Time is running out to save the Cainhoy Meeting Tree from a road widening project on Clements Ferry Road.

The Coastal Conservation League is asking for help:

This might be our last chance to save the Cainhoy Meeting Tree. The historic live oak at the corner of Clements Ferry Road and Cainhoy Road is slated to be cut down next week to make way for the widening of Clements Ferry Road. There are two ways you can help stop the needless destruction of this living symbol of our collective culture.

1. Use our template to write and send a letter to Berkeley County Council and Charleston City Council urging them to save the Cainhoy Meeting Tree.
    
2. Attend the peaceful protest to save the Cainhoy Meeting Tree. Citizens are planning to show up throughout the week to show their support and protect the tree.

The Cainhoy Meeting Tree is a massive live oak estimated to be about 300 years old. The tree marks a major intersection, and for as long as anyone can remember, it has served as a meeting place for folks traveling to Charleston from scattered historic settlement communities like Huger and Jack Primus. It’s suspected that the tree’s roots stretch all the way to antebellum days when enslaved people would secretly gather under the tree to visit loved ones they were forcibly separated from and exchange news.

The path of Clements Ferry Road could easily be altered at little cost and perhaps even some savings for taxpayers. Residents have been begging officials to preserve the Cainhoy Meeting Tree for years, but so far, they have not listened. As Berkeley County—and especially the Cainhoy Peninsula—continues to experience unprecedented development, we must band together to protect the history, culture and values that define us as a community. Let’s turn out to the peaceful protest and use our collective voice to save the Cainhoy Meeting Tree—a symbol of all the things that make the South Carolina Lowcountry one of the most special places on Earth.

Don’t forget to reach out to your elected officials today and tell them to save the Cainhoy Meeting Tree!

To learn more about the Cainhoy Meeting Tree….click the links below

• A November 2020 story on WCBD-TV
• “Roots of Cainhoy”…a 2017 story in the Daniel Island News
• Save the Meeting Tree Facebook page