Your Tax $$ Well Spent
For Five Conservation Easements on Edisto
A year ago EIOLT Executive Director and Trustees speculated that Charleston County residents would soon see some payback for the extra one-cent sales tax they have to spend. The payback has arrived in the form of five tracts on Edisto that are forever protected from development. The EIOLT, TNC, and LOLT were awarded funding from the Charleston County Greenbelt Bank and supplemental funding from the SC Conservation Bank to help purchase these conservation easements.
EIOLT:
 Indigo Farms – a 104-acre farm property with frontage along Scenic Highway 174, directly across Russell Creek from protected Windsor Plantation lands.
Creek Farm – a 78-acre heavily wooded property along Scenic Highway 174,
adjacent to Indigo Farms and directly across from protected Gun Bluff Plantation lands.
TNC and EIOLT:
 Sand Creek Farm – a 217-acre tract with frontage on Russell Creek and Sand Creek, adjacent to protected Jehossee Farms and across from Windsor Plantation. Sand Creek Farms is owned by EIOLT Board Member, Lex Crawford, so EIOLT partnered with the Nature Conservancy to secure funding for this purchase. In the future TNC will turn over the easement’s stewardship to EIOLT.
photos by Susan Roberts
TNC:
Salt Landing – a 572-acre property with frontage on the South Edisto River.
LOLT:
Old House Plantation – a 161-acre historic farm
By year end, the Charleston County Greenbelt Bank had awarded a total of $2,150,631 of the $67 Million set aside for Charleston County rural land preservation, to the preservation of the five tracts on Edisto Island totaling 1,238 acres. Greenbelt grant funds for the purpose of purchasing conservation easements are appropriate only in certain situations. To qualify for Greenbelt grant funds for selling a conservation easement on a tract of land requires:
- that the landowner go through an approved Land Trust (which would apply for the grant and purchase the
easement if funds were awarded);
- that the land must have significant conservation value, the preservation of which will benefit the public;
- that the landowner must be willing to sell at a price well below its actual fair market value;
- And that other sources of funds must be found to supplement, or match, those awarded by the Greenbelt Bank Board.
The year ended with a bang when the active management of Botany Bay Plantation (4,800 undeveloped acres) was passed to the SC Department of Natural Resources. DNR representatives say that Botany Bay Plantation will become a wildlife management area similar to the Donnelley WMA.
We will provide updates as plans for this spectacular property are unveiled.
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