Charleston County has extensive protected land in the northeast with the Francis Marion National Forest and the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, and in the southwest with the ACE Basin.
Base map source: The Nature Conservancy
Almost 44% of all land in the County, which excludes open waters and salt marsh, is protected. That's a total of 200,396 acres out of 458,028 acres. The Greenbelt Program has protected 26,169 acres of both public and private land.
Source: The Nature Conservancy and the Greenbelt Program
The largest potion of protected land is under private ownership, almost 82,000 acres.
Source: The Nature Conservancy
Click on the image above to see how development and land conservation have changed in the Lowcountry since 2001.
Source: Post and Courier