Family protects Palmetto Plantation

Less than a mile north of McClellanville, 785 acres of pine forest merge with saltwater, a prime location for an exclusive new subdivision or golf course development.

The owners of this land, the DuPre family, could have cashed in someday. But a DuPre has owned or managed this plot for the last 300 years -- 10 generations.

Thanks to these deep roots, the county's greenbelt program and The Nature Conservancy, the family decided to forever protect the land with a conservation easement, representatives from the family and The Nature Conservancy said today.

"It's a special place," said John DuPre, a forester and part-owner.

It's special because of its size, location and history, he and others said. Locally, the tract is known as Palmetto Plantation, named because the family home was built between two Palmettos.

At 785 acres, it's 142 acres larger than James Island County Park. The tract sits along a full mile of the Intracoastal Waterway. Lighthouse Island and Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge are on one side, and Francis Marion National Forest is on the other.

"It makes a seamless connection from the uplands to the marsh, and there aren't many places like that left," DuPre said.

The Charleston County Greenbelt Program, which is funded with a half-cent sales tax, awarded a $921,000 grant to The Nature Conservancy to buy the easement from the DuPre family. The easement's true value was more than $3 million.

Read more later at postandcourier.com and also in tomorrow's newspaper.