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Conservation leaders are celebrating the protection of nearly 1,000 acres in rapidly growing Jasper County, once a rural backwater that today faces increasing development pressures.
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The state has protected the 972-acre Meyer Lake area and is preparing to open the property for public use this summer, according to a news release from the Lowcountry Land Trust, a conservation group that helped save the land from development. Saving the Meyer Lake area near the South Carolina-Georgia border helps the environment of both states, officials said.
“Conserving places like Meyer Lake not only strengthens a growing corridor of protected lands, but also helps safeguard clean water for Beaufort, Jasper, Effingham and Chatham counties by protecting natural wetlands and Savannah River drinking water sources,’’ according to a news release quoting Matt Williams, president and chief executive at the Lowcountry Land Trust.
The land trust was to hold a dedication ceremony with the state Department of Natural Resources, Ducks Unlimited and the S.C. Conservation Bank on Friday, May 22, in Hardeeville.
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Jasper County, just inland from high-end Hilton Head Island near the Savannah River, is the fastest growing county in the United States since 2020, rising in population from 29,000 to 38,000, according to a recent New York Times story.
The Meyer Lake property is next to the federally protected Savannah National Wildlife Refuge and is part of a broader network of about 38,000 acres of preserved land in the area, conservationists said. The property includes a freshwater lake, an oxbow lake, isolated wetlands, hardwood forests and more than three miles of frontage on the Savannah River.
According to plans, the land will become a wildlife management area, a designation that generally allows hunting and fishing. It also will be designated as a heritage preserve, an area of protected land overseen by the state Department of Natural Resources.
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