The Importance of the ACE Basin; Why Her Beauty is More than What Meets the Eyes (Part One!)

Today we are going to be talking about everything ACE Basin; why it’s important, why we love it, and why it is an excellent place to explore!
Hello adventurers and welcome back to the blog! While we are all celebrating the holidays in our very own ways including bringing the merry outside with us, make sure to take the time to visit our website and all of our social media pages! Shopping small can be one of the best things you can do for your community and everyone in it! Shopping small supports a local business, a local community, and your neighbors right here in the Lowcountry. What better way to spread the jolly and the cheer that we all need at the end of this year? Also, what better gift to give than that of exploration, adventure, conservation, and education all with Coastal Expeditions? Give the gift of the great outdoors and the gift that keeps on giving this holiday! So many of us have been cooped up indoors due to this devastating pandemic, let’s get outside and enjoy the fresh air and make unforgettable memories together!
The ACE gets its name from the Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto Rivers and is home to four main nature preserves that are open to the public. It is home to some of the most prolific collections of species of wildlife and it is a step back into history. Located on the scenic route along US 17 and I-95, the roads between Charleston and Hilton Head, this stunning scenery gives so much more than just the beauty that reaches the eye. It was once home to some of the most booming rice plantations, but now, according to the Nature Conservancy, it is one of the most important waterfowl habitats. The many acres of the ACE Basin watershed is positioned around the Asheepoo, Combahee, and Edisto rivers and is one of the largest, undeveloped wetlands and important ecosystems that still remains on the east coast today.
According to the SC Conservancy, the ecosystem is made up of wetlands, forest uplands, tidal marshes, barrier islands, peatlands, and more. It supports and houses over 30 plant communities that provide an extremely safe and important habitat for regional waterfowl, endangered species, and migratory birds. It also provides a home to fish, alligators, and a plethora of other wildlife. While it might span 1.6 million acres, as we mentioned above, the 200,000 untouched acres have been saved by the SC conservancy. It is protected from any outside powers touching or hurting it as of 2015, according to the SC Picture Project. The ACE Basin is also a protected environment for sea turtles and has helped 3,000 to 10,000 more sea turtles hatch every year! The ACE Basin serves as a buffer and its own bubble of protection to the wildlife and plant life that live there from construction, life, pollution, and the pressures our culture puts on nature itself.
This land and everything that lives and thrives there does so with the help of local, state, and national agents, private landowners, and a multitude of incredible organizations. Along with the incredible natural habitats, ecosystems, and animals, the ACE Basin gives home to, there are also protected historical rice plantations like the Cheeha-Combahee Plantations. Just this one plantation has over 12,000 acres of protected property.
As you can imagine, its importance lies in its existence, providing a naturally strong ecosystem to birds, animals, marine life, and plant life that might be extinct without it. Along with providing a home to such a vast array of waterfowl, keeping the sea turtle population growing and flourishing, it helps protect and provide a home to endangered and threatened species such as the osprey, wood stork, shortnose sturgeon, and the bald eagle. It is also a very important research facility and refuge for many different local and national groups, and a refuge for animals and plantlife alike. It is a constant battle to protect the few hundred thousand acres that remain untouched. Education and appreciation of this wild land is one of its strong assets and one of the many things we try to do when we take our guests on a tour anywhere near or in the ACE Basin. It has given us so much and we want to continue to give back and protect it as much as we can.
Each of the three rivers that make up the ACE and give it its name all has a rich history and its unique traits of what makes it special. According to the Post and Courier, due to its vast size, it has been referred to as one of the greatest places on earth. Others have called it “South Carolina’s Yellowstone”. While so many other natural ecosystems and habitats begin to disappear, the ACE Basin becomes even more critical as more wildlife depends on its refuge. As time goes on, more new species have begun to appear and call the ACE Basin home. Protection needs to continue to grow stronger and powerful because the outside world is starting to inch closer attempting to steal what’s left of the ACE.