We are pleased to report that 2007 was the biggest year for land protection in the Lowcountry Open Land Trust’s 22-year history. Since your support made it possible for us to operate in this record-setting year, we are providing the highlights in order that you may know how effective your support was in helping conserve the Lowcountry’s irreplaceable natural resources.

I. Land Protection
 

• We preserved 10,581 acres, which is the most in our history. The total number of acres we have saved to date now numbers 57,579.

• We negotiated and recorded 28 new easements, as well as the expansion of two previously existing easements, for a total of 30 easements, which is the most in our history. Our total number of protected properties saved to date now numbers 211.

• We helped preserve an additional 5,400 acres of family-owned land in Beaufort County with frontage on two rivers. LOLT worked for most of the year on this easement, negotiating and drafting it. Ultimately, we passed it off in the fourth quarter to the Beaufort County Open Land Trust for completion because of nuances in the county’s Rural and Critical Lands incentive payment program.

• We are carrying 23,000 acres forward into 2008, on which our portion of the work is basically completed, but signing and recording of the easements was delayed because of other factors. While there are no guarantees that all of this backlog will ultimately result in recorded easements, we are optimistic that 2008 is already shaping up to be a record-breaking year.

• This was the first year in which we worked with landowners to seek incentive payments for easements through the South Carolina Conservation Bank and the Charleston County Greenbelt Bank. We wanted to A) set a high standard for seeking public funds as incentive payments and B) help stretch these limited public dollars as far as possible, so we established these criteria for landowners who wanted us to apply for funding:

1. The proposed easement must result in a 75% reduction in possible development of the property.
   

2. The grant application must be for 10% or less of the appraised value of the property.

3. The grant application must be for 25% or less of the appraised value of the conservation easement. This resulted in landowners donating $3 of value for every $1 in incentive payment they received. To help with the complicated application process for both conservation banks, we augmented our staff with part-time help
   through a grant-funded position.

II. Stewardship

•  We reached our goal of monitoring 100% of all protected properties.

• To achieve continuous improvement, we began the evaluation of our easement violation procedures in order to maintain the best possible working relationship with the owners of protected properties.

III. Partnerships

Lowcountry Conservation Partners – Sponsored by the Donnelley Foundation

The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation consistently grants substantial support for conservation of the South Carolina Lowcountry.  As a grant recipient, LOLT serves as a member of their Lowcountry Conservation Partnership, in which we meet regularly with Donnelley Foundation staff, board members, and partner grantees to analyze, compare, and cooperate in strategic conservation initiatives. The Donnelley grantees are coordinating and streamlining our conservation across the Lowcountry.

 
Lowcountry Conservation Partnership – Sponsored by the Lyndhurst Foundation

The Lyndhurst Foundation granted a 4-year program to LOLT, Ducks Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy and the Coastal Conservation League to protect the critical watersheds and ecosystems in the Lowcountry of South Carolina.

 
Savannah River Preserve

The South Lowcountry (“SoLo”) Task Force, in which LOLT is a participant, is in the beginning stages of implementing a landscape-scale conservation plan for the Savannah River Preserve. This is a region of large tracts of rural land owned by relatively few landowners. In partnership, which includes LOLT, The Nature Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, and the State Conservation Bank, will reach out to owners of large tracts with partial payment for easements. To date, the partnership has preserved over 40,000 acres, and LOLT is currently working with the owners of several thousand more acres in 2008. The partnership has the prospect to protect 100,000 acres over the next few years.

 
Focus Area Task Forces

The success of public/private conservation along the coast of South Carolina is dependant on the cooperation among all stakeholders who participate in the five Focus Area Task Forces. Each Task Force was formed by local and national conservation organizations to prioritize and strategize on their area’s protection. The Lowcountry Open Land Trust is a member of all five of the Task Forces and has contributed greatly to their overall successes. Below are the five areas which and are named for the watersheds they include, followed by the number of acres that LOLT conserved in each area in 2007:

• CAWS (Cooper, Ashley, Wando and Sea Islands)  - -  3,920 acres
• SoLo (South Lowcountry) - - 5,114 acres
• Winyah Bay - - 196 acres
• Santee Cooper Lakes - - 399 acres
• ACE (Ashepoo, Combahee, Edisto) Basin - - 758 acres conserved by LOLT. We also partnered on the conservation of 5,400 more acres, which we turned over to another land trust to hold.

 
South Carolina Land Trust Network

We continued to actively participate in this is a group of 20 local and three national conservation organizations operating in the state.  The Network has been an invaluable source of information and training, especially in light of the past two years’ sweeping changes in conservation tax benefits, funding sources, and the upcoming Land Trust Alliance accreditation. We participated with the two other SC Land Trust Network members, the Edisto Island Open Land Trust and the Kiawah Island Natural Habitat Conservancy, in a land trust accreditation information seminar in November.

 
Additional Partnerships

In 2007, LOLT continued its work with three other important alliances:

• The Cooper River Partnership, which held a series of meetings with landowners in this region to advise them on voluntary ways to preserve the rural nature and natural beauty of this important region in the Lowcountry. This partnership resulted in 1,275 acres of new easement property for LOLT in 2007.
• The Audubon Partnership, which helps preserve undeveloped land around the Francis Beidler Forest and the Four Holes Swamp area. This year’s partnership resulted in LOLT protecting 399 acres near the Beidler Forest.
• The Ashley River Historic District alliance, which continued making progress on a major preservation plan encompassing over 20,000 acres in Charleston and Dorchester Counties, running from the Ashley River to Rantowles Creek. This partnership is also working together closely to monitor MeadWestvaco’s East Edisto tract of 72,000 acres near the Edisto River in Dorchester and Charleston Counties, on which the corporation is devising development plans.
  

IV. Conclusion

In our 21-year history, the Lowcountry Open Land Trust had saved just over 47,000 acres, which was an impressive achievement. In our twenty-second year, we broke all records, preserving over 10,500 acres in 2007. And 2008 is already shaping up to be another unprecedented year! While our Board of Trustees is gratified by this success, it recognizes the need to maintain LOLT’s level of fundraising. Only with increased contributions will we be able to insure our ability to continue the momentum, giving us the flexibility to augment our permanent staff with additional professionals as needed. We wish to thank all the individual members, businesses and foundations who have supported our work and share our conviction that time is of the essence before our irreplaceable Lowcountry land is lost forever.