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Audubon Newhall Preserve
Hilton Head Audubon is planning active land management to restore and enhance Newhall’s natural ecosystems, increase habitat diversity, and create an even more rewarding place to experience Lowcountry nature. Different areas would be managed according to their elevation, moisture, existing vegetation, and habitat characteristics—creating a mosaic that includes pine savanna grassland on higher, drier sites; bottomland hardwood and inland maritime forest on lower, wetter sites; and Newhall’s existing wetland and pond habitats.
What We Are Planning
The planned work
Preserving a natural area does not always mean leaving it untouched. Newhall’s existing overstory is a dense stand of pine, and the closed canopy limits understory diversity and development. The goal is not to apply one treatment across the entire Preserve, but to use established land-management practices to reduce fire fuels and help different areas develop habitat suited to their elevation, moisture, vegetation, and ecological potential.
Hilton Head Audubon has engaged Folk Land Management, Inc. (FLM) to help develop and implement this habitat-based approach. FLM’s framework groups areas with similar vegetation, elevation, and habitat characteristics into management compartments, with objectives set separately for each. FLM has also done land-management work at the Sea Pines Forest Preserve, bringing relevant local experience to the planning for Newhall.
Selective thinning would reduce the density of pine and open the overstory so more sunlight can reach the ground layer. Preferred native hardwoods—including live oak, black tupelo, water oak, and hickories—would be retained more selectively.
Carefully planned prescribed fire would reduce accumulated fuels and help establish and sustain pine savanna grassland. Burn timing and frequency could differ among compartments so different understory conditions develop over time.
Where needed, longleaf pine may be planted at different densities in pine compartments, while native hardwood trees and shrubs may be planted in lower areas to help establish a more diverse future forest structure.
The habitat vision
FLM’s approach recognizes that Newhall is not one uniform forest. Areas with similar vegetation, elevation, and habitat characteristics would be managed as separate compartments, allowing higher, drier sites and lower, wetter sites to develop different habitat structures.
On higher, drier sites, management would focus on a more open pine savanna grassland. Selective thinning would open the dense pine overstory so sunlight can reach the ground layer. Prescribed fire at different intervals and possible longleaf-pine underplanting would help individual compartments develop distinct understories and a more natural, multi-age pine structure.
On lower, wetter sites, management would emphasize hardwood retention and a shrub understory. Characteristic trees identified by FLM include southern red oak, live oak, water oak, southern magnolia, sugarberry, and pignut hickory. Smaller trees and shrubs include American holly, red bay, dogwood, wax myrtle, yaupon holly, beautyberry, red buckeye, and saw palmetto. Planting may be used where needed to strengthen a more diverse forest structure.
Newhall’s current habitat mosaic includes the Pocosin bog, Newhall Pond and its plant-rich shoreline, and Pine Flatwoods—a low basin that becomes wet during rainy periods. FLM notes that ephemeral wetlands are important microhabitats for amphibians and reptiles. The existing pine-and-saw-palmetto woodland and pollinator gardens also remain part of the Preserve’s natural character.
Some compartments would become more open and grassy; others would retain and strengthen hardwood forest with a shrub layer; and the Preserve’s wetland features would remain distinct. The aim is to create diverse habitats characteristic of Hilton Head Island’s Lowcountry landscape—not to make every part of Newhall look the same.
Interconnected trails would help visitors experience these habitat differences and understand how elevation, moisture, vegetation, and active stewardship shape the Preserve.
Comparable land management
Selective forestry and prescribed fire are used by other respected conservation organizations and communities to restore open pine forests, encourage healthy native understory vegetation, increase habitat diversity, and reduce wildfire risk. These examples provide context; Newhall’s work will be designed for Newhall’s own size, habitat mosaic, and surroundings.
Spring Island uses selective timber harvests to improve young pine habitat and promote healthier trees with a more diverse ground layer. It also uses prescribed fire as a management tool.
Learn about Spring Island’s approach →Palmetto Bluff describes prescribed fire as an important habitat-management tool that opens the forest floor to sunlight and encourages a more diverse understory.
Learn about Palmetto Bluff’s approach →Prescribed burns are part of the Preserve’s ecological land-management program to diversify understory plants and reduce the risk associated with uncontrolled wildfire.
Learn about Sea Pines’ approach →Audubon South Carolina uses prescribed fire and bird-friendly forestry to restore longleaf pine and other fire-influenced habitats for birds and wildlife, including work at Silver Bluff.
Learn about Audubon South Carolina’s approach →Contact us
Hilton Head Audubon welcomes questions from members, visitors, neighbors, and the broader community. If you would like to learn more about the planned work at Audubon Newhall Preserve, please contact us by email.
hhiaudubon@hiltonheadaudubon.org
We appreciate your interest in Newhall and welcome your questions.
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