The 2007 books closed on the most successful year in the history of the Congaree Land Trust, according to Jane Clarke, executive director of the Columbia-based land trust.

The Congaree Land Trust, which has a service area of 11 counties, including Orangeburg, works with private landowners to protect their land through voluntary conservation easements.

A particularly significant conservation easement for 2007, and the largest ever held by the Congaree Land Trust, is a 2,000-acre farm in Orangeburg County owned by John and Dan Fairey. This working farm has a history that dates back in part to a king's grant.

Frances Oliver Fairey, a Confederate veteran, added more acreage to the farm after the Civil War. In the 1930s, John E. Fairey, son of Frances Oliver Fairey, inherited the farm and acquired more acreage, which by now included a 3-mile stretch along the North Fork of the Edisto River.

John Fairey was an ambitious farmer and, besides cotton and corn, he planted numerous truck crops including potatoes, melons, strawberries, asparagus, peas and beans. An operation of this size in the pre-tractor era required the employment of over 40 mules. Fairey also appreciated plants for their landscaping value and planted two magnolias on the grounds of his residence that came from the Fruitland Nursery, now occupied by Augusta National Golf Course, home of the Masters.

With the South being recognized as the wood basket of the nation, much of the land on the Fairey farm is now devoted to tree farming rather than cotton and corn.

A conservation easement is a permanent agreement whereby, in exchange for potentially significant tax deductions and credits, a landowner gives up his or her development and subdivision rights on the property. The landowner continues to own the property and conduct traditional management activities as before, such as farming, timber harvesting, hunting, fishing and general outdoor recreation. Landowners also have the peace of mind knowing that their property, which may have been in the family for generations, will forever be maintained in an undeveloped state.

More than 10,000 acres of farms, woodlands and wetlands were protected in the Midlands of South Carolina in 2007, Clarke said. This is slightly more than the entire acreage protected over the past 15-year history of the organization and brings the total amount of protected land to 20,000 acres.

Conservation easements are a "win-win" for both landowners and the general public, Clarke said. Even though most easements remain private property, the public at large benefits whenever green space is protected because it reduces urban sprawl, saves farmland, protects water quality, benefits fish and wildlife, and reduces soil erosion.

The banner year for land protection has also been good for a new conservation focus area in the Midlands, the Congaree-Wateree-Upper Santee River Basin, or Cowasee. First created in 2005 by a partnership of private landowners, conservation organizations and public agencies, including the Congaree Land Trust, The Conservation Fund, Ducks Unlimited, Friends of Congaree Swamp, Richland County Conservation Commission, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and the Natural Resource Conservation Service, the Cowasee Basin encompasses 215,000 acres of floodplain forest and adjoining bluffs and high hills in the heart of South Carolina. Modeled after the very successful ACE Basin focus area between Charleston and Columbia, the Cowasee Basin Initiative seeks to protect, primarily through conservation easements, key tracts of private lands that make this area such a unique and special place.

The Cowasee Basin also includes some of the most outstanding public lands in the state, including South Carolina's only national park, the Congaree National Park, as well as Sparkleberry Swamp, Congaree Bluffs Heritage Preserve, Manchester State Forest, and Poinsett State Park. However, like the ACE Basin and other focus areas around the state, most of the Cowasee Basin is in private ownership and any success will rely heavily upon the good will and stewardship of private landowners.

Of the 10,000 acres protected in 2007 through the Congaree Land Trust, nearly 1,800 acres lie within the Cowasee Basin; an additional 700 acres was protected through other basin partners.

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