The U.S. Forest Service is revisiting its plans for managing the sprawling Francis Marion National Forest northeast of Charleston, almost two decades after the plan was last updated.
The agency is holding a series of public hearings on using the almost 600,000 acres that were designated as national forest back in 1939. However, the area was inhabited long before that: a shell ring shows Native Americans lived in the area 4,000 years ago.
Later, the trails and swamps in the forest were used as a base of operations against the British by Revolutionary War Gen. Francis Marion, more popularly known as the Swamp Fox, for whom the forest is named.
From a later era, the forest encompasses Battery Warren, the remnants of a Confederate Battery built to guard the Santee River from federal troops.
A public hearing is scheduled for today in North Charleston to gather public comment on recreational and tourism opportunities.
“We’ll find out more about what our visitors need, want and value when they come to enjoy the forest with their friends and families,” said District Ranger Orlando Sutton.
The U.S. Forest Service is taking public comment on the plan through the middle of April. Comment can also be submitted online at http://1.usa.gov/15endQC , where visitors can say what they find unique about the forest, their favorite places to visit and what can be done to improve it.
It’s been nearly two decades since the plan for how forest lands should be used was last revised. That 1996 plan generally dealt with recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Hugo, which wiped out about a third of the forest with its 135 mph winds in 1989. Part of that plan outlined efforts to remove shrubs and vegetation that grew up on the forest floor in the wake of the hurricane and presented a fire danger. Much of that material was removed and used to generate power, a process that continues today.
One challenge for planners today is encroachment on rural forest. Suburban areas spreading outward from Charleston have expanded toward the forest boundaries in recent years
Topics South Carolina
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