it has been designated as “Chauga flora” in a study by two Clemson University botanists.
The Chauga gorge–a 17 mile stretch through the heart of the Blue Ridge Escarpment–is a place of extraordinary beauty. The river is the principal water supply for the City of Westminster.
The Chattooga Land Trust works on protecting lands in and near the Chattooga River watershed. It has an outstanding relationship with the U.S. Forest Service.