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CONSERVATION
S.C. conservation efforts made inroads in 2004
By Sarah G. McC. Moise
Staff Writer
“This has been the busiest year that anyone can remember,” says Will Haynie, executive director of the Lowcountry Open Land Trust. “We expect to have 12 to 16 easements signed, conserving 4,000 to 6,000 acres.”
The LOLT is just one of the area’s many conservation organizations that has been pleasantly overworked in the past year. In 2004, Ducks Unlimited will have protected approximately 15,000 acres, and The Nature Conservancy expects to complete 34 transactions on more than 35,000 acres.
In addition to a record number of conservation easements and protected acreage, the LOLT has never had so many easements under negotiation. “Some were not time sensitive, so we chose to wait. And many easements have been held over to 2005 for tax purposes and estate planning,” says Haynie.
“We’ve done more landowner and membership outreach in the past year,” says Haynie. “We did a seminar early in 2004 in partnership with Audubon South Carolina and the Francis Beidler Forest for 18 to 20 landowners. The Land Trust has already gotten three or four commitments to easements from them with more to come. The upswing in the economy helped, but I don’t think I’ve heard anyone come in and say that they are putting an easement on their property because the economy has turned around,” says Haynie. “Most see what’s going on in Lowcountry and tell us they don’t want that kind of pressure on their property.”
“South Carolina has an enormous number of landowners who have an incredible passion for their land and unlimited generosity and selflessness in the donation of conservation easements,” says conservationist Charles Lane, who serves on the ACE Basin task force. The ACE Basin in Beaufort is the largest estuarine preserve on the East Coast.
“U.S. News and World Report has South Carolina ranked seventh in total acreage [preserved], says Lane. “ Ninety-nine percent of those acres have been donated.”
“2004 was one of the best years the Nature Conservancy has ever had, if not the best,” says Noel Thorn, director of land protection for the South Carolina chapter of the Nature Conservancy, a private nonprofit group. “And not just in easements, but in lands we have purchased and resold to conservation buyers and government co-ops.”
As part of a larger acquisition of 8,541 acres of land from Plum Creek for $13.2 million, the conservancy purchased 2,378 acres in 2004 near the Santee River from Plum Creek Timber Co. The initial $3,213,000 acquisition includes six tracts located in Berkeley County near the Santee River between Jamestown and St. Stephens. It will resell five of the tracts, totaling 1,873 acres, to the U.S. Forest Service for inclusion in the Francis Marion National Forest. It also purchased 678 acres near Honey Hill in Berkeley County from International Paper Realty Corp., which will then be resold to the U.S. Forest Service.
These and other properties count toward the 15,000 new acres protected by TNC in 2004. The remainder of the overall 35,000 acres in transactions includes lands purchased previously, whose transfer has only been completed this year. Additional properties included the transfer sale of three islands, totaling 11,000 acres, in the ACE Basin to the state of South Carolina. More than 30,000 acres are already targeted for 2005.
TNC separates itself from other organizations by not only purchasing easements, but by buying and selling land outright. Both a large land trust and a large land real estate dealer, it has become one of the most prominent organizations that works with private buyers, although it cannot sell any property unless it’s protected.
Limited developments
“The conservation community has done a very good job of protecting critical landscapes in our rural areas, but no one has come up with a way to control sprawl,” says Lane. “You can’t go from subdivision to plantation; we have to do something with the area in between.”
Limited conservation development provides a natural land use transition from urban to suburban to these natural areas. “The Land Trust did Selkirk on Wadmalaw. Ducks Unlimited did Bulow Landing. The Nature Conservancy had Laurel Hill Farms. All of the conservation groups have been involved in trying to hold easements on conservation developments,” says Lane.
“At the end of the year, two developers came to the Land Trust with interest in conservation development,” says Haynie. “We provided information for the most environmentally friendly development they can do. Developers can decide what the most beautiful areas are that should be preserved as amenities. If everyone in a development has access to 600 feet of river front, then no one pays less for substandard interior lots.”
“Limited developments provide a way for a landowner to protect their property, take advantage of tax benefits and make a good financial return,” adds Lane. “There is a real market for buyers out there who want to live in these communities with a great quality of life.”
Funding efforts
“South Carolina is unique,” says Thorn. “We don’t have the level of government funding available to other states—this is the first time we’ve had a conservation bank. We’re 40th in size and 10th in biodiversity. South Carolina is over-proportionate in the number and size of its conservation loans, but we’re the best performing state in repayment.”
Marvin Davant, executive director of the South Carolina Conservation Bank, received 18 proposals for grant funding to protect property all over the state, ranging in size from 17 acres up to 14,000. “We had requests for about $35 million, and we allocated about $11 million this year.” Davant was surprised by the significant amount of matching funds in each proposal—an important criterion in the bank’s consideration.
Sarah Moïse covers conservation for the Business Journal. E-mail her at smoise@crbj.com.
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