On Saturday June 16th the Lowcountry chapter had its first workday on our new trail at Magnolia Plantation. In our continuing partnership with the fine folks at Magnolia, we have adopted an established though little-used trail in the Audubon Swamp Garden. We have christened this The Halfway Habitat Trail. The idea behind this trail is that not only will we work on the trail but that, in the long run, this trail will work for us. It provides us with a location to place rescued plants where they can be utilized for both beauty and education. It also gives us a large-scale public service project that can be used to attract new people to our organization. Most importantly, we will be able to ‘farm’ these plants, providing local native stock for NPS projects, Magnolia Plantation and local native plant growers.
The trail itself is over 1200 feet long, winding between the shady rich wetlands along an old reservoir and higher dryer oak-beech woods. Along one of several ‘streams’ that the trail crosses we planted southern sugar maple, indian pink, trillium, mayapple, witch hazel as well as several types of fern.
All in all it was a great morning. The group was introduced to the trail, got their hands dirty and made a difference – an excellent beginning to a great project for the South Carolina Native Plant Society.