Cayce Through a veneer of trees, Taylor Brennecke looked down a precipitous bluff at a creek that has fascinated him throughout his life.

During wetter times of the year, the small creek turns into a wide pond filled with wood ducks, some of South Carolina’s most colorful game birds. The silence in the forest is broken only by the sound of the ducks, whistling and paddling through the water.

It’s a sight that Brennecke recalled on a recent ramble through the land his family has owned for generations and now wants the public to enjoy.

Brennecke’s family is negotiating to sell nearly 650 acres for expansion of the Congaree Creek Heritage Preserve, a transaction that would make the natural area one of the largest urban preserves of its kind in South Carolina.

If the deal goes through, the sale would nearly double the size of the already popular Congaree Creek protected area, increasing it to about 1,200 acres. The existing preserve, off 12th Street in Cayce, is a wooded area of historic sites, streams and swamps with a series of trails for nature viewing.

The additional acreage would add high bluffs, two major creeks, unusual forested wetlands and stands of rare evergreen trees to the 25-year-old Congaree Creek site.

And it would mean a chunk of land, now vulnerable to development in rapidly growing Lexington County, is protected along some of the most scenic, wildlife-rich stretches of water in the Columbia area.

“Leaving it as it is would be a whole lot cooler’’ than seeing the property developed, said the 35-year-old Brennecke, a member of the Taylor family, which traces its roots in Columbia to the American Revolution.

In January, the S.C. Joint Bond Review Committee authorized spending $20,000 in state funds to study whether to acquire 127 acres of the Taylor land for $3.5 million. That action was reported last month in the Charleston newspaper, The Post and Courier.

But the acquisition plan is much larger than previously reported, encompassing nearly 650 acres, according to the Taylor family and the Open Space Institute, which is helping to put the deal together.

The effort “is an ongoing project that will result in greater recreational access, protect significant cultural resources and enhance wildlife habitat,” said Nate Berry, the institute’s senior vice president in the Southeast.

It could take several years for the state to obtain all the property because other agency approvals are needed. At least one state official also has questioned the initial $3.5 million cost. But the bond committee’s vote is viewed as a significant first step.

According to the Open Space Institute, the non-profit land trust would buy the Taylor property, then resell it to the state at the same price. The institute’s mission is to preserve property until government agencies — in this case South Carolina’s wildlife department — can take control of the land.

“This momentous project demonstrates OSI’s commitment to protecting landscapes that are equally rich in cultural and natural resources, and making them accessible and enjoyable for the public,’’ Berry said in a recent email.

 

Those seeking to sell the land are from an old Columbia family whose members have owned property in the area for hundreds of years.

Among the more widely known members was Col. Thomas Taylor, a Revolutionary War veteran.

Some of his descendants lived in Forest Acres in an area once known as Quinine Hill, a high spot where many people built houses to escape mosquitoes that spread malaria, according to a 1989 story in The State.

Taylor Street, one of downtown Columbia’s major thoroughfares, was named for the Taylor family.

The family holdings near Cayce once were farmed. But the last time anything was harvested there was more than a century ago, said Edmund Taylor Jr., Brennecke’s uncle.

In the past, some of the family holdings near Cayce have been sold for development, such as for a school, a housing community and a future hospital, said Taylor, a Sapphire, N.C., resident who grew up in Forest Acres.

But the Taylors realize the natural value of their land near Cayce, and say they now prefer to sell it for conservation. Sixteen family members own 28 separate tracts of land, which made it hard in the past to gain consensus on the property’s future.

The property is known as “The Fork’’ because it sits between Congaree and Six-Mile creeks, just west of the Congaree River.

“There has never been an opportunity for the extended family to sell the entirety of The Fork property to a single entity because there has never been a single buyer with a vital interest in all of the varied landscape encompassed in The Fork,’’ said the 72-year-old Taylor, who spent many days as a youngster exploring his family’s land. “This is a singular opportunity befitting a special place.’’

“What is remarkable is that this ‘world apart’ is 15 minutes from downtown Columbia. Unlike many preserved woodland tracts in remote areas, this place can be accessed by many.’’

State Sen. Nikki Setzler, a Lexington County Democrat, said he’s all for acquiring the Taylor property, as long as no problems are uncovered and the land is available for public use.

The state has made it a practice to protect the most important natural lands across South Carolina, and the Taylor land would fit perfectly as an addition to Congaree Creek Heritage Preserve, he said.

“I think it will be highly, highly utilized in this area,’’ Setzler said of the Taylor land. “In general, I support expanding the preserve.’’

The state has more than 70 heritage preserves, natural areas managed by the Department of Natural Resources that are saved for both their historic and unusual conservation values.

Many have trail systems and parking lots but they are more primitive than state parks.

The existing Congaree Creek preserve has an abundance of ponds and creeks, with so many alligators that signs warn people to beware. It also has historical sites, including remnants of old brick-making operations. People are believed to have lived in the area for 12,000 years, according to the DNR.

If the state acquires all of the Taylor land that is being offered, Congaree Creek would become the second largest urban heritage preserve in the state, behind only the Lewis Ocean Bay preserve near bustling Myrtle Beach, DNR records show.

 

Selling the land to the state, however, has generated questions from one South Carolina leader.

State Treasurer Curtis Loftis said he wants to know whether $3.5 million is a fair price for 127 acres. The property contains some wetlands, which often carry lower land values than high ground.

“That raised some flags for us because that is expensive,’’ Loftis said of the proposed purchase price. The full cost to the state of buying 650 acres has not been disclosed.

Loftis also questions whether the land acquisition would prevent Cayce’s utility system from gaining easements to cross the property, if needed. The city’s wastewater plant is near the existing preserve. An easement is a right-of-way that allows power lines or water pipes to cross land owned by others.

“If you are a city and all of a sudden you start rolling, and you need another water line and you can’t get it, what do you do?’’ Loftis asked. “It’s a common sense kind of thing.’’

Mike McShane, a former chairman of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources board, said some DNR lands have easements running through them, so he does not see that as a problem.

Cayce Mayor Elise Partin said she was unaware of any city concerns about easements. She likes the idea of expanding the Congaree Creek Heritage Preserve.

“We’re excited about it,’’ she said. “There’s a lot of good that comes out of continuing to take care of our natural areas.’’

As for the price, McShane said the Taylor land is in a rapidly developing area where property values are higher than would be found in rural parts of the state.

Property with high bluffs overlooking creeks — bluffs on the Taylor land rise several hundred feet — can demand top dollar because of its development potential. The bluffs are adjacent to Moss Creek, the only neighborhood developed in the immediate area.

McShane said securing the property will give the public a bigger, easily accessible nature preserve near Columbia, one of South Carolina’s largest cities.

“Here’s our chance to do it today for as good a value as we can get,’’ McShane. “We know 10 years from now it is going to be a hell of a lot more (expensive), and chances are it might be gone.’’

Initial funding to buy the land would come from the state Heritage Trust, a division of the DNR that has money set aside to acquire property with significant environmental and historic features.

Other money likely would come from the state Conservation Bank, an agency set up to acquire and protect ecologically sensitive property, said McShane, who chairs the bank board.

“I think the Conservation Bank will participate in this,’’ he said.

For the deal to go through, both the Joint Bond Review Committee and the Fiscal Accountability Authority would need to give another round of approvals. The land can be acquired without a vote by the Legislature, officials said.

 

For Brennecke, who remembers as a child visiting the land with his grandfather, the deal would allow the public access to property his family has always enjoyed.

The land contains a large thicket of Atlantic white cedar trees, an extensive forest of rare long-leaf pines, and historic sites that would complement the existing heritage preserve.

Brennecke pointed out many of the natural and historic features of the property during a recent tour with journalists from The State.

The property, like the existing Congaree Creek Heritage Preserve, once was home to Native Americans and early European settlers.

“This has got some pretty damned big trees on it,’’ he said with a smile as he gazed skyward to the tree tops.

The trees, which aren’t found in many areas of South Carolina, once were sought to make ship masts because they are so straight, Brennecke said.

They also have an interesting feature: a noticeable type of grooved bark that creates swirling patterns on the trunks. The trees’ bristly needles branch out near the tops.

Edmund Taylor, Brennecke’s uncle, said the white cedars attract wildlife, including a tiny species of butterfly that feeds among the cedar needles. The Hessels Hairstreak, which has contrasting green and brown colors, is relatively rare, according to the website Butterfliesandmoths.org.

At another spot, Brennecke pointed out multiple areas where archaeologists already had flagged places to investigate for their historic value. Some sites have been plundered by amateur collectors, but plenty of historic artifacts are believed to remain on the land.

 

Not far away from the white cedars stood an extensive forest of longleaf pines swaying gently in the winter breeze.

Many of the trees were mature, but many others were only a few feet high, having sprouted from the seeds that fall to the ground from the big trees.

Longleaf forests are considered ecologically important because they attract a variety of species, including the rare red-cockaded woodpecker. Those woodpeckers particularly like older longleafs to establish nests.

Longleaf pines once covered vast swaths of the South Atlantic coast, but many were chopped down as settlers moved into the region during the Colonial period. Today, just a fraction of the longleaf forest remains.

“This is like 99% longleafs so this is one of the more dense stands’’ on the property, Brennecke said as he pointed out an array of pines of different ages.

Later, he found an old longleaf stump and yanked a piece of the wood away, sniffing its fragrant scent. Longleaf stumps are split into pieces and sold as fire-starters, he said.

One of the most interesting things about his family’s land, Brennecke said, is the array of wildlife he’s encountered in the woods. Big deer with wide racks of antlers sometimes are visible on the landscape, as are many types of birds, including owls and the wood ducks Brennecke loves. Bobcats also have been spotted on the property.

On his walk, Brennecke pointed in the distance toward a dead tree where a woodland hawk had landed after darting through the canopy. The hawk was likely looking for small birds to prey on.

Standing next to a family swimming hole on Congaree Creek, Brennecke reflected on how much fun he has had on the land — and why others would enjoy the property.

Brennecke sometimes brings his 4-year-old daughter to the forest, just as his grandfather did with him.

“I would just love to see thousands of kids a week doing that same thing,’’ he said. “It’s all right here.’’