Conestee Foundation
 The Conestee Foundation, a 501(c)(3) conservation organization, was established in 2000 to spearhead the revitalization of the Reedy River properties and surrounding community directly downstream of the City of Greenville. One of the first Foundation actions was the acquisition of Lake Conestee, which has long served vital functions in the health of the Reedy River. The 145 acre Lake Conestee property is comprised of the former lakebed, which is now approximately 90 percent silted in. It contains wetlands, sloughs, bottomland forests, and 1.5 miles of the Reedy River, and provides a natural wonderland of wildlife habitat. The Conestee Foundation has entered into a Voluntary Clean-Up Contract with the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control to safely manage the lake’s legacy contaminants in place while creating a public wildlife and educational park for the citizens of Greenville County.
Shortly after the Foundation purchased the lake parcel, the major adjoining property to the west, the Henderson Farm, was zoned for light industrial use and put on the market. This property, which consists of 112 acres of rolling piedmont pasture and mature hickory/oak forests along a tributary to the lake area and the Reedy River, provides the only feasible public access to the lake property and the Reedy. To prevent the loss of this beautiful property to a use incompatible with the Foundation’s vision of a future passive public recreation and outdoor education area, the Foundation took a leap of faith and secured a mortgage on the property. With the aid of grants from the SC Conservation Bank, the Graham Foundation, the Greenville County Planning Commission, the SC Department of Transportation and Duke Power, the Foundation soon will pay off its mortgage and solely own the Henderson tract, bring the Foundation’s holdings to 257 acres.
 The Lake Conestee property and the Henderson property are adjoined upstream along the Reedy River by extensive public lands owned by the City of Greenville and Western Carolina Regional Sewer Authority. The Conestee Foundation’s vision is to work jointly with these two agencies, along with Greenville County, to form a 600-800 acre Lake Conestee Nature Park, a joint public access park and greenspace complex along the Reedy River, complete with hiking and biking trails, boardwalks, canoeing, kayaking, group activity areas, and educational resources. Several recent planning efforts, including Greenville Vision 2025, the County Recreational Needs Assessment, and the Clemson Saluda/Reedy River Study, have endorsed the concept of such a park at Lake Conestee and a public access greenway along the Reedy River.
The Foundation also received a $100,000 grant from the State Recreational Trails Fund Program of the SC Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism to build 2.2 miles of non-paved trails throughout the Lake Conestee Nature Park. These trails were completed and opened to the public in October, 2006.
The Conestee Foundation welcomes the support of local organizations, corporations, and individuals to help rehabilitate Lake Conestee, convert it to a community asset, and help revitalize the community of Conestee. We gladly accept tax-deductible contributions.
Please contact the Conestee Foundation Executive Director, Dr. Jeffery Beacham, for more information or to answer any questions regarding this project.
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Lake Conestee Nature Park Trail Map
click map for enlarged version |
Conestee Foundation
P.O. Box 9111
Greenville, SC 29604
Phone: 864-380-5233
Email: conesteepark@gmail.com
Web: Lake Conestee Nature Park
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