A shortage of affordable housing isn't the only consequence of the steep rise in property values across most of our state over the last decade. The price of land preservation also has soared. The General Assembly wisely addressed that problem last week by passing legislation that will empower the S.C. Department of Natural Resources to use bonds for the purchase of roughly $32 million of vast forestland tracts that soon will be put up for sale by timber companies.

Sen. Chip Campsen, long a persuasive advocate for land preservation, tells us that a "sense of urgency" drove passage of the bill that provides a funding source for DNR's Heritage Trust program to buy timberland. He said the bill's bonding authorization will put much more bang in the taxpayers' bucks by allowing DNR to buy land on time, making large parcels affordable rather than forcing the agency to resort to "piecemeal" purchases for cash.

Gov. Mark Sanford, who called in his State of the State speech for significant funding to preserve large tracts of timberland, obviously is eager to sign this bill. Last week, his spokesman called the legislation "incredibly important to our state's ability to preserve and protect large tracts of land."

Sen. Campsen noted that the ability to issue bonds to purchase the property is akin to borrowing money to buy a house rather than having to save little by little over the years for a purchase price. In the time it would take to get $32 million in state budget allocations, the timberland could be long gone - and in all probability vastly appreciated in value. If current growth rates persist without effective land-preservation programs to save what's left of the state's natural heritage, Sen. Campsen rightly fears that the Palmetto State could follow the Sunshine State's alarming example.

He pointed out that Florida's population was only slightly above South Carolina's in 1950, but is roughly four times South Carolina's today. And he cited "the largest population migration in this country's history" - of retirees heading south - as putting our state "in danger of strangling the goose that laid the golden egg" through overdevelopment.

Certainly evidence of stunning growth abounds in our community. A recent Post and Courier analysis found that developers already have plans to build more than 115,000 new housing units in the Charleston metro area, including large new developments on or near former timberland in Berkeley and Dorchester counties. And Friday's Post and Courier reported that Dorchester is rated No. 33 on a list of the nation's fastest-growing counties. Sen. Campsen warned: "Residential growth doesn't pay for itself."

But prudent funding of land preservation will pay off by placing needed checks on that growth through not only the Heritage Trust but the state Conservation Bank, which facilitates conservation easements by private landowners.

Another longtime land-preservation advocate, Rep. Chip Limehouse, R-Charleston, also rightly celebrated Thursday's legislation as "an outstanding present we're giving to future generations."

That's a present that should keep on giving, thanks to the Legislature's foresight.