Railroad sets Dorchester forest aside for conservation

The Post and Courier

Norfolk Southern has donated a conservation easement to the Lowcountry Open Land Trust that will protect nearly 12,500 acres of the Brosnan Forest from development.

Land Trust officials say it is likely the largest single easement granted in state history.

Lewis Hay, director of land protection for the Land Trust, said the easement is a major environmental coup for South Carolina. Hay said Norfolk Southern had the idea to conserve the land and has been quite literally driving this train.

"They've had their hearts in the right place from the start," Hay said. "They wanted the easement to be absolutely pristine."

The deal is simple. Norfolk Southern still owns the land, and has the right to use it for recreational purposes and to harvest some timber (there is a corporate retreat nearby), but gives up the right to develop it. By granting a conservation easement to the Lowcountry Open Land Trust, a nonprofit conservation organization dedicated to preserving natural and rural land along the South Carolina coast, the company has basically said the land can't be built on, even if it's sold.

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier.