Nemours Wildlife Foundation

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Nemours Wildlife Foundation

Beaufort County, SC

duPont Conservation Hall, 161 Nemours Plantation Dr, Yemassee, SC

GPS COORDINATES: 32.6406, -80.6808

Saturday, November 7^th, 2024 at 10:30am to 4:00pm

The Nemours Wildlife Foundation manages a 9,680-acre property in the ACE Basin which straddles Savannah Highway at the Harriet Tubman Bridge and runs along the banks of the Combahee River, where it divides Beaufort and Colleton Counties. The ACE Basin, heralded as one of the “Last Great Places on Earth”, is a national biodiversity hotspot and, since its inception 35 years ago, has become the most successful landscape-scale conservation initiative in the nation. Nemours is an encapsulation of what makes the ACE Basin special.

Nemours Wildlife Foundation was founded in 1995 by the duPont family with a mission to, “facilitate conservation and human well-being in the ACE Basin and beyond through collaborative scientific research, leadership development, management demonstration, and experiential education.” The duPont family purchased the property piecemeal from the 1940s thru ‘60s to eventually create the Nemours property we see today. Going back in history further, the property originally was controlled by the Yemassee people. During colonization, the Yemassee people were displaced and the property divided into several plantations. In the colonial period and antebellum, the land was transformed through enslaved African’s labor to create the extensive inland and tidal rice fields still found on the property (which today are managed for ducks and biodiversity). Much of the uplands were managed for the production of naval stores, timber, indigo dye, and eventually sea island cotton. After the Civil War, rice production collapsed and much of the property, as was the case across much of the Lowcountry, began to revert back to more natural conditions and, eventually, it entered management as hunting lands and finally ownership by the duPonts.

The Nemours property contains a broad cross-section of the ecosystems and biodiversity that defines the uniqueness of the ACE Basin. The property borders the tidal freshwater channel of the Combahee River and contains numerous tidal rice fields managed within its marshes as well as expanses of natural freshwater marshes alongside the river. Tributaries and streams of the Combahee were dammed to create inland rice fields, now returning to bottomland forest. Strips of bottomland hardwood forest, mixed mesic forest, and upland Longleaf Pine Savanna provide a continuum of ecotones that foster dense biodiversity on the uplands as well. Excepting maritime forest and dunes, the property has an a nearly comprehensive collection of Lowcountry habitats.

Restrooms are available at the meeting location. We will traverse the property by open-air wagon. Please be prepared to carry everything with you that you will need for the day.

DIRECTIONS TO NEMOURS: duPont Conservation Hall, Nemours Plantation Drive – (GPS: 32.6409, -80.6805)

1. From the US-21 interchange, travel 5.2 miles eastward on US-17-N, the gate will be on the right.

From the west bank of the Combahee River, travel 0.5 mile westward on US-17-S, the gate will be on the left.

2. The entrance is located directly off of US-17 onto Nemours Plantation Drive. (GPS: 32.64987, -80.69089)
3. Once on Nemours Plantation Drive, drive 0.4 of a mile south to the fork and bear left. FOLLOW THE SIGNS!
4. Continue straight for another 0.4 of a mile, at the second fork stay straight then bear left. (see below)
5. Continue for another 0.2 of a mile and park on the right under the oaks.
6. Meet outside the duPont Conservation Hall. (Located at: 32.6409, -80.6805)

RSVP REQUIRED. SPACE LIMITED TO 20 ATTENDEES. SCAN ACCESS BY WAGON ONLY.

RSVP by email to Tom at: scnaturalists76@gmail.com to reserve your space.

For questions and day-of directions, please contact:                     Tom Austin, Secretary & Southern Regional Director