
An assessment should wrap up later this month into whether lands added to Congaree National Park since 2003 have qualities that merit wilderness designation/NPS, Intern Paul Angelo
A study should be wrapped up later this month into whether lands added to Congaree National Park since 2003 are eligible to be designated as official wilderness.
Though not even 27,000 acres in size, Congaree in South Carolina preserves the largest intact stand of old-growth bottomland forest. Rising in that bottomland forest are bald cypress and water tupelo, while higher elevations in the park feature upland pines.
Roughly 21,000 acres of the park currently are listed as official wilderness; back in June 2014 some 6,690 acres of "potential" wilderness were reclassified as wilderness.
Now the Park Service is assessing approximately 4,700 acres that have been added to the park boundary since 2003 to see if they merit wilderness designation.