Part of a unique ecosystem, Sand Hills State Forest is located between the piedmont and coastal plain of South Carolina and consists of 46,000 acres of infertile sand deposited by a prehistoric sea.
The area is characterized by generally arid conditions, and during the Great Depression, the federal government purchased this area from many local landowners as a relief measure, resettling these landowners on more fertile land elsewhere. For the next 60 years, the land was managed as a state forest by the S.C. Forestry Commission under an agreement with the U.S. Department of Interior.
Wildfires, improper logging and poor farming practices had almost eliminated timber production, so an intensive reforestation project was initiated. During the early years, the objective was to restore the land, allow it to heal from erosion and misuse, and to protect it from the wildfires. In recent years, attention has been given to restore native longleaf pines. An active prescribed burning program reduces fuel accumulation, perpetuates the longleaf pines, and stimulates the production of seed bearing plants for wildlife food.
In conjunction with the reforestation effort, a wildlife management program was started to improve habitat. As a result of such efforts, the once barren sand hills now support a large inventory of timber and a variety of game and non-game species.
Title for the Sand Hills Forest was transferred to the back to the state of South Carolina in 1991. The current facility being used as basecamp was built in the late 1990s using funds donated by H. Cooper Black, a prominent local physician.
Today, the Forest is a self-sustaining branch of the Forestry Commission operating entirely on receipts from the forest. In addition, Darlington and Chesterfield counties receive 25% of the Forest's receipts based on the percent of Forest in each county.
