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Lowcountry Forest Conservation Project area
(click to enlarge)
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Conservation of southeastern US coastal plain ecosystems is a global
priority because of their high levels of biological diversity and rare
and endemic species. Globally significant remnant longleaf pine forests
support one of the richest herbaceous floras in the world, extensive
riparian forests and isolated wetlands are essential habitat for neotropical
migrants and a globally rare herpetofauna, and there is high community
diversity. These ecosystems have been shaped by the interaction of two
ecological processes: fire and hydrology. The 2.9 million-acre Lowcountry
Forest Conservation Project on the coastal plain of South Carolina supports
ecologically-viable examples of these species, communities and ecosystems,
in a relatively intact forested landscape. This landscape can be sustained
if conservation is accelerated and enhanced.
The project area is at risk from a combination of threats: urban development,
incompatible forestry practices, inappropriate fire regimes, altered
hydrology in three rivers and climate change. While serious, these threats
can be abated by a multi-faceted conservation approach.
The project is a partnership of Clemson University, Ducks Unlimited,
the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center, Lowcountry Open Land
Trust, South Carolina Coastal Conservation League, The Conservation
Fund and The Nature Conservancy. This proposal builds on long-standing
partnerships and expands them. Many of the organizations have proven
records of collaborative conservation over the last 15 years, beginning
with the nationally recognized ACE Basin Project. We propose to extend
this model to a larger scale by:
-Increasing funding for land protection
-Expanding efforts to reduce urban sprawl
-Creating and disseminating economically and ecologically viable methods
for conservation-based forest management on private lands
-Establishing a prescribed fire council to address constraints on fire
management
-Improving dam operations to restore river flows critical to floodplain
forests
No one strategy is sufficient in itself to abate the critical threats
and sustain the biological diversity of this forested landscape. The
partnership in this proposal has designed a balanced approach that allocates
funding and resources among all five strategies, which are mutually
reinforcing. Together, these coordinated strategies can set into place
longer-term actions that will succeed in sustaining this forested landscape
and its biological diversity.
The conceptual basis for this work is adapted from Lindenmayer and Franklin
(2002), emphasizing the following principles for conserving biological
diversity in forested landscapes:
-Maintenance of landscape connectivity
-Maintenance of landscape heterogeneity
-Maintenance of structural complexity
-Integrity of aquatic ecosystems
-Risk spreading and implementing conservation strategies at different
scales
-Use of natural disturbance patterns as a model for silviculture
While most conservation efforts have concentrated on public lands to
conserve biological diversity, our approach is novel in that it recognizes
the significant matrix of private lands within which key tracts of public
ownership exist. It offers an approach which, if successful, will be
useful in many parts of the world where public land ownership will never
be sufficient to conserve biological diversity. If the Doris Duke Charitable
Foundation funds this proposal, our partnership believes that we can
leverage the $4 million grant with conservation work valued in excess
of $80 million, including increased support from other private funding
sources.
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