Woodbury Wildlife Management Area

This month we will be exploring habitats at the Woodbury Wildlife Management Area. Woodbury is an over 25,000 acre finger of land bounded by the Great Pee Dee River to the west, the Little Pee Dee River to the east, and US 378 to the north. SCAN has visited here before and as mentioned earlier, this will not be an overnight trip as originally planned because Ark Lodge will not be available. However, I have been in touch with Francis Ervin and we are trying to schedule another weekend trip in either April or May. If we go in May we should see the Mcbridea blooming along the road to the Lodge.

For those who have not been to Woodbury before, there are many habitats present including Carolina bays, wooded swamp, wet pine flatwoods, oxbow lakes, bottomland hardwoods, xeric pine habitat, depression wetlands, and of course, the rivers. Attached is a false-color infrared aerial photograph of Woodbury (courtesy of SCDNR). The dark “signatures” are wetland areas dominated by deciduous vegetation and red signifies evergreen vegetation. With a little practice you can learn to distinguish between upland pine forest and wetland areas dominated by evergreen vegetation such as gallberry, Lyonia, Gordonia, and pond pine.

Two specific areas that we will be exploring on the 28th are a depression wetland where we should see pondspice and pondberry blooming, and a xeric pine area located on a high ridge. We have visited this depression wetland before but it was during the fruiting season for the pondberry. I took a group from the Native Plant Society to the xeric pine area but SCAN has not been there before.

Restroom facilities are not available and you will have to bring drinking water. We will be returning to our vehicles around lunch time so no need to pack food in to the wetland. SCDNR does a good job of maintaining the roads at Woodbury, however with all of the rain we’ve gotten lately they may be a little rough so I recommend driving vehicles with decent ground clearance. Cell phone coverage is spotty, but if you get lost, give me a call at 803-447-0547.

I haven’t decided where we’ll be having dinner so it will be a surprise.

Gordon Murphy
President