Nine Times preservation opens new vistas Critical habitat to be managed by DNR Jul. 21, 2013 11:57 PM | 1Comments A A Mac Stone pokes around Big Rock Mountain looking for rattlesnakes. / Charlie Sowell Written by Charlie Sowell Special to The Greenville News Filed Under News Nine Times got its name because Northern timber barons had to throw nine bridges across a small creek to get their railroad line in to access the land. Today, the 1,640-acre tract of land was recently preserved as part of the agreement that will give Duke Energy Corp. the right to generate electricity with the Keowee/Jocassee hydro complex for the next half-century. It is the last large piece of undeveloped land left along the Blue Wall Escarpment, environmentalists say. Eventually, the land will be managed by the Department of Natural Resources, said Mac Stone, director of Naturaland Trust, the land-trust preservation organization founded by Greenville conservationist and attorney Tommy Wyche. The drive to purchase Nine Times was an all-out, full-court press, said Dana Leavitt, Land Trust special projects director for Upstate Forever. “I remember how hard we pushed the state Conservation Land Bank on this,” he said. “Upstate Forever and the conservation community tried to purchase this tract back in 2008 and we just could not come up with the money.” So they had to settle for the 508-acre tract across E. Preston McDaniel Highway known today as The Nature Conservancy tract. Patrick McMillan, of Clemson University and host of SCETV’s “Expeditions” nature series, once identified 134 different species of wildflowers in one small plot of the Nine Times Tract. “This land was last logged about 30 years ago,” said Leavitt, while he led a tour of the property. “So while you won’t find the diversity of plant species here, you will find great numbers of wildlife.” The tract’s size and abundance of wildlife is part of the reason plans are to turn it over to DNR once the purchase has been completed, probably early next year, said Stone. “I just don’t have time to run up here and check every time someone calls about trash dumping, or illegal RV usage.” DNR has the staff and expertise for that, he said. Plus the area was traditionally used for hunting during the years that it was controlled by Duke.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 00:11:07 +0000
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