Our presence in wilderness areas on the Francis Marion-Sumter National Forests includes work in Ellicott Rock, Hell Hole Bay, Wambaw Swamp, Little Wambaw Swamp, and Wambaw Creek Wilderness Areas, which total 16,537 acres.
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Our work in South Carolina began in 2013 when our field crew completed a project in the Ellicott Rock Wilderness on the Francis Marion-Sumter National Forest. Our 2013 field crew was the result of a partnership with Groundwork Hudson Valley, and we hosted group of young people from Yonkers, NY that spent their summer with our crew leaders completing backcountry trail projects around the southeast.
Our work in South Carolina has grown considerably. Beginning in 2014, we have had a nearly continuous presence of wilderness rangers and specialists working in the Ellicott Rock Wilderness educating visitors, collecting extensive data on visitor use and trail conditions, and helping the forest move forward with management of the upper Chattooga River corridor within Ellicott Rock. Since 2018, our wilderness specialists have been working to complete Wilderness Character Narratives and Baseline Assessment Reports for not only the Ellicott Rock Wilderness, but the other four wildernesses in the outer coastal plain of South Carolina as well.
Our field crews have returned numerous times to the Ellicott Rock Wilderness rehabilitating campsites, installing stone cribbing along the Chattooga River Trail, and logging and brushing out sections of the Fork Mountain Trail, Ellicott Rock Trail, East Fork Trail, and Chattooga River Trail.
