Last year, thousands of acres of land that had been slated for development were permanently protected, paving the way for a new state forest to be created near the Beaufort and Jasper county border.
The 2,700-acre Chelsea Plantation tract will open to the public soon under management by the South Carolina Forestry Commission, after being purchased from developers last year by The Nature Conservancy.
What was once land that would be dotted with thousands of homes, will soon become the new Chelsea State Forest…