Home Care In Slater, SC

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This is part of the Lowcountry Swamped series. Read about the problem of over development in the Lowcountry and the history behind a tract of Jasper County land being considered for conservation.

For once, a yellow-throated warbler bid me good morning deep in the South Carolina Lowcountry instead of the usual full-throttled leaf blower.

I was touring a great new wonder — the 5,000-acre Slater tract in northern Jasper County that will not only be saved from development forever but also be open to the public.

“It’s one of the most beautiful pieces of property I’ve ever seen,” said Dana Beach, the retired founding director of the Coastal Conservation League.

He calls it “the epicenter of biodiversity in the South,” and retired Lowcountry Institute director Chris Marsh says it has “an incredible mosaic of habitat because of the topography” that make it as critical as any land in the state.

And since that tour more than a year ago, the adjacent 7,000-acre Buckfield tract is also being purchased for preservation, and public access.

This is the answer the problem of Lowcountry sprawl.

This is the only way the Lowcountry will be saved from the Atlanta-style development that has swamped Bluffton and Hardeeville and is now snaking its way into unincorporated Jasper County.

We’re at a tipping point and the saving grace, if it happens, will be public land ownership, public acquisition of development rights, and private landowners setting up voluntary conservation easements.

We now know the future of the Slater and Buckfield tracts.

They sit almost a dolphin’s leap from Exit 28 on Interstate-95. It’s easy to envision intense development there. We’ve witnessed the dark and lonely McGarvey’s Corner intersection half an hour away morph into an overcrowded cloverleaf outside Sun City Hilton Head.

And these tracts are laced with the Coosawhatchie and Tulifinny rivers, forming a horseshoe of environmental protection around the headwaters of Port Royal Sound.

“We’re trying to change people’s mindset,” said Charles Lane.

He was an early instigator of the ACE Basin movement that has protected 320,000 acres between Hilton Head Island and Charleston over the past 30 years, and active in the Slater and Buckfield deals.

“If people think development is inevitable, they are unlikely to be a player for conservation. If they think conservation is a more likely outcome, they are more willing to talk.

“What Buckfield and Slater do for us is provide an anchor up here. We can build on that.

“And we’re going to have to find other anchors.”

Land conservation has a lot of momentum in South Carolina.

The Slater and Buckfield deals show it.

It helps conservationists when land is still held in large tracts, as it is in the Lowcountry. Big tracts were often plantations, then tree farms or hunting preserves, now often owned by interests nationwide as timber investment management organizations (TIMOs).

Hampton County native Wise Batten, who owns a forestry management and real estate brokerage firm based in Estill, calls them “a timber hedge fund.”

They would approach pension plans, endowments, insurance companies and very wealthy people and say ‘we can earn you 5% over a long period.’”

In Beaufort County and in Hardeeville, former timber land was often sold in big tracts to developers who got it annexed into a town with a development agreement in hand, then flipped parcels to national homebuilders such as D.R. Horton and neighborhoods sprang up overnight.

On the other side, a couple of national organizations that made the Slater and Buckfield deals possible came seeking long-term conservation of environmentally sensitive land for it to remain in traditional uses and thwart sprawling development.

The Open Space Institute (OSI) bought the Slater tract in three chunks for about $20 million. It will get that money back when the state buys the land and the S.C. Department of Natural Resources manages it for wildlife and land protection, as well as public uses such as hiking, fishing and hunting.

The Nature Conservancy bought half of the Buckfield land for about $16 million and OSI is expected to buy the rest by the end of the year. The state is to buy that tract as well, setting up a 12,000-acre wildlife management area with public access.

To make this possible, private foundations and donors got help from the federal government with the aid of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, and allocations from the state legislature, the state Conservation Bank, and the S.C. Heritage Trust program.

“We’ve seen an unprecedented amount of state resources for conservation,” Lane said — more than $100 million recently. The same is true at the federal and county levels, he said.

The Lowcountry also has a collaborative conservation community, with OSI, the Nature Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited, land trusts, and private property owners working together with state and local governments — and working across county lines.

“There is more money than there ever has been to do this at the federal, state, local and private level,” Beach said. “And there’s more landowner awareness. There’s a more competent big-land conservation movement now.

“If we look back and see the evolution of the protected land base, it’s not only better zoning and better public policies, but also a better attitude with local citizens and local government.”

The Lowcountry’s golden goose is not the beach or military that have drawn so many people here.

It is the land itself, with graceful trees and stirring wildlife, its meandering creeks and rivers, and marshes cackling with life.

And private property owners who appreciate that have led the way in land conservation.

“South Carolina has quite a conservation story to tell the nation,” said Kate Schafer with the Open Land Trust based in Beaufort.

The ACE Basin story is based on private landowners making individual conservation easements.

Batten and his wife have placed a large tract near Estill in a permanent easement, for example, and he points to neighbors doing the same, such as the John D. Carswell family.

The Slater tract was sold by Glover Real Estate LLC of Bluffton.

Buckfield is being sold by Richard L. Chilton Jr. of Connecticut, owner of a global investment management firm. He also owns White Hall Plantation in Colleton County, and Bull Island in the May River near Bluffton.

He told The Island Packet in 2001, “We’re preservationists, not developers.”

Jasper County administrator Andy Fulghum sees the future 12,000-acre Wildlife Management Area as a perfect fit for the region.

He says it is part of recreational economy, which includes private hunt clubs and the Congaree Golf Club nearby, where the PGA Tour recently held its second tournament.

Combined with the quiet industry of solar panel farms that produce about $1 million annually for the county without demanding any services, Jasper County now sees a better option than hoping residential development will pay for itself, which it never does.

“Slater is going to be huge for us as sort of economic development and for providing recreational amenities for folks that we don’t have to pay for as local taxpayers,” he said.

Michelle Sinkler, special projects manager for OSI, said, “This is not only an anchor for homeowners but an anchor for leadership, to show Jasper and Hampton county leaders that this can be done. So when they do have, perhaps, a nonconforming project come in front of them, they have confidence in saying ‘no’ perhaps to annexations or inappropriate development proposals.

“We hope 12,000 acres in public lands can inspire leaders to make hard decisions.”

This story was originally published October 28, 2022, 5:00 AM.

RIDGELAND — In contrast to the slow-moving gopher tortoises that inhabit the Slater Tract in Jasper County, state officials approved the purchase of the 3,500-acre parcel at breakneck speed.

The request appeared before the State Fiscal Accountability Authority on Mar. 28. Gov. Henry McMaster, who chairs the authority, moved quickly through the agenda, and the $17.55 million purchase was approved without comment or discussion. The entire transaction lasted less than a minute.

The approval represents the first step in a plan to transfer more than 12,000 acres of protected land in Jasper and Hampton counties to the care of the state.

While the approval happened quickly, the plan has been in the works for three years, noted Nate Berry, senior vice president with the Open Space Institute, the agency that's played a leading role in the conservation effort.

"You've got to remember that was the final phase of the process," he said. "It had been vetted by other people and agencies, but I was happy that there was no discussion."

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources asked the state for approval to buy the tract to protect water quality in the Port Royal Sound watershed, preserve and improve wildlife habitat and create outdoor recreational opportunities for residents.

"One of the big goals of this project is to create a protected land corridor from the 300,000 protected acres in the ACE Basin to the 500,000 acres of protected land in South Lowcountry Focus Area, which is along the Savannah River," explained Berry.

The sale isn't a done deal yet. The state still needs to complete some steps before the sale can be finalized, said DNR spokesman Stephen Fastenau.

Assuming the rest of the process goes according to plan, the agency will manage the property as the Jasper-Slater Sandhills Heritage Preserve, which will be open to the public

Hilton Head

Crafting a very large land deal

The parcel, located approximately eight miles north of the Town of Ridgeland, is currently owned by the Open Space Institute. The institute is a conservation organization based in New York that also has an office in Charleston.

In the nine years the organization has had a presence in South Carolina, it has preserved about 50,000 acres over the course of 50 projects. Its niche, Berry said, is creating new public land.

Between May 2021 and April 2022, the institute made three separate purchases of Slater property totaling 5,081 acres. The investment was its first in the region.

"The Slater assemblage sits in a biodiversity hotspot on an unusually high sand ridge," Berry said. "It's got 68 state-priority species on it. It's a herpetologist's dream. It's a special property."

In the summer of 2022, the institute partnered with The Nature Conservancy on a plan to purchase more than 7,300 adjoining acres known as the Buckfield property, most of which is in neighboring Hampton County.

The Nature Conservancy closed on its half of the purchase in June of last year. The Open Space Institute expects to close on its portion of the property after the sale of the Slater parcel to the state is complete.

“The protection of Buckfield represents the power of innovative collaboration — working together in new ways to accomplish more than any organization could alone," said Dale Threatt-Taylor, executive director of The Nature Conservancy in South Carolina.

Eventually, the entire combined property amounting to more than 12,300 acres will be owned and managed by the state as part of its network of wildlife management areas.

Hilton Head

“Very rarely do we have opportunities to protect assemblages of land at this magnitude, particularly along the rapidly urbanizing coast," said Raleigh West, executive director of the South Carolina Conservation Bank. "When you consider its size, along with the uniqueness of the wildlife habitat it provides, the Slater-Buckfield project is one of the most significant conservation victories in recent times.”

An important habitat

The Open Space Institute paid $16 million when it bought the first and largest of the Slater parcels two years ago. That's the land the state is now planning to purchase. An appraisal completed last winter pegged the value of the 3,507-acre parcel at $19.1 million.

A federal grant provided nearly $9.5 million of the purchase price, and DNR's Heritage Land Trust chipped in another $6 million. The Nature Conservancy and South Carolina Conservation Bank, among others, also contributed to the purchase.

Hilton Head

DNR described the land as mix of forested uplands, bottomland hardwood forests, fields and open areas. Approximately 11 miles of the Coosawhatchie River and its tributaries are contained within the tract. It's believed to be suitable to restore the bobwhite quail and red-cockaded woodpecker habitat.

It's also home to a large and growing population of gopher tortoises. According to the Open Space Institute, the tortoise colony, which numbers around 150 individuals, is one of the largest in the eastern United States.

The tortoise is federally designated as an at-risk species. Its extensive underground burrows provide habitat for dozens of other animals, making it a keystone species in its ecosystem.

The transfer of the remaining Slater and Buckfield acreages to DNR is expected to take place over the coming year, though the schedule has not yet been solidified.

"It's a huge effort," Berry said. "This could be the biggest project I work on in my career."

MARIETTA, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - For community members like Gina Norris Hinton, a new high school in the Slater-Marietta area is all about the future.

“It’s all about the population growth,” she told FOX Carolina. “We have a hundred houses being built on my road that I live on.”

Hinton is the president of the Slater-Marietta Community Association, and says their body has only just begun their 10 year plan. They believe they’re already seeing that need.

“We feel like education is important and we need to go ahead and start planning for that future,” she said.

The idea of a high school in Slater-Marietta is something that’s been tossed around even since the last graduating class left in the 1970s. The school district shut that high school down, and converted part of it into Slater-Marietta elementary, which is all that’s left.

“A lot of people might think it’s a nostalgia thing, but that’s not it at all. It’s a real need,” said community member Bob Cashion.

Cashion has been speaking to officials about the need for a new high school in his area for decades. He says he remembers just how vital having it in his neighborhood was when he graduated in 1968.

“It was really the hub of the community,” Cashion said. “I mean all major activities seemed to center around the school.”

Beyond that though, he says students are being affected negatively.

In some cases, he and Hinton both say kids living near the North Carolina state line are riding busses for long stretches down to the Travelers Rest High School every day.

“It has an impact on the sense of the community, but has a real impact on the learning of those students,” Cashion said.

“If it was your child, would you want them riding the bus 2 hours every day to get an education? I don’t think any parent would,” Hinton added.

The school board says they’re not convinced yet though.

“The numbers that I’ve looked at do not show a need at this time,” said GCS Board of Trustees Chairman Roger Meek, when we asked him if they’d consider building a new high school in the Slater-Marietta area. “We’ve still got capacity at Traveler’s Rest High School,” he went on.

Meek says--they don’t believe the same growth that community members think is coming to the area is actually going to happen. Therefore, they don’t believe a new school is needed.

The school district also gave us a statement, reading:

“Our planning and demographics department annually reviews population, growth and projected developments, and revises our long-range facilities plan accordingly. For the administration to make a recommendation for a new school, we have to have facts, data and projections that indicate a school needs to be considered. A multitude of factors enter into that: population, anticipated growth and at what point a new school becomes feasible. A high school must reflect a broad range of course offerings. The smaller the school, the more difficult it becomes. None of this is an answer to building a new Slater-Marietta high school. It’s an answer to how you go about this. The Board of Trustees asked us to look at the projected growth of that area, so as we prepare our next long-range plan, we will look specifically at that.”

Parents in the area say they’d also love to see some research done into this, adding that another stat the district should look at is the dropout rate in Slater-Marietta.

The next time this issue is likely to come back up is at a Greenville County planning commission meeting in just under 90 days. At the their last meeting just 2 weeks ago, county planners voted to postpone a resolution that would formally ask the GCS Board of Trustees to look into the feasibility of putting a new high school in the Slater-Marietta area. The resolution was proposed by councilman Joe Dill, who represents the Slater-Marietta area, along with much of northern Greenville County.

This is a developing story. Stay with FOX Carolina for updates.

Copyright 2022 WHNS. All rights reserved.

There's now even more acreage in Jasper County that will be protected by the Open Space Institute.

OSI announced on April 4 that it has acquired a third property in the Slater assemblage for a total of more than 5,000 acres protected in less than a year, according to a news release. OSI said this will help secure critical gopher tortoise habitat while also adding land for public recreation.

The property, which includes "mature productive wetlands," is adjacent to the 3,800-acre Slater and 336-acre Slater Duck Ponds parcels OSI previously acquired, a news release said.

“At over 5,000 acres and $20 million, the Slater project represents a new and transformative era of investment in Jasper County,” county administrator Andy Fulghum said. “This outstanding conservation victory was made possible by OSI’s visionary leadership, and we are grateful."

Fulghum said, "what was equally exciting is that Slater builds on the County’s 2021 Conservation Finance Feasibility Study and sets the stage for a larger, collaborative conservation investment effort for our region."

OSI said conserving the latest 929-parcel secures essential wildlife habitat and creates additional public land in one of the state's fastest-growing regions.

OSI said it intends to transfer the property to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources as funding becomes available. DNR will develop infrastructure for the public to enjoy the property while preserving its biological integrity, the release said.

"The three OSI-protected properties are within a 30-minute drive from Savannah, Hilton Head, and Beaufort, and are located in one of America’s most biologically diverse yet fastest-growing regions," the release said. "The conservation of the more than 5,000 acres offers opportunities for hunting, fishing, birding, hiking, and cycling in an area where the nearest similar public preserve is almost an hour away."

In June, OSI’s $16 million acquisition of the first Slater tract was one of the largest conservation investments in state history, the release said.

“The Slater acquisitions prove that despite mounting development pressure, large-scale conservation for nature and the public is both achievable and critically important,” said Nate Berry, OSI’s Southeast Office director. “Each of the three Slater tracts are amazing on their own. Together they are remarkable. OSI is proud to secure these beautiful and abundant properties and looks forward to working with our partners SCDNR and Jasper County on future successes.”

OSI said the newly protected 929-acre property further expands the gopher tortoise habitat established by its conservation of the original Slater property, "which is home to one of the largest colonies of gopher tortoises in the eastern United States." The land, the release said, "also contains habitat conducive for the potential reintroduction of the federally endangered Red-Cockaded Woodpecker."

The Slater properties link the ACE Basin with the Southern Lowcountry Conservation Focus Area, according to OSI. It said this region "encompasses more than a tenth of South Carolina’s land area, and constitutes one of the largest undeveloped, most ecologically intact regions on the East Coast."

OSI’s Southeast office, established in Charleston eight years ago, has helped protect more than 50,000 acres in South Carolina, OSI said.

A newly purchased 929-acre tract of land in Jasper County near the Coosawhatchie River will be preserved for public use and protect essential wildlife in the area, growing an already existing conservation assemblage to more than 5,000 acres in less than a year.

The land was purchased by the Open Space Institute’s southeast office, which says it intends to transfer the property to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources to develop the necessary infrastructure needed at the property “as funding come available.”

The most recently purchased tract contains mature productive wetlands, adding to the institute’s acquisitions of the 3,800-acre “Slater” for $16 million and 336-acre “Slater Duck Ponds” parcels, the former being one of the largest land conservation agreements in South Carolina history. This third purchase expands the gopher tortoise habitat established at the Slater property, which has one of the largest colonies of gopher tortoises in the eastern United States. It also has a habitat conducive for the possible reintroduction of the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker, a federally endangered species.

“The Slater acquisitions prove that despite mounting development pressure, large-scale conservation for nature and the public is both achievable and critically important,” Nate Berry, OSI’s Southeast Office director, said in a county news release. “Each of the three Slater tracts are amazing on their own. Together they are remarkable.”

In addition to the conservation aspect, the property is open for public use providing opportunities for hunting, fishing, birding, hiking, and cycling located in a central spot about a 30-minute drive from Beaufort, Hilton Head Island, and Savannah.

“At over 5,000 acres and $20 million, the Slater project represents a new and transformative era of investment in Jasper County,” Jasper County Administrator Andrew Fulghum said in the release.

“This outstanding conservation victory was made possible by OSI’s visionary leadership, and we are grateful. What’s equally exciting is that Slater builds on the County’s 2021 Conservation Finance Feasibility Study and sets the stage for a larger, collaborative conservation investment effort for our region.”

Protection of the two properties, both located near the Coosawhatchie River, comes as Jasper and Beaufort counties are facing immense growth and development pressures.

This story was originally published April 8, 2022, 11:00 AM.