Climate Strong Communities
Amid the challenges of a warming planet, we can find strength in nature—and in each other.
South Carolina’s Salt Marshes The Chelsea Plantation waterfrontage acts as a critical saltwater marsh migration corridor that will help the area adapt to future ecosystem changes. © Holstein Appraisals
Today, climate change throws life-threatening, non-stop challenges at us. But the situation isn’t hopeless, and we’re not helpless. In fact, when we grow our connections with the people and nature around us, we become more resilient than ever.
By protecting and restoring natural habitats, communities can adapt to and mitigate the impacts of coastal hazards, all the while supporting important plants and wildlife.
How can nature protect our communities from climate change?
TNC in South Carolina is taking a multi-faceted approach to strengthening our communities in the face of rising seas and stronger storms. This includes both protecting remaining Lowcountry properties from development and harnessing the power of nature to strengthen shorelines.
As we’ve witnessed through community activism and volunteerism, South Carolinians are coming together to defend and protect land and water.
Together, through partnerships, grass roots mobilization and good old-fashioned teamwork, we are strengthening our communities.
Quote: Dale Threatt-Taylor
Chelsea’s fate was one of this region’s major tipping points for the future of its wildlife habitat, historical character and water quality... We weren’t willing to leave it to chance.
Executive Director, The Nature Conservancy in South Carolina
Saving Chelsea Plantation
Jasper County, SC, is the third fastest growing county in the nation. With this growth comes rapid development. But as nearby residents experienced the loss of their stunning salt marshes and wild lands, they mobilized to save them.
Protecting the recent Chelsea Plantation property was a true community effort. With the threat of development looming, the community banded together, including residents of the small communities that dot the area and nearby Beaufort County. Groups like Keep Chelsea Rural went door-to-door with flyers against developing the property and even put up billboards saying folks wanted to preserve their rural community. Then, TNC’s incredible donors stepped up to help fund this acquisition.
This 2,700-acre property secures more than seven miles of frontage along Hazzard Creek, which drains into the Broad River and is part of Port Royal Sound watershed.
TNC in South Carolina has prioritized protection in the Port Royal Sound, including other recent acquisitions like the 7,300-acre Buckfield Plantation (now part of the new Coosawhatchie Wildlife Management Area) and the 4,409-acre Gregorie Neck property.
ACE Basin
Twisting streams on Otter Island, a coastal wetland area, supporting many fish species and helping shelter coastal communities from storms.
© Tom Blagden
Creating a Corridor
TNC in South Carolina is working with partners to expand an existing corridor between the Ashepoo-Combahee-Edisto River Basin (ACE Basin) and protected properties along the Savannah River on the Georgia border. The protection of the Chelsea, Gregorie Neck and Buckfield properties is part of a yearslong partner effort to protect remaining Lowcountry lands and equip communities for future ecosystem changes.
About Gregorie Neck
The 4,400-acre Gregorie Neck property is flanked by deep water access on the Coosawhatchie and Tulifiny Rivers and bisected by Interstate 95, making it a highly sought out site for development. But, to preserve the region’s nature and wildlife, TNC purchased the property and will be permanently protecting it with a conservation easement through the Open Space Trust.
Gregorie Neck is home to massive pines and hardwoods that have not been harvested in many decades. Impoundments along the rivers’ edges provide critical habitat for wading birds and migratory waterfowl. Open agricultural fields support livestock and songbirds.
About Buckfield
Buckfield protects more than 7,300 acres in coastal South Carolina’s Hampton and Jasper counties. The property links ecologically significant landscapes to create a 12,000-acre stretch of protected land in this fast-growing region. TNC acquired 3,654 acres, marking a bold first step in the permanent protection of Buckfield, while Open Space Institute acquired the remaining 3,672 acres to join its previously secured 5,000-acre Slater property. These lands were purchased by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) and became the Coosawhatchie Heritage Preserve and Wildlife Management Area.
Lowcountry Land Acquisitions
Living Shorelines Volunteers Strengthen South Carolina Shores
The same natural features that give us great fishing and recreation can also stabilize our shores.
Oyster reefs not only play a part in keeping water at bay, but also keep sand in. In addition to reducing or reversing erosion by trapping sediment, oyster reefs have many benefits:
- Keep Water Clean—One grown oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day.
- Provide Wildlife Habitat—You’ll notice that the best fishing is around healthy oyster reefs and marshes.
- Absorb Wave Energy—Living shorelines absorb wave energy, slowing waves down as they crash into natural materials, oyster shells and marsh grasses.
TNC South Carolina is restoring oyster reefs as a barrier against rising sea levels and stronger storms. Known as living shorelines, green infrastructure projects like restoring oyster reefs give coastal communities a chance to heal themselves—naturally.
Quote: Dale Threatt-Taylor
Volunteers, conservation organizations and government entities have worked for 20 years building living shorelines one bag and one block at a time. Those efforts are making a real difference, but we need to significantly scale up our work to keep pace with more intense storms and rising sea levels.
Executive Director, The Nature Conservancy in South Carolina
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Hardening Shorelines Near Military Housing
The Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort recognizes the close interconnectivity of their resilience and adaptive capacity within this tri-command area. TNC has partnered with the base to boost resilience, as well as to promote activities outside their direct vicinity to reduce vulnerabilities to climate change, protect critical infrastructure and help
Completed oyster restoration: A completed living shoreline, comprised of Oyster Castle pieces, along coast of Laurel Bay at Marine Corps Air Station, Beaufort SC. © Nichole Pehl/TNC
Oyster castles, Beaufort SC: Oyster Castles® are interlocking, concrete blocks that are installed along a shoreline with bags of clam and oyster shells. © Nichole Pehl/TNC
Living shoreline build, SC: 2025 Volunteers help restore an oyster reef at Marine Corp Airforce Base, Beaufort County, SC © Kyle Baskin
Kyle Baskin: Volunteers help restore an oyster reef at Marine Corp Airforce Base, Beaufort County, SC. © Kyle Baskin
Living shoreline build, SC: 2025 Volunteers help restore an oyster reef at Marine Corp Airforce Base, Beaufort County, SC © Kyle Baskin
TNC Is Scaling Up Impact to Create Healthy Coasts
In July 2023, The Nature Conservancy in South Carolina was awarded $6.8 million from NOAA’s Transformational Habitat Restoration and Coastal Resilience Grant. The funds will support a four-year project to implement a program titled Transforming the Scale and Equity of Living Shorelines in South Carolina.
The program consists of three tasks:
- Install a 2,000-foot Oyster Castle® living shoreline reef with the Department of Defense (DoD) along the Broad River adjacent to the Laurel Bay housing community for the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) in Beaufort, SC.
- Conduct a stakeholder-driven process known as the Community Assistance Program to install and monitor one acre of living shoreline projects in underserved communities in South Carolina.
- Develop a Nature-Based Coastal Resilience Implementation Plan through a stakeholder process that identifies multi-acre projects that TNC and partners can implement over the next 10 years.
South Carolina Resilience and Adaptation
Volunteers Strengthen Shorelines
Goldbug Island
A volunteer measures oysters at a reef built on Goldbug Island.
© Andrea Margiotta
Collaboration Promotes Nature-Based Solutions
The Nature-Based Exchange aims to foster the widespread and practical application of natural and nature-based solutions (NNBS) throughout South Carolina to address climate change, biodiversity loss, water management and social inequalities. A collaborative effort led by The Nature Conservancy, the initiative focuses on promoting equity, community engagement and environmental resilience to increase NNBS awareness, access and development.
Collaborating for Resilience
TNC in South Carolina relies on partnership to strengthen our communities. In land acquisition, we work closely with partners like the Open Space Institute, Open Land Trust and Sustain South Carolina, as well as the South Carolina Conservation Trust and SC Dept. of Natural Resources.
These partnerships extend to TNC in South Carolina’s living shoreline and education work too. As a partner in the Nature-Based Exchange, TNC’s Liz Fly hosts the Conversing with Nature podcast. We invite partners to chat with us about their projects and opportunities to collaborate, including related episodes:
- Making the Case for Oysters with Andy Hollis (SCDNR)
- The Nature-Based Roots of the Gullah Geechee with Marilyn Hemingway
- Building Resilient Ecosystems and Communities Through Education and Exploration with Jonathan Zucker
These connections make land protection possible. Together, we go much farther, faster than we could alone. As we work to strengthen South Carolina in the face of climate change—including saving lands from development and stabilizing eroding coasts—we must work as a community, for our communities.
