Hobcaw Barony · South Carolina

Reading Between the Tides

Hobcaw Barony and the Historical Ecology of Estuarine Futures

How do we protect a place whose defining quality is change?

Commissioned illustration of a tree, marsh grasses, winding water and birds at Hobcaw, with the forNature inscription and Emma Lopes signature visible. — Hobcaw wetland illustration. Commissioned illustration by Emma Lopes for forNature.

At Hobcaw Barony on the South Carolina coast, freshwater wetlands grade into brackish and saltwater environments. Reading Between the Tides brings sediment cores, tree rings, and long-term environmental monitoring together to investigate how this landscape has changed and where the effects of past land use remain in its present ecology.

We are documenting the past to prepare for the future. Together, these records can help distinguish recent changes in wetland conditions from longer histories of water movement, vegetation, and land use.

The project is part of RICE, GeoArches’ research on the historical ecology of tidal rice wetlands.

Hobcaw within the forNature initiative

The National Geographic Society and forNature have included Reed Goodman’s Hobcaw research among ten Explorer-led Rights of Nature initiatives. At Hobcaw, the research contributes an account of environmental and land-use history to discussions about the future of the estuary.

Commissioned illustration bringing together forests, mountains, rivers, marshes and marine life, with the forNature inscription and Emma Lopes signature visible. — The broader forNature initiative. Commissioned illustration by Emma Lopes for forNature.

In the news

National Geographic Society and forNature Award 10 Explorer-Led Rights of Nature Initiatives
National Geographic Society

Looking to the past to protect South Carolina’s coastal future
Clemson News