Saluda Bluffs/JOPECO

• Location: Highway 11 Pickens, SC

• Size: 1,092 acres

• Habitat: South Saluda River, Ridge lines, piedmont prairie, native hardwoods

• Public Use: Pending

• Partners: Easley Combined Utilities, SC Conservation Bank, SC Department of Natural Resources, SC Office of Resiliency

• Year Protected: 2023

Saluda Bluffs tract, commonly known as the JOPECO property, is near Table Rock State Park and the Mountain Bridge Wilderness. The conservation community has had its eye on this property for many years. It is the single largest privately held and unprotected parcel in Pickens County, and it is in the bullseye of decades of conservation work that our founder, Tommy Wyche, started 50 years ago.

To the west is Table Rock State Park, above that is the Greenville Watershed; to the north is the Watson Cooper Heritage Preserve, Caesars Head State Park, Jones Gap State Park, Ashmore Heritage Preserve, Bald Rock Heritage Preserve, and to the east is Wildcat Wayside State Park, Tall Pines and hundreds of acres of Naturaland Trust holdings along the South Saluda River and Highway 11.

Saluda Bluffs is named from the high hills that overlook the South Saluda River. For more than 1.4 miles, the South Saluda flows along the northern property line. The southern property line contains nearly a mile of Scenic Highway 11. The property can be seen from the top of Table Rock. It went on the market a few years ago, but we were not in a position to buy the land. In the meantime, the seller cut the timber but left seed trees to repopulate the forest with native hardwoods. The seller has been getting immense pressure from developers and real estate agents to sell and list the property again. 

We anticipate that DNR will be the eventual owner of the property, to be managed similarly to Tall Pines or as a Heritage Preserve, depending on what they find on the land and their management preference.