When good people do good things, they deserve to be recognized. And your neighbors in the Lowcountry just did something amazing.
In 2019, Jasper County's Chelsea Plantation went on the market. Because of its acreage, location and abundant natural resources, the future of this single property was a potential tipping point for the entire region's water quality, wildlife habitat and resilience.
Unfortunately, no conservation group in the state was then prepared to handle a transaction of Chelsea's size. When the property was sold to a private developer, it became the one that got away. All we could do was watch, hoping we might get another chance to save it before it was developed.
The people of Beaufort and Jasper counties gave us that chance. They showed up at town meetings, formed organizations, handed out flyers and even put up billboards pleading to "Keep Chelsea Rural." And it worked. Proposals to rezone and develop Chelsea kept getting deferred.
At the end of 2024, The Nature Conservancy approached the owners about selling, and they said yes. We set out finalizing the details.
As the closing deadline approached, though, our nonprofit was still $10 million short of the $32 million price tag. We reached out to our donors. They reached out to their friends and neighbors. And once again, something extraordinary happened. In the span of just three weeks, local residents pieced together gifts of stock, cash, IRA distributions, low-interest loans and even a newly created Friends of Chelsea LLC. They, like the conservation community, had seen Chelsea get away once. Like us, they weren't willing to watch it happen again.
Last week, The Nature Conservancy purchased Chelsea Plantation. We couldn't have done it without the grassroots supporters who bought us time for all those years. We couldn't have done it without the generosity and ingenuity of our funders. We couldn't have done it in a community where people didn't care passionately about their clean air and water, wildlife, historical character and the future they want to leave their children and grandchildren. Thank you.
Saving Chelsea was a community effort, and we want to give back. Following the placement of a conservation easement with Open Land Trust on the 2,737 acres, we hope to transfer the property to the S.C. Forestry Commission to create a new state forest, one with public access.
It's a happy ending that we weren't sure we'd ever see for this property. But our work isn't done. We need to continue to balance tremendous growth in this area with aggressive protection of our lands and waters. We're working with partners to build a conservation corridor between protected lands around the Savannah River and the healthy marshes of the ACE Basin. It's a bold move to protect our water quality, forests and way of life.
Chelsea has shown us that we can't assume that rural lands will always remain rural. We must be intentional about protecting them. Together, we can ensure the Lowcountry will always be one of this world's special places.
The acquisition of Chelsea was made possible through generous donations from the Gleason Family Foundation, Marshall Field V, Chloe Field, Stephanie Harris and family, Abby and Lloyd Gerry, Lowcountry Land Trust Capacity Fund, residents from the Spring Island community and anonymous donors; it also was aided through loan funds from Friends of Chelsea LLC, Newcastle Foundation and trustees Tim Barberich and Eileen Gebrian, Beaufort County residents Dan and Marty Boone, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the S.C. Office of Resilience and the Coastal Community Foundation.
We owe them all our thanks.
Dale Threatt-Taylor is executive director of The Nature Conservancy in South Carolina. She lives in Mount Pleasant.