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Nature Conservancy Receives Grant from the Winthrop Family Allendale/Hampton Fund

Funding to Protect Critical Habitat Along the Savannah River and its Tributaries

Columbia, SC—February 11, 2004—The Nature Conservancy received a $5,000 grant from the Winthrop Family Allendale/Hampton Fund to protect ecologically sensitive areas along the Savannah River and its tributaries in Hampton and Allendale counties. Administered by The Community Foundation Serving Coastal South Carolina (The Community Foundation), the funding will enhance the Conservancy's ability to protect at least 5,000 acres of natural areas that support rare or threatened plant and animal species through either conservation easements or land acquisitions in 2004.

"We are grateful to the Winthrop Family for supporting our efforts in South Carolina's Lowcountry," said Mark Robertson, South Carolina Chapter director for The Nature Conservancy. "This funding represents an opportunity to increase our capacity to protect important sites and maintain the ecological integrity of the region."

According to Jennie Stephens, program director of The Community Foundation, the Winthrop Family Advisors recommended this grant because they want to support The Nature Conservancy of South Carolina's local presence in Allendale and Hampton counties. 

"They do a great job of protecting and preserving land in these rural areas," said Ms. Stephens.

As urban development and coastal expansion from Charleston, S.C., to Savannah, Ga., place increased pressure on the area's natural resources, the Conservancy is working with landowners and other partners to protect ecologically important sites.

Of particular interest to the Conservancy are longleaf  pine forests and associated rare and endangered species, including the federally endangered red-cockaded woodpecker and the threatened gopher tortoise. Longleaf pine communities contain nearly one-quarter of all plant species in North America. Protection of bottomland hardwoods along the Savannah River is critical to resident and migrating songbirds and wading birds, including the wood stork, waterfowl, and the Mississippi and swallow-tailed kites. Well-managed bottomland hardwood forests are critical to the maintenance of water quality and possess aesthetic quality.

"By protecting natural areas such as longleaf pine forests and bottomland hardwood swamps, we are providing critical habitat for a myriad of wildlife and plant species," said Joe Hamilton, ACE Basin and South Lowcountry project director for the Conservancy. "Through land conservation we are ensuring the future of those traditional uses that are inextricably tied to our natural resources."

By either purchasing land or working with landowners to place conservation easements on natural areas, the Conservancy is working on a landscape scale to preserve South Carolina's natural heritage while promoting traditional uses of the land and contributing to local economies.

"Through personal contacts, which this grant will promote, the Conservancy will raise landowners' awareness of conservation options. By working one-on-one with landowners who voluntarily decide to protect their property, the Conservancy is providing the conservation expertise to design a land management plan for the overall public good," Hamilton said. "Easements, one conservation opportunity, are a voluntary option that landowners can choose that allows them to retain ownership, maintain the land as private property and protect South Carolina's natural resources."