CHARLESTON COUNTY, SC – Lowcountry Land Trust announced today the permanent protection of 33 acres on the Ashley River in the heart of one of South Carolina’s most iconic landscapes, the Ashley River Historic District. The three properties making up the site are owned by members of the Carter family and are each bound by the District’s national scenic byway and state scenic river. The properties are part of a growing network of protected lands in the Historic District, which in 2018 was named by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as a “National Treasure” and one of the nation’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.
“Our work within urban-rural corridors like the Ashley River is more important now than ever, as they define the edge of growing regions like Charleston,” commented Ashley Demosthenes, President & CEO of Lowcountry Land Trust. “Protection of properties like the Carter tracts adds to what is forming as a contiguous greenbelt surrounding the tri-county area, a result of decades of conservation work by local, state, federal, and corporate partners.”
Located in the Cooper, Ashley, Wando, and Stono (CAWS) conservation focus area of South Carolina, the protection of these properties will provide invaluable ecosystem services, such as the enhancement of downstream water quality and the protection of natural and biologically diverse habitats in the Ashley River watershed. In addition, the conservation easements will forever protect the scenic views of the property from the state scenic river and the national scenic byway and contribute to the protection of a 25,000-acre historic landscape that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
“We are grateful to the Carter family for the many public benefits that come from protecting their ecologically and culturally rich properties along the beautiful Ashley River and Ashley River Road,” said David Ray, Chief Conservation Officer of the Lowcountry Land Trust. “The project’s completion demonstrates the vigor conservationists and landowners continue to bring to saving this nationally significant place in South Carolina’s Lowcountry.”
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ABOUT LOWCOUNTRY LAND TRUST
Founded in 1986, Lowcountry Land Trust partners with landowners and community organizations to permanently protect and nurture land throughout coastal South Carolina. Lowcountry Land Trust holds conservation easements on over 150,000 acres across 17 counties in coastal South Carolina and manages community-centered places such as the Angel Oak Preserve. More information about the Lowcountry Land Trust is available at www.lowcountrylandtrust.org.
