Two conservation groups on Tuesday unveiled a record-setting $51
million deal to buy 39,000 acres of forestland near Myrtle Beach and along
the Savannah River.
The Conservation Fund and The Nature Conservancy said they will buy the
two parcels from International Paper, with the ultimate goal of selling
them to the state.
Government officials and environmentalists called the agreement a
"conservation milestone" that protects two large areas of land from
development and helps tie important wildlife areas together.
One parcel is known as the Woodbury tract and has 25,668 acres filled
with cypress swamps and longleaf pine forests. Sandwiched between the
Little Pee Dee and Pee Dee rivers in Marion County, it's just 15 miles
west of Myrtle Beach and upriver from the federal Waccamaw National
Wildlife Refuge and the state's Sandy Island Preserve.
The other is in Hampton County. Called the Hamilton Ridge tract, it has
13,281 acres on the Savannah River and is next to the state's James W.
Webb Wildlife Management Area.
The 39,000 acres together are roughly six times the size of peninsular
Charleston.
"Today's announcement provides the state with the opportunity to
conserve some of our most ecologically significant landscapes," said John
Frampton, director of the state Department of Natural Resources.
The groups' purchase in South Carolina is part of a much broader $300
million agreement to buy 218,000 acres from IP in 10 Southern states.
The overall deal is the largest private land preservation purchase in
the history of the Southeast, "extraordinary in every sense of the word,
from its scope and scale to its tremendous conservation outcomes," said
Larry Selzer, The Conservation Fund's president.
The agreement is a reflection of powerful economic and demographic
forces that are reshaping South Carolina and the rest of the South.
International Paper, MeadWestvaco and other paper companies are selling
hundreds of thousands of acres of timberland. These sales have huge
consequences for cities such as Charleston, Georgetown and Myrtle Beach,
which are surrounded by large timber tracts.
Developers are snapping up many of these parcels, hoping to build for
an expected crush of new residents. Because of these trends, the South has
one of the "most rapidly changing landscapes in the Northern Hemisphere,"
said Steve McCormick of The Nature Conservancy, explaining why his
organization decided to focus on IP's holdings.
It's why the General Assembly passed legislation giving the Natural
Resources Department authority to borrow about $32 million.
Gov. Mark Sanford signed the legislation into law Tuesday.
Though the law gives the state an extra $32 million to buy timberland,
it's not a given that the state will raise all of the $51 million for the
two tracts.
"There is a risk," said Mark Robertson, S.C. director of The Nature
Conservancy, noting some legislators in the House were trying to lop $15
million from the state Conservation Bank's budget.
Still, if the state does raise the money, it would be the largest
conservation purchase by the state in its history, a Natural Resources
Department spokesman said.
Such a purchase would give the public access to prime hunting and
fishing land, Robertson said.
The Woodbury tract "has incredible recreational opportunities for
hunting, fishing and kayakers because of its river access," Robertson
said, adding that because of its location and river frontage, "there was
very intense interest in that property by people who would have cut it
into a lot of different pieces."
He said the Hamilton Ridge tract isn't facing immediate development
threats but thatthese forces could build in the future. The development
boom hasn't hit "Hampton County yet, but things in Jasper County, which is
next door, are changing very rapidly."
He credited International Paper for working with groups to identify
properties with important conservation values.
IP Chairman and CEO John Faraci announced the $300 million deal Tuesday
as "the largest private forestland conservation sale in the South, and one
of the largest in the United States."
The agreement will allow timber harvesting to continue on about
three-fourths of the land during the next five years. "We got fair market
value," Faraci said of the $300 million price tag.
Conservation sale
A state-by-state breakdown of International Paper's deal to sell about
218,000 acres of Southeastern forestland to conservation groups:
Alabama 14,117 acres
Arkansas 8,122 acres
Florida 28,579 acres
Georgia 24,120 acres
Louisiana 440 acres
Mississippi 110 acres
North Carolina 77,090 acres
South Carolina 38,949 acres
Virginia 24,187 acres
Tennessee 2,570 acres
Source: International Paper and The Nature Conservancy