Park gets $$ to expand

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Spending bill includes money for park


RICHLAND COUNTY

The omnibus spending bill passed last week by the U.S. Congress included $6 million to buy land to expand Congaree National Park.

The money was included in the budget at the request of Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C. A national conservation group is set to negotiate with willing private landowners while the funds work their way through government bureaucracy.

South Carolina’s only national park covers about 22,000 acres in Lower Richland. Last year, Congress approved adding an additional 4,600 acres to the authorized boundaries of the park, but no funds were set aside for buying that property from landowners.

An additional 92 acres included in the park expansion approved in 1988 remains in private hands. The money also could be used to buy some of those tracts.

The 4,600-acre expansion in the park’s authorized boundaries includes one of the state’s largest oxbow lakes and a smattering of old-growth forest. It would link the current park with public land in the Santee Swamp, creating a 42,000-acre protected zone along the Congaree-Santee river basin.

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If you don't protect it, someone will develop it!