South Carolina Forest Hotspot Mapping

South Carolina is home to an envious extent of natural environments, including vast well-managed forests. These forests our citizens' wellbeing and drive the economy both now and in the future. In fact, the top two industries in the state, forestry and agriculture, are worth approximately $40 billion annually. Additionally, South Carolina’s tourism industry, which is largely driven by its rich natural capital, topped $20 billion in 2016.

In part because of our state's rich natural resources, population growth within South Carolina has been at an all-time high over the last decade. This population growth is clustered in the 3 major urban centers Greenville/Spartanburg, Columbia, and Charleston and is caused in large part by new industries coming to the state which are driven and supported by our vast and well-managed forest lands.

Given the expected change in land use driven by significant population and economic growth in recent years, it is essential that responsible leaders from different sectors work together to protect our natural resources, including timber, and support our job creators statewide. To that end, South Carolina needs to have systematic data to plan for the future so that the landscapes, ecosystems, and environments that drive the economy and support our citizens flourish today and persist in the future.

However, to provide this support at the parcel, county, and state scales, data synthesis is needed that identifies the relative value of working landscapes managed for forestry as compared to the direct value of residential and industrial development. Although the direct value of residential and industrial development is often used as an argument for land use conversion, the direct and indirect value of well-managed forestry and agriculture (including enhanced water quality, abundant recreation, and pleasing viewsheds) is widely recognized as equally or more valuable to local communities in the near and long-term.

As demand for housing increases in South Carolina, urban areas continue to expand into adjacent forested landscapes. Consequently, urban expansion is the primary driver of deforestation in South Carolina. In most cases, this land-use change reduces the extent of economically productive and ecologically valuable forest land. This loss of economic and ecologically valuable forest land to urban development is a major forestry and conservation concern now and for the future.

With 12.9 million acres of South Carolina’s 21 million acres still forested it is our generation's challenge to look 50-100 years out. Sustain SC and the Forestry Association have partnered to undertake a multiphase feasibility study to assess the data availability and needs to form an analysis determining the optimal balance for forested lands supporting both timber industry sustainability and ecological needs.  

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This map depicts forest hotspots in South Carolina where there is a high level of threat and a high conservation value. Darker green areas represent forested areas that are both most ecologically valuable in terms of ecosystem services and biodiversity and most threatened.

Over one million acres of South Carolina's still-forested areas are expected to be lost by 2060 due to development pressure. Nearly half of this expected forest loss will come from evergreen forests.

The forest retention map shows the probability that existing forests will be retained as forest land in 2060. Learn more  here .

" Forest Landscape Integrity Index  integrates data on observed and inferred forest pressures and lost forest connectivity to generate the first globally-consistent, continuous index of forest integrity as determined by degree of anthropogenic modification."

This map depicts the extent of urbanization projected for 2060. Learn more  here .

This map depicts average photo user days, which are the number of days per year during which at least one person took at least one picture at a particular site. This helps us better understand where people are recreating in South Carolina.