Land management project will expand Ashley River wildlife habitat

CHARLESTON, SC – A different kind of boat will be launched Thursday at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens to start a three-year effort to improve wildlife habitat and water quality in an impoundment and wildlife refuge along the Ashley River.

Tourists take a daily nature boat tour at Magnolia that travels on a 120-acre impoundment past alligators, wading birds, waterfowl and a variety of native plants.

But this week a flat-bottom airboat will skim the water as a crew from Sabine & Waters, environmental land management consultants in Summerville, spray cattail plants with an environmentally safe herbicide to remove the invasive vegetation that is choking the impoundment.

Tom Johnson, Magnolia’s executive director, said the spraying is the first phase of a process to create new habitat for waterfowl and migratory birds and improve the nature watching experience for wildlife enthusiasts.

Today, Magnolia is owned by the 12^th and 13^th generations of the Drayton family whose ownership of the 500-acre Magnolia began in the late 1670s. “This project is following through with the Drayton family’s three hundred year stewardship of the land to preserve a healthy landscape for the next generation,” Johnson said.

Robert C. Strange, a Sabine & Waters ecologist, said removing the cattails will allow for other plants and aquatic life to flourish and improve the food source for fowl and fish.

Following the herbicide treatment the dried cattails will be burned between January and March. The impoundment will be drained and the nature boat channel will be dredged deeper. Three more water control devices will be installed to allow for improved water exchange between an adjacent 20-acre impoundment and the Ashley River.

The spoil from the dredging will be used to create additional islands in the larger impoundment, Strange said. These islands will create new opportunities for birds to build nests and roost in the coming years.

The work will not chase away the alligators. “The gators will stick around, and they will be fine,” Strange added. “Magnolia has enough swamp, and they will go out in the river. They come, and they go.”