Located in northwestern Anderson County, Bishop Branch Pastures is comprised of nearly 65 acres of agricultural land and wildlife habitat. The landowners worked with Upstate Forever to complete this conservation project, permanently protecting acres of pastureland, wildlife habitat, and water resources in a rapidly developing region near Clemson University.

Located just outside of the City of Greer, this 33-acre property boasts significant frontage along Beaverdam Creek — a tributary of the South Tyger River — as well as wildlife habitat and 11 acres of wetlands. A conservation easement held by Upstate Forever ensures this land’s conservation values and scenic views are protected in an area facing extreme development pressure.

Protected through conservation easement by Upstate Forever, this 63-acre property is home to an impressive network of beaver ponds and encompasses headwaters of the Sixmile Creek. The Town of Six Mile — which now owns and will manage the property — plans to open the land as a public park and serve as an outdoor classroom for students at the adjacent Six Mile Elementary School in the future.

Located less than 5 miles east of downtown Spartanburg, this nearly 55-acre property includes approximately 20 acres of open pastureland and 28 acres of mature hardwood forest. With funding from the ULCF, Upstate Forever partnered with the private landowner to permanently protect this parcel that contributes to local water quality through its significant frontage on Cinder Branch, a tributary of the Pacolet River.

Located along Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway 11, this permanently protected property boasts a significant range of cultural and natural resources including Native American petroglyphs, a bicentennial farm with 20 acres of pasture, and frontage on Fair Play Creek. Crawford Mill was protected through a partnership between Oconee Soil and Water Conservation District and Upstate Forever. Nonprofit organization Foothills Farmstead will manage the property as a public park and education center.

The Drake-Fleming Homestead Tract is a 76-acre window into frontier settlement history and native species diversity, the latter monitored and photographed by landowner Kim Fleming, and published in peer-reviewed journals. ULCF joined Upper Savannah Land Trust and the SC Conservation Bank to support Ms. Fleming’s goal to protect her ancestral family property, honoring its 250-year history and preserving its slope-and-floodplain habitat on which she has documented over 2000 species, including a new species, Ophiocordyceps kimflemingiae.

Over two decades, the landowners acquired adjacent parcels in Mountain Rest with the goal of protecting the valuable headwaters of the Chattooga National Wild and Scenic River. In 2025, they finalized a conservation easement on 108 largely forested acres, including approximately 2,000 linear feet of the headwaters of Fall Creek, a tributary of the Chattooga. By working with Upstate Forever on this conservation project, the landowners have ensured these rejoined lands will be protected for future generations of trees, plants, wildlife, and stewards.

Gilstrap Mountain looms over the Cherokee Foothills National Scenic Byway in South Carolina. This 166-acre property was protected in 2022 by Naturaland Trust adjoins other protected lands and creates a contiguous corridor for wildlife, people, view sheds, and the groundwater resources of a public drinking supply and trout stream. In the future, Gilstrap Mountain could offer public access for fishing, hiking, birdwatching, and seasonal hunting by permit through the Wildlife Management Area Program administered by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

This 16.5-acre property is the site of a historic mill constructed in 1902. While much of the mill was destroyed by a fire in 2004, many of the mill's iconic stone towers and smokestacks still stand on the property today. This property is adjacent to Spartanburg Area Conservancy's (SPACE) Glendale Shoals Preserve, a 13-acre tract owned and managed by SPACE as a publicly accessible passive park. Additionally, the Glendale Mill property buffers approximately 1,500 feet of stream frontage on Lawsons Fork Creek.

This property is more than 1,000 acres of hunting and timberland straddling Laurens and Newberry Counties. Due to its proximity to Sumter National Forest and frontage along Fort Branch stream and its tributaries, the permanent protection of Gobblers Roost through a conservation easement held by Upstate Forever helps safeguard lands critical to water quality, natural resources, wildlife habitat, and future access to outdoor recreation.

Owned and operated as a dairy farm for three generations, Hazelwood Farms produces Grade A raw milk for direct-to-consumer sales in Chester County. The protection of this 379-acre property also contributes to local water quality with more than a mile of frontage along Bull Skin Creek, a tributary of Rocky Creek and the Catawba River. The South Carolina Farm Bureau worked with landowners to permanently protect this historic agricultural property in 2024.

This beloved, 22.36-acre farm grows several varieties of blackberries, blueberries, muscadines, grapes, and figs, as wel as persimmons, paw paw, tea, and other plants. The Happy Berry is also a popular stop on the Upstate Farm Tour and the Upstate Heritage Quilt Trail due to its pick-your-own and pre-picked options for produce. Walker Miller and fellow landowners partnered with Upstate Forever to protect the farm through a conservation easement.

This property is a 101-acre working family-owned ranch located in a rapidly developing region of southern Greenville County. In addition to permanently protecting the property’s scenic values and pastureland for 50 Hereford cattle, this conservation project completed with Upstate Forever contributes to local water quality, as the land contains more than 6,600 feet of tributary streams in the Saluda River Watershed.

This 70-acre parcel protected in partnership with Upstate Forever contains open fields, forests, seeps, bogs, and a pond located along the Wadakoe Mountain Ridge that separates Highway 11 from the Eastatoe Valley in Pickens County. The property is bordered by tributary streams of Little Eastatoe Creek and a 534-acre tract maintained by the SC Department of Natural Resources as a Wildlife Management Area.

This 46-acre property is part of Upstate Forever’s neighborhood strategy to protect key wetlands and creek frontage on Horsepen Creek, located within the Enoree River Watershed near Simpsonville in southern Greenville County. It is directly adjacent to the Horsepen Creek II property protected in 2023 and contains mature forest and more than a mile of stream frontage on tributaries of Horsepen Creek.

Located in a rapidly developing area near downtown Simpsonville, Horsepen Creek II contains approximately 11 acres of creek bottom and wetlands, mature hardwood forest, and abundant wildlife habitat. Private landowners have permanently protected this 31.7-acre property together with Upstate Forever.

Keowee Ridge is an approximately 67-acre organic hobby farm located on a peninsula of Lake Keowee. The farm produces free-range eggs, apples, honey, and goat byproducts, which are distributed through the Clemson Area Food Exchange. This conservation easement completed with Upstate Forever protects the area's scenic views, agricultural potential, and natural habitat amid rapid lakefront development.

Landowners leveraged ULCF funding in 2024 to amend an existing easement with Upstate Forever, adding approximately 270 acres to the 430-acre parcel protected through a conservation easement in 2021. Together these 700 acres of protected lands contribute to forest and wildlife habitat, as well as local water quality.

Ninety Six Creek is a 68-acre property nestled along the banks of its namesake waterway in Greenwood County. The property, protected in 2025 in partnership with Upstate Forever, provides vital habitat for migratory waterfowl and other wildlife. Managed for both conservation and hunting, the land features a mix of pine and hardwood timber and includes a greentree reservoir — mature hardwoods that are seasonally flooded to enhance habitat diversity.

This property is comprised of 64 protected acres near Walhalla, conserved through a conservation easement completed in partnership with Upstate Forever. Located just 1.5 miles from the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway 11, the property connects a network of adjacent protected lands, including the Andrew Pickens Ranger District of the Sumter National Forest, Oconee Station State Historic Site, and another Upstate Forever conservation easement.

Pearl Bottoms is a 60-acre cattle farm located in the Tigerville community of northern Greenville County. This property is particularly noteworthy from a water quality standpoint, as it lies at the confluence of three tributaries that serve as a significant headwater source of the South Tyger River. Landowners worked with Upstate Forever’s land trust to protect Pearl Bottoms through a conservation easement.

This 79.4-acre protected property in rural Pickens County is comprised of nearly 100% native hardwood forest cover as well as lush wildlife habitat. Upstate Forever’ accredited land trust partnered with the private landowners to protect the property and its forests, riparian buffers, and scenic quality. Possum Holler is located near additional protected properties, as well as Table Rock State Park.

The protection of Reeds Run expands conservation efforts near Table Rock State Park, Grant Meadow, and stretches of the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway in Pickens County. This 57.9-acre property, protected in partnership with Upstate Forever, contains mixed hardwood forest, open pastureland, and the stream which gives the land its name. White-tailed deer, black bears, peregrine falcons, and other wildlife frequent Reeds Run.

River Road is approximately 27 acres just south of Cedar Mountain. As the North Saluda River flows south, land use and poor management have degraded the river, creating a problem for drinking water quality and supply. The protection of the River Road property by Naturaland Trust is a key to restoring and protecting nearly a mile of frontage on the North Saulda. The beauty and diversity of this tract is stunning and will further provide hydrological relief for wildlife, and further promote the growth of trilliums and mayapples.

Perched atop a ridge looking toward fields, patches of forest, and the towering Blue Ridge Escarpment, Soapstone Baptist Church has been an anchor of Pickens County's Liberia community for more than 150 years. Upstate Forever worked with the landowner to protect the historic six-acre property, including the church, schoolhouse, and slave cemetery, through a conservation easement, ensuring the land’s rich history is permanently protected from future development.

Located on 91 acres in Spartanburg County is a registered South Carolina Century Farm that has remained in the same family for 6 generations. While much of Triple Oak Farm’s original land now lies under Lake Bowen, the original homesite from 1866 is still located on the land. The protection of Triple Oak Farm by the landowners and Upstate Forever helps ensure this region experiencing intense development pressure retains working lands and rural vistas in perpetuity.

Twin Ponds Hunt Club, located in Cherokee County, consists of 91.7 acres landowners enjoy for outdoor recreation. Two 3-acre ponds are managed as fisheries for bream, crappie, and bass, while surrounding riparian habitat and upland forest serve as habitat for doves, deer, and turkey. This privately owned property protected in partnership with Upstate Forever will continue to be managed as a natural retreat for families and wildlife alike.

In 2009, The Tyger River Foundation purchased a 10-acre riverfront parcel and created The Nesbitt Shoals Nature Park, establishing the first public river access point on the Tyger River. Since then, nearly 200 additional acres have been acquired along the South and North Tyger Rivers. The Tyger River Foundation has partnered with Upstate Forever to place conservation easements on a growing patchwork of protected blueways and greenspaces that will offer future public access for outdoor recreation.

This 88-acre tract on Lawson's Fork Creek in Spartanburg County contains wetlands and creek footage. Also adjacent to Wofford College’s Goodall Environmental Center and the Spartanburg Area Conservancy’s Glendale Shoals Preserve, this protected property boasts significant natural, educational, and recreational value. The Tyger River Foundation partnered with Upstate Forever to place a conservation easement on the Upper Shoals at Glendale.

Bunched arrowhead is one of the rarest plants in the Carolinas. It exists only in an uncommon ecosystem, the Piedmont seepage forest, and is federally listed as endangered. The principal strategy for the bunched arrowhead’s survival is the protection of existing populations, their habitat, and their hydrology. This project, completed by Naturaland Trust, helped protect 26 acres of seepage forest, two streams, and prime habitat SCDNR has identified as ideal for relocating and propagating bunched arrowhead.