The Lowcountry Forest Conservation Partnership

DORIS DUKE GRANT - The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation awarded a three year, $4 million grant to fund a partnership called The Lowcountry Forest Conservation Partnership which is comprised of lead partner, The Nature Conservancy of South Carolina, Clemson University, Ducks Unlimited, The Conservation Fund, Lowcountry Open Land Trust, South Carolina Coastal Conservation League, and the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center in Georgia.

The majority of the grant will be used to establish a capital fund to purchase or acquire easements on ecologically significant forested land, with the goal of preserving at least 60,000 acres over a three year period. A lesser amount of the grant funding will provide operational support to partner organizations for activities related to the program’s five strategy areas: land protection, forestry management, urban sprawl, prescribed fire, and river hydrology restoration. The Lowcountry Open Land Trust is participating in two of these areas: land protection and conservation forestry.  Results of the partnership include:

• In 2005, LOLT added easements on 6,000 acres of land within the Lowcountry Forest Conservation Project designated area
• The partnership helped conserve 50,228 acres of Lowcountry land
• 75% of conservation forestry landowners were new contacts
• Field days and workshops attracted 185 landowners and 156 foresters
• Topics addressed with landowners included longleaf pine restoration, bottomland hardwood management, understory vegetation control, and prescribed fire
• Two prescribed fire workshops for landowners were held in conjunction with the Prescribed Fire Council
  
  For more information go to www.sclfcp.org.