80,000 acres so far

A year after the most productive year in its history, Lowcountry Open Land Trust hit another milestone. In 2009, the trust passed the 80,000-acre mark of lands protected under conservation easement, including nearly 2,000 acres in the verdant ACE Basin.

The newly conserved properties comprise 4,654 acres in seven counties under 22 owners.

"There's an unusually strong conservation ethic in South Carolina," said Margaret Blackmer, board of trustees president, in a new release. "We're gratified to work with landowners who recognize how important it is to preserve the unique rural nature of the area."

It was the third year of milestones for the trust. The protections followed a banner year in 2008, when nearly 19,000 acres were conserved, almost double the total of the previous high year of 2007. That year, more than 10,000 acres were protected. Through the trust's 24-year history, more than 81,000 acres have been preserved.

The trust is a Charleston-based nonprofit working with landowners to put conservation easements on private properties, filling a niche between national groups and small-scale groups. The effort has been characterized as an important part of the quilt of public and private conservation that has set aside more than three quarters of a million acres so far in the greater Charleston area.

The ACE Basin is a public-private, ecological preserve of nearly a quarter-million acres of the deltas of the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto rivers in Colleton County.

Year's tally

Properties preserved in 2009 include:

County — Easements — Acres

Allendale — 3 — 454
Charleston —5 —526
Colleton — 3 — 1,810
Dorchester — 1 — 300
Hampton — 5 — 967
Jasper — 1 — 154
Orangeburg — 3 — 399