The Nature Conservancy Protects More Than 14,000 Acres in 2004

Using innovative tools, the South Carolina Chapter is breaking new ground

COLUMBIA, SC—February 1, 2005—Using a variety of land conservation tools, The Nature Conservancy in South Carolina protected more than 14,000 acres, with a land value of $31 million, in 2004. In total, The Nature Conservancy has protected more than 220,000 acres throughout South Carolina since beginning work in the state 27 years ago.

“South Carolina landowners recognize the importance of protecting the unique character of our state, from its beautiful scenery to its rich natural heritage,” said Mark Robertson, Executive Director of The Nature Conservancy in South Carolina. “Working together, we are achieving lasting results by preserving South Carolina’s land, waters and wildlife, in both new and traditional ways.”

Conservation Buyer Program
In order to respond more quickly to the increased volume of timberlands that are coming on the market, The Nature Conservancy is employing new and innovative tools in land protection. One such tool is the Conservation Buyer Transaction (CBT). In a CBT, the Conservancy buys land in a conservation area, resells the land to a private buyer, and protects the land with a perpetual conservation easement. This method allows the Conservancy to recoup valuable dollars that it can then reinvest in other conservation lands, in a timely manner. The following is an example of how three conservation buyer transactions permanently protected 2,783 key acres in the ACE Basin. (The Conservancy completed a total of five CBTs in 2004.)

• In South Carolina’s ACE Basin project area, the Conservancy bought three tracts of land, totaling 2,783 acres, from Plum Creek Timber Company in 2004 for $2.6 million. To protect critical habitat, including forested wetlands and pine uplands, the Conservancy sold the land to conservation-minded buyers who are committed to safeguarding the ecological integrity of the properties with perpetual conservation easements.

“While our natural heritage in South Carolina is being threatened by large-scale development, the Conservation Buyer Program is an innovative way to respond to changing market forces,” said Robertson.

Cooperative Agreements
Partnerships are another important land protection tool employed by The Nature Conservancy. Working in cooperation with government agencies and other conservation partners, the Conservancy is able to achieve greater conservation results than if either partner worked alone. The following are examples out of a total of five cooperative agreements completed in 2004:

• The Conservancy’s recent protection of 1,018-acre Jeremy Island, the largest remaining in-holding within the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge in the Sewee to Santee project area, was accomplished in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). As a private organization, the Conservancy has the capacity to respond quickly to land that comes on the market. The Conservancy purchased Jeremy Island for $794,000 in 2004, on behalf of USFWS, to be resold later to the agency for inclusion in the wildlife refuge.

• The Conservancy struck a similar agreement with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, when it purchased a 155-acre tract of longleaf pine forest adjacent to its Peachtree Rock Preserve in Lexington County, outside of Columbia, in 2003. The property was sold to the State of South Carolina in December 2004 and is being protected as a preserve.

Voluntary Conservation Easements
Still, one of the more popular methods of protecting land is working with private landowners who voluntarily enter into conservation easements with The Nature Conservancy, as a way to permanently ensure the beauty and natural diversity of their property. The following are two examples of conservation easements the Conservancy completed in 2004, out of a total of eight:

• In December 2004, James Davis donated an easement to the Conservancy on 43 acres near Calibogue Sound in Jasper County. The land contains longleaf pine and examples of both freshwater and brackish marsh. Mr. Davis’ newly protected property is adjacent to a 400-acre site protected by a previous conservation easement and also is located close to the Conservancy’s Red Bluff Marsh Preserve – a prime example of the cumulative impact that neighboring easements can have in creating wildlife habitat corridors.

• Copper Station Holdings LLC also donated a conservation easement to the Conservancy in 2004 on 1,700 acres of bottomland hardwood swamp and uplands in the Savannah River corridor. The owners of Copper Station Holdings worked with the Conservancy to preserve this property for future generations.

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The Nature Conservancy is a leading international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities representing the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit us on the Web at nature.org/southcarolina.