Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge

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Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge
IUCN Category IV (Habitat/Species Management Area)

Location:	South Carolina, USA
Nearest city:	Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
Coordinates:	32°14′37.5648″N, 80°45′55.0980″W
Area:	4,053 acres
Established:	1975
Visitation:	400,000 (in 2004)
Governing body:	U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge is a 4,053 acre National Wildlife Refuge located in Beaufort County, South Carolina. Named after Major General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, it was established to provide a nature and forest preserve for aesthetic and conservation purposes.

The refuge is one of seven refuges administered by the Savannah Coastal Refuges Complex in Savannah, Georgia. The complex has a combined staff of 31 with a fiscal year 2005 budget of $3,582,000.

1 History
2 Topography
3 Wildlife and protected species
4 Facilities
- 4.1 Trails
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

Pinckney Island NWR is archaeologically rich, with 115 prehistoric and historic sites identified. Analysis of the prehistoric sites indicate human occupation dating from the Archaic Period (8000-1000 BC), with intensive use during the Mississippian Period (1000-1500 AD).

Historic artifacts indicate that small scale, impermanent settlements were made on Pinckney by French and Spanish groups in the 16th and 17th centuries. Permanent settlements did not occur until 1708 when Alexander Mackay, an Indian trader, obtained title to 200 acres of Pinckney Island. By 1715, Mackay had acquired the rest of Pinckney and most of the other islands which comprise the present refuge. In 1736, Mackay's widow sold the islands to Charles Pinckney, father of General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. General Pinckney was a commander during the Revolutionary War, a signer of the United States Constitution, and, in 1804 and 1808, a presidential candidate. Pinckney was an absentee landowner until 1804, when he moved to the island and began managing the property. The Pinckney family developed the islands into a plantation, removing much of the maritime forest and draining and tilling the fertile soil. By 1818, over 200 slaves were being used to produce fine quality long-staple Sea Island Cotton on 297 acres; 386 slaves lived on the island by 1840.

The plantation flourished until the American Civil War when it was occupied by Union troops. Small skirmishes took place on Pinckney Island. The most significant incident occurred on August 21, 1862, when the Confederate Beaufort Light Artillery/11th Infantry attacked the camp of Company H, Third Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteers, killing four Union soldiers and wounding ten men (eight Confederate, two Union).

Army records also reflect that black troops were recruited for the Union Army from the area. Five military (U.S. Colored Troops) headstones are located in a cemetery on the northwest side of Pinckney Island indicating the possibility that slaves living on the plantation during the Civil War were recruited by the U.S. Army.

After the war, the plantation did not prosper, and by the 1930's, was virtually abandoned. In 1937, after over 200 years of Pinckney ownership, the plantation was sold to Ellen Bruce, wife of James Bruce, a New York banker who used the property as a hunting preserve. Hardwoods and pine were planted, ponds were built to attract waterfowl and for irrigation, and 70 percent of the farm fields were placed back into cultivation.

Edward Starr and James Madison Barker, a distinguished MIT alumnus and early leader in the field of international business, purchased the islands in 1954 and continued to manage them as a game preserve. In 1975, the islands were donated to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to be managed exclusively as a National Wildlife Refuge and as a nature and forest preserve for aesthetic and conservation purposes. The Pinckney Island NWR was established on December 4, 1975.

[edit] Topography

The 4,053-acre refuge includes Pinckney Island, Corn Island, Big Harry and Little Harry Islands, Buzzard Island and numerous small hammocks. Pinckney is the largest of the islands and the only one open to public use. Nearly 67% of the refuge consists of saltmarsh and tidal creeks. A wide variety of land types are found on Pinckney Island alone: saltmarsh, forestland, brushland, fallow field and freshwater ponds. In combination, these habitats support a diversity of bird and plant life.

[edit] Wildlife and protected species

Several threatened and endangered species are protected on the refuge, including the American Alligator, Flatwoods Salamander, Bald Eagle, and the Wood Stork. Other wildlife commonly observed on Pinckney Island include waterfowl, shorebirds, wading birds, raptors, neo-tropical migrants, and white-tailed deer, with large concentrations of white ibis, herons, and egrets.

[edit] Facilities

There is no visitor center at the refuge. However, there are opportunities for hiking, cycling, photography and wildlife observation.

Each year the refuge holds a one-day quota deer hunt to ensure that population numbers remain in balance with the surrounding habitat. However, fishing is prohibited from the land portions of the refuge.