Our Land Conservation team protected 3,598 acres of private and public forests, farmlands, and green spaces across Upstate South Carolina last year. What's more, additional projects where Upstate Forever was integral to the effort’s success comprise nearly 900 additional acres.

These projects span the region, including a historic home and property in Travelers Rest, hundreds of acres that will someday expand one of the Upstate's most loved State Park, lands critical to local agriculture, water quality, animal habitat, and more.

From your community to the Statehouse, we're advocating for policies that protect natural resources, fund conservation initiatives, build statewide resilience, protect drinking water from toxic chemicals, and more. Click here to read more about these advocacy issues and the reasons we've chosen to prioritize them.

On Friday, Feb. 25 from 3:00-6:00 pm and Saturday, Feb. 26 from 9:00 am-12:00 pm, stop by ReWa in Greenville or Trailblazer Park in Travelers Rest to pick up 4 free bareroot trees per household. We're proud to partner with Friends of the Reedy River, TreesUpstate & others on this initiative to to help reforest the Reedy River watershed. More details here

Council had the opportunity this week to advance a streamlined zoning process, which residents in unzoned, mostly rural areas of Greenville County have requested for years. Frustratingly, six Council members blocked the effort without explanation. Click here to read more and contact Greenville County Council.

Earlier this month, 30+ volunteers & City of Greenville staff braved a cold winter morning to work at Cancer Survivors Park, a property protected through a UF conservation easement. Volunteers marked and removed invasive plant species and collected 15 large bags worth of litter — and two tires! — from this urban greenspace. View photos here

This Black History Month, we aim to celebrate and amplify the stories of several Black trailblazers who have contributed to conservation in the Upstate and across the country.

Dr. J. Drew Lanham is a wildlife ecologist, birder, writer, and Alumni Distinguished Professor at Clemson University. Through decades of teaching, research, and writing, Dr. Lanham has worked to make environmental science more accessible and inclusive. His published writings — The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature, Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts, and numerous essays and articles — chronicle his experience as a Black man raised in South Carolina with a fascination for wild places and the feathered creatures that inhabit them. In an essay for Upstate Forever titled "Blue Wall High," Drew shares a moment of reflection from his perch on top of the world at Caesars Head. Read it here

Mary Duckett is fighting for environmental justice for Greenville's Southernside community. As a lifelong resident, activist, and president of Southernside Neighborhoods in Action, she has joined community leaders and environmental justice advocates to call for the cleanup of toxic coal tar along the Reedy River, the remnants of a manufactured gas plant in the area that closed in 1952. While this contamination has not yet been resolved, Mary has been instrumental in bringing the issue to light and engaging the community to ask Duke Energy to clean up the former gas plant site on Bramlett Road.

Harold Mitchell has been involved in environmental justice issues in the Upstate for 30 years. A lifelong resident of Spartanburg, he galvanized community efforts to cleanup and revitalize the Arkwright and Forest Park neighborhoods, home of a former fertilizer plant and landfill. In 2003, he founded the ReGenesis Community Development Corporation to address economic, health, and environmental inequities impacting underserved and predominantly minority communities. Harold then continued to serve the Spartanburg community from 2005 to 2017 in the South Carolina House of Representatives and was most recently named to a 26-member nationwide panel that advises the White House on how best to address environmental problems in historically underserved communities.

Mable Owens Clarke is the sixth-generation steward of Soapstone Baptist Church. Her great-grandparents were some of nearly 600 freed slaves to establish the community of Liberia in Pickens County just after the Civil War. For decades, she has worked to preserve the historic church, schoolhouse, and cemetery — along the way becoming legendary for her monthly fish fry fundraisers. Now, Mable is working to permanently protect the property to ensure its history and beauty is never lost to development. Read Mable's story here

Andrea Cooper recently spoke with leaders from across the Upstate as a part of Greenville Business Magazine's Ten at the Top Roundtable Q&A series. Click here to read an excerpt with Andrea's answers regarding growth, greenspace, transportation and more. To read the full panel Q&A, click here.

Engaging with your elected officials at the SC Statehouse is the most effective way to ensure your concerns on conservation, energy, and other issues in your area are heard — but it can be difficult to know how to contact them and what to say. Energy Advocate Michael Coleman shares his advice in this guide.

Previously scheduled for February 14, our Annual Awards Luncheon has been rescheduled for Monday, June 13 due to the high rate of Covid-19 cases in our community this winter. The postponed event will take place at the same venue and time as previously scheduled: From 11:30 am - 1:00 pm at Embassy Suites Verdae, Greenville. More details

You can keep up with our work beyond this monthly newsletter by following along on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and now on TikTok!

When you make a planned gift to UF, you help us achieve our goals for current and future generations while enjoying a wide variety of tax benefits. Contact Aldon Knight, Director of Development and Community Relations, at aknight@upstateforever.org to discuss bequests, IRA rollovers, charitable lead trusts, and other ways to give.

Upstate Forever is a nonprofit conservation organization that protects critical lands, waters, and the unique character of Upstate South Carolina.  Over the past two decades, we have worked to protect the natural assets that make the Upstate so special — our farmlands, forests, natural areas, rivers, and clean air. We are committed to ensuring that our communities are vibrant and retain their green spaces, outdoor heritage, and unique identities in the face of rapid development and significant sprawl. Our vision is an environmentally healthy, economically prosperous Upstate that offers a high quality of life now and for future generations.

For more information, visit our website at upstateforever.org or send us an email.