The state will buy nearly 1,100 acres in the Upstate, adding to a tapestry of protected properties. (Provided/Mac Stone, Naturaland Trust)
PICKENS COUNTY — A 1,000-acre property is set to become a state-operated nature preserve next year, joining a larger tapestry of land protected from development in South Carolina’s Upstate, the state Department of Natural Resources announced Wednesday.
Conservation group Naturaland Trust purchased the property, known as Saluda Bluffs, in 2023 using a $9 million grant from the state-funded Conservation Bank. This allowed the land trust to close on the property sooner than if the state had bought it outright.
Now the state Department of Natural Resources, with help from the state Office of Resilience, will reimburse that money back to the Conservation Bank to use for future preservation projects. The agency will take over the property at the beginning of 2025 to run as the South Saluda Wildlife Management Area, according to a news release.
“This is another huge victory for conservation in South Carolina and a tribute to invaluable partnerships,” agency Director Robert Boyles Jr. said in a news release.
Located just south of the North Carolina border, the preserve will be open to the public, according to the conservation agency.
When Naturaland bought the property last year, it was the largest privately-held piece of undeveloped land in Pickens County, according to the Upstate-focused conservation group.
Located “in the bullseye of decades of conservation work,” the group’s website reads, the land is visible from the top of the nearby Table Rock and Caesars Head mountains, as well as the Bald Rock Heritage Preserve’s overlook.
That meant a developer who bought the land could easily wreck the view, Naturaland Trust Executive Director Mac Stone said in a statement.
Owner Hans Menzel put the land for sale once before in recent years and was facing “immense pressure from developers and real estate agents to sell and list the property again,” according to Naturaland.
But Menzel, who runs a manufacturing company in Spartanburg, opted to protect the land instead.
“We are very proud to be in the Upstate and honored to be part of the conservation legacy where our family land will be enjoyed by future generations,” Menzel said in a statement.
The view from the bluffs is quite impressive, officials said following a Wednesday visit. While not contiguous, some 10,000 acres of state parks, heritage preserves, wildlife management areas and other protected lands not managed by the state are visible from the newly safeguarded property.
“We are blessed to be surrounded in all directions by half a century of conservation initiatives that have protected these gorgeous foothills and mountains — the very best of South Carolina’s Blue Ridge,” Stone said in a statement. “We are adding another thousand acres to this landscape thanks to our passionate partners, without whom these striking views may have been lost forever.”
Not only are the views important, but protecting the land also will help the state’s waterways.
The South Saluda River flows along the northern property line, and a mile of Scenic Highway 11 runs along the southern edge of the land.
The river is essential to ensuring clean drinking water, according to the news release, and keeping development off the surrounding floodplains can prevent future flooding.
“As a water utility, land conservation is intuitive,” said Andy Sevic, general manager of Easley Combined Utilities, which contributed funding for the purchase. “It’s much more cost effective for us to protect drinking water at the source than to treat it later.”