Shealy's Pond Heritage Preserve
Contact Information
Brett M. MouleSC Department of Natural Resources
1000 Assembly Street
Columbia, SC 29201
(803) 734-3886 (Columbia)
Hours of Operation
The preserve is open year-round.
Contributions to the Endangered Wildlife Fund on the South Carolina Income Tax Form help to make the identification and management of these preserves possible.
Important Information for Visitors
Photographs
Description
Shealy’s Pond covers 62 acres in Lexington County, and is centered around an old mill pond and associated wetlands on spring-fed Scouter Creek. County Road 279 crosses the dam of the mill pond, which covers about 6 acres. The preserve also includes approximately 6 acres of sandhills on the west side, which is forested primarily in longleaf pine and turkey oak. The remainder of the tract is an Atlantic white cedar bog surrounding the mill pond that supports several rare plant species. This is one of only 3 known localities for the globally rare Rayner's blueberry.
Atlantic white cedar is an aromatic evergreen tree, 50 to 80 feet tall and 1 to 4 feet in diameter, with a conical crown of slender, often pendulous branches. It occurs in a narrow belt along the Atlantic coast from southern Maine to northern Florida, and along the Gulf Coast to southern Mississippi.
Lack of adequate regeneration has decreased the acreage of Atlantic white cedar in the Carolinas by at least 90 percent since the early 19th century. However, the stand at Shealy’s Pond is one of the best in the state. Much of it is over 150 years old. The preserve’s Atlantic white cedar forest filters and purifies water flowing through it and helps stabilize streamflow by storing floodwater and mitigating the effects of drought.
The rarest and most important species on the preserve is Rayner’s blueberry, which is classified as a plant species of national concern by Heritage Trust. Plants ranked as species of state concern on the preserve include white beak-rush, swaying bullrush, Collins’ sedge, wooly-berry, northern burmannia and Pickering’s breweria. Insectivorous plant species include yellow pitcher plant, purple pitcher plant, sweet pitcher plant, and three species of sundews. The black water snake, a species of state concern, is also found on the preserve.