Trust gets 123-acre easement along Catawba

Springsteen Properties recently donated a 123-acre conservation easement to the Katawba Valley Land Trust (KVLT), said Derick Close, president of the company.

The property is located along the Catawba River in Chester County, across from the Cane Creek conservation easement granted to KVLT in 2003 by Springs Industries.

The easement preserves a mile and a half of river frontage.

The land consists largely of bottomland hardwoods, replete with towering sycamore, beech, cottonwood and oak trees.

The backwaters, filled with southern wild rice, are home to wood ducks, herons and egrets.

A baseline survey conducted by KVLT naturalist Austin Jenkins in mid-October also noted birds such as red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, red-bellied and red-headed woodpeckers and other fauna, such as ringneck snakes, cricket frogs and box turtles.

Showy bur-marigold was in full bloom, representing the first record of its species in Chester County, and adding to only one other county of record in the piedmont of South Carolina.

“This property is an ecological treasure, well worth protecting, and we are very proud of this addition to our land trust,” Jenkins said.

“We appreciate this conservation easement as part of our continued emphasis on protecting the Catawba River, its tributaries, and the surrounding forest land,” said KVLT president Lindsay Pettus.  

“Springsteen Properties is proud of this donation,” Close said. “With this conservation easement, critical habitat, as well as significant ecological assets, will be preserved for future generations. This further expands the protected area along the Catawba.”

The Katawba Valley Land Trust is a private, nonprofit conservation organization dedicated to the protection of natural resources, open lands, waters and historic resources in the Catawba River Valley and surrounding areas.

To date, KVLT has protected 7,550 acres of land in 55 land transactions in five South Carolina counties.

For details, contact Jenkins, executive director of the land trust, at 285-5801 or katawba@kvlt.org.