Nearly 2,000 acres of upland hardwoods, wetlands, and streams draining into the Enoree River are now permanently protected inside Sumter National Forest, after The Nature Conservancy in South Carolina announced the transfer of the land to the U.S. Forest Service. The tract sits in Laurens County, directly adjoining the unincorporated community of Joanna, and becomes part of the forest's Enoree Ranger District.
The transfer, reported by Greenville News, permanently shields the land from development and expands the footprint of publicly available land in a community that has watched growth creep south along the I-26 corridor. Joanna, home to more than 2,000 residents on the southwestern edge of the forest, sits between Greenville and Columbia in a stretch of the Upstate that has felt that pressure directly, according to The Clinton Chronicle.
Dale Threatt-Taylor said development moving south along the I-26 corridor is putting natural spaces under significant pressure, per the Greenville News report. The newly transferred acreage adjoins a 335-acre Laurens County park, and the Enoree Ranger District already offers hiking, horseback riding, and paddling across its holdings.
A Deal Years in the Making
The 1,950 acres trace back to a much larger purchase: The Nature Conservancy bought 2,281 acres in 2023 for $6.47 million, according to the Post and Courier. The conservancy managed the property itself until the transfer to the Forest Service could be finalized, per the Greenville News account.
Laurens County had already carved off a piece of that same tract, buying an adjacent 335-acre parcel from the conservancy in October 2024 to build a county equestrian park designed to connect with the Palmetto Trail and Sumter National Forest, the Post and Courier reports. That park is the same 335-acre property the new forest acreage now borders.
The conservancy's activity in the area didn't stop there. In 2025, it secured the largest conservation easement in Laurens County history at Creekwood Farms, protecting a 2,000-acre tract adjacent to Sumter National Forest through a $2 million donated easement, according to the same Post and Courier report.
What the Public Gets Access To
Daniel McInnis said the transfer improves forest access and expands recreation opportunities for the local community, per Greenville News. Forest Service officials framed the addition as a legacy investment, saying future generations can hunt, hike, and connect with the area's landscapes as a result.
Like the rest of Sumter National Forest, the new acreage will be co-managed for wildlife by the U.S. Forest Service and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources under the state's Wildlife Management Area program, according to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. That designation keeps the land open for public hunting and fishing. The Enoree Ranger District already contains specialized waterfowl habitat, including the Duncan Creek Waterfowl Management Area along tributaries of the Enoree River, per the same state wildlife agency, along with managed dove fields and quail focal areas.
Part of a Bigger Push Statewide
Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests partnered with The Nature Conservancy on the deal, and officials say the addition supports South Carolina's Ten Million Acres Initiative, launched by Governor Henry McMaster in 2024. The initiative aims to permanently conserve half of the state's 20 million total acres by 2050, adding roughly 150,000 protected acres a year, according to Upstate Forever. Upstate Forever describes the goal as putting an additional 7 million acres into lasting stewardship.
The stakes behind that push are stark. Between 2014 and 2024, South Carolina lost more than 230,000 acres of open land to development, even as land trusts and state agencies protected a record 102,300 acres in 2025 across 139 separate transactions, according to the South Carolina Land Trust Network. Those efforts have brought the state's total protected land base to 3.24 million acres.
Sumter National Forest itself dates to July 13, 1936, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Proclamation 2188 to rehabilitate eroded farmland and logged-over watersheds using New Deal programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps, according to The American Presidency Project. Much of the original forest consisted of worn-out farm fields the federal government bought up during the Great Depression.
Today the forest spans roughly 370,000 acres across three ranger districts: the Enoree district, which stretches across Newberry, Union, Chester, Laurens, and Fairfield counties and is the largest of the three at more than 160,000 acres; the 120,000-acre Long Cane Ranger District; and the 85,000-acre Andrew Pickens Ranger District in Oconee County, per the U.S. Forest Service. Nearby Musgrove Mill reopened with new exhibits this year.
