Pee Dee Land Trust Celebrates its 25th Anniversary
August 2, 2024
Paddle on Black Creek
August 16, 2024Pee Dee Land Trust works with landowners to protect 3,708 acres on the Great Pee Dee River
August 12, 2024 – Pee Dee Land Trust proudly partnered with private landowners, brothers, Chase and Charles Howard, to permanently protect Witherspoon Island, located on the Great Pee Dee River in Darlington County. The conservation of 3,708 acres of Witherspoon Island marks the largest conservation easement in Pee Dee Land Trust’s 25-year history.
Pictured above: Witherspoon Island, Lowthers Lake, just south of Whipple Landing, Darlington, SC
"The large majority of the 110 current conservation easement properties Pee Dee Land Trust holds across the Pee Dee Watershed are privately owned working farms and forests,” said Lyles Cooper, Executive Director, Pee Dee Land Trust. "Working with the Howards to plan their land legacy for Witherspoon Island has been a true pleasure; we are permanently protecting a huge piece of history and one of the largest intact family-owned managed forests in our area.”
The documented history of Witherspoon Island dates back to the mid 1800’s with agricultural and silva culture management. Armstrong J. Howard, Chase and Charles’s great grandfather, purchased the island in 1904. In addition to farming and timber management, the Howard’s organized the Witherspoon Island Hunting Club in 1919. Over 3,000 acres of the property, including all the 7.75 miles of water frontage, was sold to Sonoco in 1995, with members of the Howard family retaining ownership of the interior parcels.
“We finally had the opportunity to buy back the island in early 2024 and we immediately started planning our conservation easement with the land trust,” said Chase Howard. “Our overall goal was to permanently protect Witherspoon from ever being broken up again in an effort to preserve the many conservation values of this unique land, while still having the ability to continue our sustainable timber management of the upland pines on the island.”
Witherspoon Island is surrounded by the Great Pee Dee River along the eastern portion of the property and Lowther’s Lake, an oxbow lake, to the north, west and southern edges. Included in the conservation easement terms is the preservation of an approximately 100+ foot buffer around the entire perimeter of the island, totaling over 118 acres, thus helping to protect the ability of the old growth hardwood trees to provide water filtration, flood mitigation, habitat for wildlife and scenic beauty along the waterways.
“Our family is deeply connected to Witherspoon Island and working with the land trust to conserve this special place gives us true satisfaction that it will stay much as it is for future generations to enjoy,” said Charles Howard. “We didn’t do the conservation easement for the incentives, but the grant funding from the SC Conservation Bank, along with the Federal tax deductions and State tax credits, were instrumental in our ability to buy back our family’s land.”
The limited infrastructure on the island is mostly primitive as there are only hand pump wells for water and generators that provide lighting at a few of the cabins on the property. Several of the cabins were rebuilt over the years using hand hewn heart cypress logs and planks from structures dating back to 1800’s. Additionally, much of the 20 miles of earthen dikes that were built by John D. Witherspoon in the mid 1800’s are still intact today.
“The Witherspoon Island project is really special, not only due to its sheer size but also because of its history and extensive frontage on the Pee Dee River ,” said Raleigh West, Executive Director of the SC Conservation Bank. “The protection of Witherspoon Island adds to the 19 already protected private properties in the Back Swamp community of Darlington and Florence Counties, which now totals over 10,500 acres of conservation easements held by Pee Dee Land Trust.”
Witherspoon Island has 5 miles of forested wetlands along Lowthers Lake and 2.75 miles along the Great Pee Dee River. What was once a ferry crossing using a pulley system and raft for crossings, has been replaced with a slender bridge from the base of the Darlington County Whipple Landing. The public sandbars at the landing have long since been a place for locals to gather to swim, fish and boat on Lowthers Lake. The City of Florence’s main water intake on the Great Pee Dee River is located less than a mile downstream of Witherspoon Island.
From the high sandy hills in the center of the island, to the open fields, to the beautiful lowland swamps, this amazingly diverse and unique habitat will forever be kept intact. Black and white photos from early hunts and picnics on the property line the walls of the rustic hunt cabins. Many of the fields that were once used for row crop production are now used for timber management and there are several small food plots for wildlife throughout the forest. The property touts large numbers of wild game such as deer, turkey, hogs, and ducks, along with hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and insects.
Conservation easements are complex permanent legal documents that lay out the future reserved rights and restrictions for the property. Pee Dee Land Trust staff worked diligently with the Howards to explain the process, assist with detailed planning for the future of the property, applied for a grant on the landowner’s behalf, fostered the due diligence and organized the communications between all the parties involved. The Howards would like to thank the land trust staff, John Scott with Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd PA, Buzz Rogers with WebsterRogers, Tim Dargan of Dargan King & Knight Forestry, Charles Vernon and Bryant Sansbury with ArborOne Farm Credit, Ann Marie Hanna, John Chase and all those that partnered to make the protection of Witherspoon Island possible.
Witherspoon Island Conservation Easement Closing Day – June 27, 2024
Pictured above: Hughes Page- PDLT Conservation Manager, Seth Cook- PDLT Director of Conservation, Lyles Cooper- PDLT Executive Director, Charles Howard & Chase Howard- Witherspoon Island landowners, John Scott – Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd
Contacts:
Lyles Cooper, Executive Director, PDLT, 843-250-8175, lclyles@peedeelandtrust.org
Chase Howard, Landowner, 843-229-0421, chase@chaseoil.com
Charles Howard, Landowner, 843-621-4078, charles@chaseoil.com
Raleigh West, Executive Director, SC Conservation Bank, Raleigh.west@scbank.sc.gov
About Pee Dee Land Trust
Pee Dee Land Trust focuses on the nine counties in the Pee Dee watershed of South Carolina, which includes Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Georgetown, Horry, Marion, Marlboro, and Williamsburg counties. Its mission is to protect, and to promote an appreciation of, the significant natural, agricultural, and historical resources of the Pee Dee Watershed through voluntary land conservation and educational programs. PDLT has a toolbox full of options to help landowners who are interested in planning their land legacy to permanently protect the conservation resources on their land. Donated conservation easements or bargain-sale conservation easements are the primary tool, however PDLT has experience working with fee acquisition projects as well.
With its 110th conservation project to date, PDLT has now protected over 46,979 acres in the Pee Dee Watershed. While remaining in private ownership, the lands protected through conservation easements held by PDLT ensure that special places will be available for farming, forestry, and recreation for future generations. Through the use of permanent agreements, PDLT and landowners work as partners to ensure that land use activities on private property are limited in order to preserve key conservation values which benefit the public. These values include open space such as rural scenic views along roads and rivers, flood mitigation and natural water filtration, habitat for wildlife including game and non-game species, and the protection of farm and forest land to ensure it remains in farming and forestry rather than being converted to other uses.
There are endless ways to support PDLT as an individual or as an organization, including annual Membership, event sponsorship, hosting experiences, donations to one of the endowments, land donations and planned estate giving opportunities. Join our PDLT’s conservation community today!