Two conservation coups for the Lowcountry
The regional greenbelt is growing. The addition of about 17 square miles of conservation land in Berkeley County near Pineville will provide a key link in buffering development on the northern side of Lake Moultrie, protect the Santee River watershed, preserve Revolutionary War sites, and the tomb of Revolutionary War hero Gen. Francis “The Swamp Fox” Marion.
The value of the deal far exceeds the $3.6 million it took to secure the properties — altogether about 11,000 acres between the Francis Marion National Forest and the Santee National Wildlife Refuge — for the Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust.
Separately, in a $4.5 million deal financed with wetland mitigation dollars from Palmetto Railways, one of the last privately held tracts within the Francis Marion National Forest – about 2,000 acres — has been acquired through a deal with the Open Space Institute (OSI).
The land, formerly part of Fairlawn Plantation, is prime longleaf pine habitat and wetlands surrounding the headwaters of the Wando River just west of Awendaw. It will be held in trust by the OSI and ultimately turned over to the U.S. Forest Service and opened to public use, according to Nate Berry of OSI, which also acquired 220 nearby acres with mitigation funds from Mercedes-Benz related to the expansion of its North Charleston plant.
The recent OSI acquisitions also provide a barrier to annexation by the town of Awendaw and dovetail with a similar $5.4 million deal in 2014 that secured 2,241 acres of the former Fairlawn Plantation.
Most of the “Swamp Fox” land comes from the Oakland Club, a private hunting club that has managed the property, with a current market value of about $24 million, for more than 100 years. But its owners agreed to donate 70 percent of the easement value, leaving the S.C. Conservation Bank with a tab of $3.6 million to protect the land in perpetuity. The club also donated 25 acres for educational purposes.
One of the long-term advantages, according to Jim Rozier, president of the Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust, is helping to preserve the Lowcountry’s water supply.
“Protecting buffers along our rivers and lakes is probably the most important thing we can do to sustain water quality for our community and avoid a disastrous shortage of drinking water down the road,” he told Post and Courier reporter Warren Wise.
Under the deal — a good example as to why the Legislature should reauthorize the Conservation Bank next year — no more than five residences will be allowed on the property, which is comprised of fire-thinned pine forests, swamps and river floodplains. It is home to a variety of wildlife including bobwhite quail, swallow-tail kites and red-cockaded woodpeckers. Negotiations are underway to secure an additional 1,800 acres in the area under a conservation easement.
Those conservation easements complement the work done by the Charleston County greenbelt program, which was begun in 2004 when voters endorsed a local option sales tax for land preservation and transportation improvements. The greenbelt program has preserved, by purchase of property and conservation easements, 11,397 acres of rural land, 11,438 acres adjacent Francis Marion National Forest, 7,900 acres of wetlands, and has provided for 6,533 acres of parkland.
The public recognizes the value of the greenbelt program to achieve public benefits such as preserving natural habitat and forestalling urban sprawl. That’s why Charleston County voters endorsed more sales tax money for the greenbelt fund in a 2016 referendum.
Much of the Charleston metro area from the coast near McClellanville to Lake Marion now enjoy the benefits of a natural buffer. But there is more to be done. Completing a regional greenbelt plan will require further land acquisitions and easements extending from the ACE Basin northward to Four Holes Swamp. The remarkable progress that has been made through public and private conservation initiatives offers a compelling reason to stay the course.
