South County Landscape

Wood River
© Benjamin Collier

Why the Conservancy Selected This Site
The South County Landscape boasts beaches and woodlands, pristine rivers and forested wetlands. Conservation planning efforts focused on a region stretching from Maine to Maryland identified this landscape as particularly rich in rare species and natural communities.

Threats
Towns in South County are under tremendous development pressure due to their rural quality, close proximity to beaches and easy commute to Providence and New London. Unprecedented rates of home construction are disrupting natural communities and fragmenting habitat.

Population growth has also increased demand for water. Most of South County is dependent on a single, sole source aquifer, and many of the landscape's natural treasures are aquatic in nature: the Queen's and Pawcatuck Rivers, coastal plain ponds and numerous bogs, fens and swamps. Ensuring public water supply without disrupting natural systems presents an growing conservation challenge.

Plants
Nestled within a broader landscape of oak and pine forests occur numerous rarities targeted for Conservancy protection. Sandplain gerardia (Agalinis acuta), now critically imperiled worldwide, endures in the occasional historic cemetery. New England Coastal Plain Ponds support an array of rare plants along their shorelines, including rose coreopsis (Coreopsis rosea). Several expanses of Atlantic white cedar swamp, a globally vulnerable natural community type, dot Rhode Island's southern reaches.

Birds
South County's beaches provide breeding habitat for the federally-threatened piping plover (Charadrius melodus). Other birds present in the landscape include scarlet tanagers, yellow-throated vireos and blue-gray gnatcatchers, black and white warblers, osprey, wood ducks and eastern bluebirds.

Other Animals
The ringed boghaunter dragonfly (Williamsonia lintneri) is among the rarest animals in the South County Landscape. In fact, many of the most threatened animals in the landscape are invertebrates: dragonflies, damselflies, moths and butterflies. On a larger scale, the Queen's River's clean, cold water supports a healthy native brook trout population. Woodlands and wetlands throughout the landscape sustain smoky shrews, Eastern spadefoot toads and the Eastern hognose snake.

Our Conservation Strategy
Once science-based planning has identified conservation priorities such as the South County Landscape, the Conservancy collaborates with partners to develop innovative and effective strategies to safeguard ecological targets and abate threats to their survival. In South County, the Conservancy works with local land trusts, the State of Rhode Island, and other partners to protect land and influence resource management practices.

What the Conservancy Has Done/Is Doing
Since 1985, The Nature Conservancy and its supporters have protected more than 7,500 acres in the South County Landscape. Perhaps its most noteworthy acquisition, in late 2001, established the Francis C. Carter Memorial Preserve. These 841 acres feature unspoiled pitch pine barrens, oak-heath forests and a large field that offers foraging and breeding habitat for grassland birds and uncommon moths and butterflies.

Places to Visit:

Nature Conservancy Preserves:
Beaver River Preserve
Francis C. Carter Memorial Preserve
Grass Pond Preserve
Pasquiset Pond Preserve
Queen's River Preserve

Other Protected Lands:
Trustom Pond National Wildlife Refuge (USFWS)
Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge (USFWS)
Burlingame State Park (RIDEM)
Carolina Management Area (RIDEM)
Great Swamp Management Area (RIDEM)