Conservation through stewardship
Conestee Nature Preserve is one of the Upstate’s most important urban natural areas, serving as critical wildlife habitat in a rapidly developing region. Through collaborative conservation efforts, we seek to maintain and enhance the Preserve's unique ecosystems.
Conservation Action Plan
Our stewardship activities are guided by our Conservation Action Plan, which establishes a five-year framework for guiding habitat management, restoration, monitoring, and adaptive stewardship from 2026 through 2030. The plan uses a compartment-based approach to connect preserve-wide conservation goals with site-specific action. Listed below are key pillars of the plan.
Invasive Plant Control
Through repeated, low-disturbance control methods, we're reducing the ecological impact of invasive plant species.
Monitoring
Monitoring efforts, including wildlife surveys, vegetation tracking, and community science programs, help inform adaptive management decisions over time.
Bottomland Forest Restoration
We're restoring areas with significant ash tree mortality to replenish the canopy and prevent the spread of invasive plants.
Nest Boxes
Maintaining nest boxes provides critical habitat for focus species, including Prothonotary Warblers and Eastern Bluebirds.
Enhancing meadow habitat
Through planting and disturbance regimen, we're promoting meadow habitat for pollinators and other early successional species.
Streambank Repair
Installing native plants along stream banks helps address erosion concerns and increases plant abundance and diversity,.
Community Science Initiatives & Apps
Conservation involves everyone. Visitors and volunteers contribute to our stewardship efforts through community science opportunities.
FrogWatch
The Greenville Zoo maintains a FrogWatch monitoring site at Conestee Nature Preserve.
​
FrogWatch USA encourages volunteers to collect and contribute information about frog and toad breeding calls to a national dataset that is publicly available online. FrogWatch season is from February-August.
Contact Stephanie at zooed@greenvillesc.gov for information on how to participate.
Adopt-A-Stream
South Carolina Adopt-a-Stream is a statewide volunteer water quality monitoring program where participants learn to assess the health and water quality of their local waterways. Volunteer water quality monitors help our state by collecting data on waterways that may not be regularly monitored otherwise. This data establishes baseline conditions, indicates possible water quality concerns, and is used for education.
​
Contact taylor@conesteepreserve.org for information on how to participate at Conestee Nature Preserve.
iNaturalist
iNaturalist is a free app used to identify plants, animals, fungi, and more. User observations while contribute to a living atlas of life on Earth. iNaturalist data captured by visitors is extremely useful to our conservation efforts.
eBird
Log, track, and share your bird sighting on eBird, a free app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
