An Introduction to the Edisto

The Edisto River Basin

Extending from the Carolina Sandhills to the tidelands at the Atlantic Ocean, the Edisto River Basin is a rich landscape that has attracted and supported people for at least ten thousand years. Residents and visitors alike continue to enjoy the natural and cultural features and rural lifestyles of the Edisto Basin.

The following descriptions, with links to related websites, highlight aspects of the Edisto River Basin that make this place attractive.  Here, you'll find dozens of reasons for why we value the Edisto.

The Edisto: longest free-flowing blackwater river . . .
The Edisto is a blackwater river system. The water has a dark tea color because the water is stained by chemicals known as tannins leached from the tree leaves and other plant material that decays in the surrounding swamps. The approximately 310 unobstructed river miles from the headwaters in Edgefield and Saluda counties to the Atlantic Ocean have distinguished the Edisto as one of the longest free-flowing blackwater rivers in the United States.

Productive Ag and Forest Lands
The basin contains some of the most productive agricultural and forest land in South Carolina, contributing a major share to its overall production. The Edisto Basin yields about one-fifth of the state's total annual cash receipts for timber and forest products and about one-third of the state's cash receipts for crops and livestock; however, the basin's land area comprises only ten percent of the state's land area.

Manufacturing Industry
Within the past few decades, the industry has expanded in the basin, with manufacturing now employing more significant numbers. It is interesting to note that South Carolina has one of the highest percentages of manufacturing workers in the country (25 percent), and the Edisto River Basin area exceeds the state average.

Rural / Natural Landscapes
Even with these changes, the area's natural and cultural heritage still plays a central role in the overall quality of life for residents of the Edisto Basin. The region maintains its rural character and enjoys a bounty of natural beauty and rich cultural resources.

Forests and natural vegetative cover occupy over 60 percent of the basin's land area. And 85 percent of Edisto's riparian habitats are intact. Riparian habitats are the wetlands and forests on the banks and flood plains of the rivers and streams. The resulting benefits, such as good water quality and healthy wildlife populations, enhance the basin's citizens' quality of life.

Wildlife
The Edisto Basin supports 94 natural ecological communities (not including aquatic communities), which supports a wide diversity of animal species. Populations of several nationally threatened and endangered species are located in the basin. Their presence suggests that the Edisto Basin contains intact and uncontaminated habitats rare or unique in the nation. These species include the red-cockaded woodpecker, southern bald eagle, wood stork, loggerhead turtle, and short-nosed sturgeon. Large game animals in the area include the white-tailed deer, which is widely distributed, and the eastern wild turkey. These and smaller game species are abundant and continue to attract hunters to the Edisto Basin.

Fisheries
The free-flowing Edisto River provides habitats for notable fish species such as the anadromous striped bass, American shad, shortnose sturgeon, Atlantic sturgeon, and American eel. A total of 87 freshwater species and 120 saltwater species of fish have been collected and identified from the Edisto Basin. DNR fisheries research indicates the Edisto supports many priority species and high aquatic biodiversity. About one-third of all priority fish species of conservation concern, as identified in the State Wildlife Action Plan, are found in the Edisto River system.

According to DNR, freshwater fish species directly targeted by anglers include largemouth bass, striped bass, redbreast sunfish, and black crappie. Other fish often caught are bluegill, redear, warmouth, and several catfish species, including channel, flathead, and flat and yellow bullheads. After introducing flathead catfish in the 1980s, impacts to the native fish community of the Edisto River altered the recreational freshwater fishery. Redbreast sunfish are still being sought, but bluegill sunfish are increasing as the dominant species are harvested. Bullhead catfish are now scarce in the system.

The ACE Basin
One of the more significant land conservation efforts in the eastern United States has occurred in the area known as the ACE Basin, a coastal wetland wilderness that lies at the mouth of the Edisto River.
The ACE Basin is a region of diverse natural habitats within the coastal areas of the Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto rivers of South Carolina. The site has been identified as one of the highest priority regions for protection under the North American Waterfowl Management Plan. The Nature Conservancy has called it one of the "last great places." The ACE Basin has been classified as a nationally significant wildlife ecosystem by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. This region's exceptional characteristics have resulted in the focus of significant national conservation efforts aimed at a contiguous 350,000-acre area comprising portions of four counties. The ACE Basin Project is a cooperative land conservation effort involving private landowners, the Ducks Unlimited Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. These groups have protected important habitats in the ACE Basin through land acquisition and conservation easements. Many of the protected areas are located within the Edisto River Basin, including the following --

• ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge
• Bear Island Wildlife Management Area
• Botany Bay Plantation Heritage Preserve Wildlife Management Area
• Edisto Beach State Park
• ACE Basin National Estuarine Research Reserve

Heritage of Colonial Rice Planting Culture
In the ACE Basin, one can see a distinctive feature in the cultural landscape of South Carolina: old rice field impoundments. After Charles Town (Charleston) was established in 1670, British colonists' plantations and settlements were spreading into the Edisto Basin and up the Edisto River in the early 1700s. By 1750, rice planting showed great success in the tidal river swampland, and thereafter rice remained a principal crop in South Carolina for nearly 150 years. Today, along the Edisto River, roughly 12,000-acres of rice field impoundments are found in the river system's tidal areas. Most of the rice fields are now managed primarily as waterfowl habitat; however, as structures built nearly 250 years ago they are also cultural features representative of the plantation agriculture system of the old South.

• Aiken State Park
• Colleton State Park
• Givhans Ferry State Park
• Edisto Beach State Park

Edisto Memorial Gardens is in the City of Orangeburg along the North Fork Edisto River. The gardens feature hundreds of roses species, as well as wisteria, dogwoods, azaleas, and crape myrtle. The adjacent wetland park has a series of boardwalks through the riverside swamp. The Orangeburg Arts Center is adjacent to the gardens.

The South Carolina Heritage Corridor
A Congressionally designated National Heritage Area overlaps eight counties of the Edisto River Basin. For visitors to the area, the Heritage Corridor unfolds a nationally significant story about the settlement and development of the United States; and the Edisto River is part of that story. The Heritage Corridor involves communities from a total of 14 South Carolina counties in a regional tourism effort that is developing and marketing the region's cultural, historical, geographic, and natural amenities. This project, supported by the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism, is beginning to develop the tourism economy around many of the Edisto Basin's natural, historical, and cultural attractions.