Black River Subbasin

Success! Mitigation Monies Used to Conserve Land

In 2005, Central Electric Power Cooperative received approval from SC Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management to site a power line across the Black River in Georgetown County. On behalf of Winyah Rivers Foundation (WRF) and the Sierra Club, South Carolina Environmental Law Project filed an appeal and ultimately received a settlement of $125,000 to be used for land protection in the area.

WRF members Michael Hyrowski, Larry Fox and Christine Ellis and SCELP’s Amy Armstrong sat on the committee to identify areas of high conservation value worthy of protection and in late 2008 successful identified a worthy land conservation project. Working with Maria Whitehead of The Nature Conservancy (TNC), we used these settlement funds to contribute to the Winyah Bay Drainage Protection Project.

The Winyah Bay Drainage Protection Project, coordinated by TNC and including the Grissom Parkway Mitigation Fund, a WWW Foundation grant and private funds, endeavors to undertake landscape level protection of strategic tracts of freshwater, forested and estuarine wetlands, along with uplands threatened by development in the Black, Pee Dee and Waccamaw River corridors. Approximately 1660 acres of land, including five former industrial forest tracts, will be protected under this Project. The easement will be held by the Pee Dee Land Trust.

WRF is appreciative of the efforts of the committee and all of the Project partners. This successful conclusion to the appeal and settlement will help to protect prime wildlife and natural resource habitat in perpetuity.