Core Connector

The Core Connector, at 16.72 acres, is a critical piece of Piedmont seepage forest and floodplain that strengthens the connectivity of bunched arrowhead habitat in Greenville County. The bunched arrowhead is one of the rarest plants in the Carolinas, perhaps in the world. It exists in a rare ecosystem, the Piedmont seepage forest, and has been found only in two counties: Greenville County in South Carolina and Henderson County in North Carolina. It is dependent upon a habitat made up of clean, shallow, slow moving seepage wetlands. Unfortunately, many of these seepage forests have been drained and damaged as the rolling hills where they originate have historically been utilized as farms, horse pastures, and recently leveled for developments. The bunched arrowhead thrives and only grows in this ecosystem and is an umbrella species for myriad plants, amphibians, reptiles and mammals who depend on these wetlands. It is federally-listed as endangered, and the principal strategy for its survival as determined by the USFWS is protection of existing populations and their habitat. Unfortunately, these plants and their principal population are now in the heart of a real estate boom outside the bustling town of Travelers Rest along Tigerville Road.

We were fortunate to have an opportunity to protect this property. The former landowner, Carol Core, agreed to subdivide and sell her larger property to ensure the plants would be protected. Her forward-thinking and generous spirit allowed us to physically and hydrologically connect hundreds of acres of Piedmont seepage forest and strengthen the resiliency of this endangered species through these protected buffers. The Core Connector boasts one of the largest concentrations of the plant in ideal habitat that we have seen.