Cypress Bay Plantation, Cummings, South Carolina

 

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Cypress Bay Plantation is a 1000-acre tree farm located in the piney woods and bottomlands of the southeastern corner of South Carolina’s coastal plain, between Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia. This private forestland, owned by Skeet Burris and his family, is an exciting and impressive example of multiple-use management of forestland for long-term softwood production. Cypress Bay also models a commitment to provide forest aesthetics, protect watersheds, promote recreational use, and create wildlife habitat, food and shelter plots, wetlands, and ponds. It is a classic example of the private provision—at private cost—of public environmental amenities. It is also a very instructive demonstration of how a substantial amount of the nation’s forests are owned and managed, and how these privately held lands are able to provide an ever-growing amount of the nation’s forest products.