Roseate Spoonbills forage at the Silver Bluff Audubon Sanctuary.
During the 1990s, a microburst uprooted about 90 acres of Silver Bluff’s forest along the river, and shortly after Audubon cleared the downed timber, a rush of Swainson’s Warblers flocked there after an extended absence. As trees grew back up, this species was seen less and less. Tim Evans, who oversees Audubon’s centers and sanctuaries here, says Audubon experimented with small clear cuts and soon discovered it could create habitat for Swainson’s warblers without harming the forest interior.
“As long as you keep 90 percent intact, you can throw 10 percent of property into an early successional state and create habitat for early successional species,” he tells us. “We since have exported that model, and the S.C. Forestry Commission has adopted bird-friendly forestry bottomland land management,” most recently with about 60,000 conserved acres in the Pee Dee.
While some logging occurs at Silver Bluff each year, Audubon is not immune from the free-falling prices in the state’s timber market, a dip brought about in large part by mill closures that have caused demand to dry up. It’s yet another reason we continue to call on state officials to seek new and creative solutions and new markets for wood.
Another challenge has been balancing and encouraging public access while still protecting the landscape so it’s enjoyed by those who come later. Unlike Beidler, where the public can access only a small part of the protected property, visitors to Silver Bluff can explore most of its 3,400 acres. However, the scourge of illegal dumping led Audubon to close down a public boat ramp on its property; in exchange, it bought a different 10-acre parcel on the Savannah River as a replacement for a new county boat ramp and picnic area.
Another opportunity for the next 50 years is highlighting the property’s rich cultural history, which stretches over centuries. The property includes Native American sites, colonial settlements, a British fortification captured by patriots in 1781 and the site of one of the nation’s first black churches, the Silver Bluff Baptist Church. Former Gov. James Henry Hammond once owned Silver Bluff and created detailed records of its buildings, crops, animals and enslaved people, making its archaeological sites, such as the African-American Colvin Cemetery, valuable to historians.
