Although the majority of the
ACE Basin's 350,000 acres are in private ownership or accessible only
by boat, several roadways probe the heart of the basin, offering glimpses
of the area's varied habitats. The route we have chosen requires some
backtracking, but return trips present new viewing angles and another
chance to observe the abundant wildlife. Because most of the ACE Basin
consists of private property, our tour follows public roads with stops
at boat landings and other public access points. Older or physically
impaired wildlife watchers may easily enjoy the sights and sounds of
the wetlands that surround us on this driving tour.
Our journey begins 7 miles below
Jacksonboro on US 17 and ends about 60 miles later just a few miles
farther south, again on Highway 17. The entire trip requires at least
half a day with plenty of opportunities to stop and observe the ACE
Basin's unique collection of habitats.
Traveling out of Jacksonboro, turn left
off 17 South onto SC Secondary Highway 26 (Bennett's Point Road). After
driving 10.5 miles through mostly mixed pines and hardwoods, park at
Brickyard Boat Landing on the right of the roadway. A short walk to
the top of the bridge over the Ashepoo River provides on of the view
elevated views of the ACE Basin's tens of thousands of acres of managed
wetlands and tidal marshes.
The Ashepoo River bisects the wedge-shaped
ACE Basin, while the Combahee and Edisto rivers more or less define
the basin's borders. This driving tour crosses only the Ashepoo among
the namesake rivers. Swirling beneath the bridge the dark, muddy waters
flow seaward (to the right) on the ebb tide and inland (to the left)
on the flood tide. Nutrients trapped by this ebb 
and flow sustain the basin's abundant flora
and fauna. Barn swallows nest on the bridge supports, and migrating
tree swallows, rough-winged swallows, and occasionally bank swallows
and cliff swallows dart and swoop beneath the bridge or rest on the
adjacent powerlines. Watch these wires throughout our trip, as birds
perch along them like clothespins on a laundry line.
On the right along the brackish river,
black needle rush dominates the wet, irregularly flooded landscape.
Slightly higher hummocks support thick forests of palmetto, pine, oak
and wax myrtle. To the left of the roadway, stretching to the east,
the natural environment has been altered to create impoundments where
water levels can be controlled. Giant cord grass grows abundantly along
the dikes that hold these brackish waters, while thick stands of cattails
emerge from the shallows.
The entire vista, on both sides of the
road, encompasses just part of the 12,000-acre Bear Island Wildlife
Management Area, a state-owned property managed for wintering waterfowl
and other wetland wildlife. In the vast expanse of sky above this watery,
grassy plain look for soaring eagles, anhingas, wood storks and vultures.
In fall and winter active flocks of wigeons, teals, pintails, mallards,
black and other puddle ducks crisscross these productive marshes.
One mile from Brickyard Bridge a viewing
platform provides a close up view of a managed wetland. The ACE Basin
contains some 26,000 acres of managed wetlands, many created during
the colonial rice cultures of 17th-19th centuries. 
Flocks of
waterfowl, wading birds and coots can be seen from this vantage point.
Driving another 1/4 mile along Highway
26 we arrive at the main entrance (on the left) to Bear
Island WMA. The areaoffers a variety of public recreational
opportunities and a full visit takes several hours. A quick stop at
the gate allows a view of a variety of wildlife in the wetlands on either
side. The many species of waterfowl, abundant in the fall and winter,
dwindle mostly to mottled ducks during the remainder of the year. The
gate area, however, often provides a good look at heron, egrets, cormorants,
coots, willets, yellowlegs, wood storks, terns, gulls and many other
birds, dependent on season and water levels. Bald eagles (at least 26
pairs nest in the ACE Basin) regularly soar overhead and perch sometimes
in the trees on the far edge of the impoundment to the right of the
gate.
Here, as in many of the basin's old rice
fields, alligators sun on the banks or float partially submerged, just
their eyes and nostrils showing. Blue crabs patrol the shallow edges
of the dark waters, and mullet occasionally jump in the canal on the
left of the access road. Juvenile saltwater fish and invertebrates ride
the flooding tides into impoundments' those capable of tolerating a
wide range of salinity survive and grow, establishing a highly productive
food chain.
At the edge of this wetland, a water control
structure, built of heavy treated timers, regulates flow to maintain
precise water levels. These primitive-looking trunks, developed by the
early rice planters for use throughout the coastal area, and needing
few refinements in 300 years, can be adjusted to manipulate movement
of the tide into or out of the impoundments. Waterfowl managers, by
controlling water levels, enhance the growth of wigeon grass and other
food plants preferred by wintering waterfowl. Given the basin's very
flat topography, so close to sea level, just a few feet of tidal rise
or fall will submerge or drain hundreds of acres in a matter of hours.
Returning again to the paved road, drive
3 miles to the end of the pavement and follow the dirt road to the right
another quarter of a mile to Bennett's Point Landing. On the left, just
before the landing is the field station for the ACE Basin National Estuarine
Research Reserve. This facility provides quarters and dockage for scientists
studying the pristine waters of the St. Helena Sound. Adjacent to the
landing, B&B Seafood Co. typifies the many small, isolated commercial
seafood docks along the South Carolina coast. Across Mosquito Creek
(a tributary of the Ashepoo River), acres of saltmarsh stretch into
the ACE Basin's National Estuarine Research Reserve. From the landing
look for brown pelicans, several species of gulls and terns and, in
the fall and winter, such typical saltmarsh inhabitants as horned grebes,
red-breasted mergansers and double-crested cormorants.
Having reached the end of Highway 26,
we now must retrace our route back to US 17, watching for deer, turkeys,
gray and fox squirrels along the wooded areas, and in the spring and
summer along the open areas, the azure flash of indigo buntings and
blue grosbeaks. The shoulders of the roadway support, in season, a variety
of wildflowers including colic-root, skullcap, orange milkwort, coral
bean, wild sweet potato and phlox.
Highway 26 passes the gates to several
large plantations, most developed to grow rice but, since about the
turn of the century, managed for wildlife. Many private landowners in
the ACE Basin have signed conservation easements which ensure that these
ecologically significant properties will remain undeveloped.
Back at Highway 17 turn left. After about
three miles pass (on the left) the entrance to Donnelley
WMA managed by the Department of Natural Resources. Donnelley is
a cross-section of the Lowcountry and encompasses a variety of habitats.
The area provides a variety of wildlife-related opportunities.
After another .7 mile,
we turn left onto Secondary highway 161 (Stocks Creek Rd), known locally
as Dirt Wiggins Road. This well-maintained dirt road runs about 5 miles
until it intersects with Highway 162. Part of 161 follows a hardwood
bluff offering an occasional glimpse of the Donnelley wetlands off to
the left. Much of this area, burned regularly to control the underbrush,
supports oaks and hickories and scattered spruce pine. On the right
of the road grow typical lowcountry shrubs such as devil's walking stick,
with its huge compound leaves, and dwarf palmetto, a miniature relative
of our state tree. Hermit thrushes in winter and wood thrushes in summer
haunt the quiet woods. As with most of this driving field trip, property
along the road belongs to private landowners. Do not trespass.
Secondary Highway 162 (Wiggins Road) joins
our road from the right. Continue on 161 and within a few hundred yards
turn left down a short dirt road to Old Chehaw River Boat Landing. Black
needle rush borders the Old Chehaw on the marsh side; small live oaks
of the maritime forest stand on its highland side. A brackish tributary
of the Combahee, this stream, like most in the basin, flows with the
tide, reversing direction four times daily.
The many waterways, marshes and swamps
of the ACE Basin have prevented easy development of the area, maintaining
the natural pristine character of much of the basin's 350,000 acres.
Because such a great variety of plants and animals thrive in and around
wetlands, preserving these habitats ensures the continued existence
of the region's diverse flora and fauna.
Leaving the
landing, we continue (to the left) on Highway 161 another 2.2 miles
to the end of the pavement. After less than a mile a small former railroad
building on the left proclaims the town of Wiggins at the entrance to
a private plantation. Bear right at the small green sign that reads
Public Boat Landing. After about a mile the road passes through an open
stand of maturing longleaf pine reminiscent of the 90 million acres
of virgin longleaf that once covered the Southeast. Producing more heartwood
than other local pines, this durable heart pine provided the early South
with structural timbers and flooring. Fallen longleaf cones, by far
the larges of the southern yellow pines, litter the roadsides and the
fern-covered forest floor. In the spring and early summer look for the
blooms of coral bean and sand milkweed, and listen for the plaintive
whistle of wood peewees and the squawks and cackles of yellow-breasted
chats.
The narrow road continues through stands
of mixed oaks and hickories where the sandy soil retains the tracks
of deer, wild hogs and turkeys. About 3 miles from Wiggins the road
ends at Fields Point Landing on a low bluff of live oaks. We have reached
one of the two most seaward parts of the ACE Basin accessible by public
road, with Bennett's Point similarly situated. The steep concrete landing
slices through the bluff to melt into the pluff mud-laden waters to
the Combahee River. Here transition vegetation such as sea ox-eye and
groundsel-tree all but vanishes as the overhanging live oak limbs droop
into the paler green of spartina grass.
Beyond the hazy horizon lies St. Helena
Sound and beyond the sound the ocean, some ten miles to the east of
the boat landing. This large, pristine estuary, which includes the seven
islands that make up the core area of the ACE Basin National Estuarine
Research Reserve, annually produces millions of dollars of commercial
seafood and provides outstanding recreational fishing.
High tide here covers all but the emergent
spartina stalks, while low tide exposes acres of mud flat crisscrossed
with the three-toed tracks of tricolored herons and snowy egrets and
the meandering trails of countless mud snails. Racks of dead spartina
at the high tide mark await bacterial breakdown to begin the highly
productive saltmarsh food chain. Amid the cries of laughing gulls, royal
terns and clapper rails, listen for the insistent song of slow moving
yellow-throated warblers and the quiet yank of white-breasted nuthatches
in the live oaks around the dirt parking lot.
Having once again driven as far into the
ACE Basin as possible, we now return to US 17, following the paved Highway
162, rather than retracing the original route on unpaved 161. Along
162 look for bluebirds, painted buntings and fox squirrels. The road
passes the attractive entrance gates to several of the ACE Basin's large
and historic private plantations. About 7 miles from the intersection
of 162 and 161, we return to Highway 17 where this trip concludes.
The ACE Basin also extends on the other
side of this highway and includes bottomland hardwood swamps and other
habitats not on this driving tour. Driving the ACE West gives a view
of this area.
The public can enjoy additional glimpses
of the basin at The Grove Plantation on the Edisto River south of Adams
Run and Bonny Hall on the Combahee River (both parts of the ACE
Basin National Wildlife Refuge) and Westvaco's Edisto Nature
Trail at Jacksonboro. Visitors can schedule a guided tour of Westvaco's
new Bluff Trail, thirteen miles south of Walterboro
on Highway 17A.
Walterboro-Colleton Chamber of Commerce
PO Box 426 (109-C Benson Street)
Walterboro, SC 29488
Phone: (843) 549-9595
Fax: (843) 549-5775
E-mail: info@walterboro.org