A WORLD-CLASS COMMUNITY AMENITY
The Angel Oak Preserve will become a 44-acre passive park that provides additional educational, interpretive, and recreational opportunities to the nearby suburban and rural communities. The design prioritizes the health of a treasured state landmark and fundamentally changes the visitor experience at the iconic tree by incorporating interpretive features that highlight the layers of history, culture, and ecology living within the land.
Envisioned not simply as a park, but as a living museum, the Angel Oak Preserve will share untold stories and invite learning through place. Guiding objectives are to connect all people to nature and conservation; to interpret South Carolina’s Indigenous and Civil Rights history through the lens of the tree; and to provide urgently needed, publicly accessible, connective green space for recreation on a rapidly developing sea island.
Lowcountry Land Trust and its partners have conducted extensive community engagement, historical research, archaeological surveys, and ecological analysis since 2022. The process revealed discoveries that significantly expanded the project’s scope and importance, including early 19th-century records of enslaved communities, 5,000–8,000-year-old Indigenous ceremonial tools, oral histories of civil rights leader Septima Clark recalling teaching beneath its branches, and the presence of endangered bat species in its wetlands.
The Preserve will include a carefully designed parking area that removes cars from the Angel Oak’s massive root system, a new welcome center with clean facilities, a gift shop to showcase local makers, and opportunities for discovery around every corner, with over two miles of ADA-accessible trails and boardwalks, an outdoor classroom, and a nature play area. Interpretation will be embedded throughout via signage, maps, former building footprint frames, a healing path planted with medicinal plants, and a Commemorative Walkway offering space for reflection.
PREVIEW THE ANGEL OAK PRESERVE
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
We anticipate that construction could begin in 2026. We are currently in the public permitting phase and are raising the funds needed to keep the project on the fastest possible timeline.
The total cost to complete the Angel Oak Preserve is $16.5 million. To date, Lowcountry Land Trust has secured $6.9 million in funding, including support from the State of South Carolina, the City of Charleston, and the Town of Kiawah Island, as well as substantial private support from foundations, corporations, and individual donors.
Each investment builds momentum for the project and strengthens a growing coalition of partners working to preserve the health of and enhance the visitor experience at one of the Lowcountry’s most iconic natural landmarks.
Our intention is for the Angel Oak Preserve to be free to the public. We are exploring different financial models for long-term operations.
Yes. The Angel Oak Preserve will include a nature play area for children to climb, explore, play, and learn in a safe environment. Family-friendly programming may also become available.
To create a better experience for the Preserve’s neighbors, locals, and visitors, we are working with the City of Charleston, Charleston County, and the residents of Angel Oak Road to close the road to commercial traffic.
To protect the Angel Oak’s extensive root system, the landscape designs relocate parking away from the tree. The new parking area will be located at the Welcome Center, an estimated 5-minute walk along an ADA trail. A forested drive from Bohicket Road will create a sense of arrival and immersion into the Preserve.
Yes. The Welcome Center will offer restrooms, interpretive maps and signage, and a gift shop to showcase local makers. It will also link to the Preserve’s network of trails, which connect the site’s cultural and ecological features to the Angel Oak. The nature play area will be located near the Welcome Center to provide easy access to the building’s facilities and parking.
Yes. Miles of boardwalks and trails will provide universal access to the preserve while protecting the more fragile ecosystems within it. Interpretative moments along each trail will offer opportunities to learn about the site’s history, culture, and ecology.
Our intention is to replace the current chain-link fence with an alternative fence that has a larger perimeter, allows for additional branch growth, is visually appealing, and is highly secure. Our hope is that it will disappear from the visitor experience while still ensuring the tree’s safety.
We are finalizing operation details with our partners at the City of Charleston. We anticipate park hours will remain the same as they are now.
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CONNECTING THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
The magnificent tree known as Angel Oak, an icon of South Carolina’s Lowcountry region, is estimated to be centuries old. Native Americans once used the Angel Oak as a ceremonial meeting place.
The land surrounding the tree has also served as a plantation, a freedman's village, and a place where Johns Islanders, including Civil Rights activist Septima P. Clark, could rest under the shade.
In an interview from 1980, famous Civil Rights Activist Septima Poinsette Clark said:
“From the early days, Black people told their children stories about that tree. It was sacred, and it is sacred to them. Segregation was at its height, but the tree was not segregated. I don't really know who owned the tree, but they never segregated it so that we couldn’t go in. We would go in and have our picnic lunch, spend the day, the children would play under the tree, and then we would come back. There were ten black schools on the island and nearly all those teachers used the Angel Oak for their recreational programs."
In 2008, local nonprofit organizations like Coastal Conservation League and South Carolina Environmental Law Project, along with public entities and community members, partnered to protect the tree and its surrounding ecosystem. The Angel Oak Effect is named after the grassroots effort that rallied and raised donations to save the tree after the surrounding 35 acres were approved for residential development.
In 2013, after joining the community-wide effort, Lowcountry Land Trust purchased those surrounding 35 acres of significant forest and wetlands to protect the landscape in perpetuity. Significant private and public funding allowed for this purchase; including but not limited to South Carolina Conservation Bank and the Charleston County Greenbelt Program funds.
Lowcountry Land Trust proudly stewards the Angel Oak Preserve initiative - a 10-year effort to unify an existing 9-acre city park with the surrounding 35 acres once threatened by insensitive development. The Charleston community celebrates the magnetic draw of the enormous, centuries-old tree known as Angel Oak - and Lowcountry Land Trust is working to highlight this immersive ambassador site for environmental conservation through the creation of Angel Oak Preserve.
Local Stewards of the Angel Oak Reflect on What's to Come
Lowcountry Land Trust begins planning phase for Angel Oak Preserve project
Nelson Byrd Woltz tapped to lead planning process for South Carolina’s Angel Oak Preserve
Lowcountry Land Trust, in partnership with the City of Charleston and local stakeholders, announced that the near-final designs of the future Angel Oak Preserve are ready for community members to review and provide feedback. The announcement comes just eight months after the selection of award-winning landscape architects Nelson Byrd Woltz to lead a comprehensive planning process for the much-anticipated project.
Unrivaled in its features and accessibility, the 44-acre preserve design features boardwalk trails, a nature play area for children, and educational information about the tree and native people that have held the Angel Oak sacred. Charleston residents celebrate the magnetic draw of the enormous, centuries-old tree in the heart of Johns Island - and Lowcountry Land Trust is working to highlight this beloved local landmark symbolizing history, honor, and hope.
Community members can learn more about the project, review the design renderings, and provide feedback online at www.angeloakpreserve.org.