Land For Sale!: How the SCFC works to conserve working forests across the state
Governor McMaster set a goal to conserve half of South Carolina’s 20 million acres. As of August 2025, 3.2 million acres, or 16.1 percent, are protected by private, local, state and federal ownership or conservation easement.
The South Carolina Forestry Commission (SCFC) has been hard at work to conserve working forests from development, and land use change is in full effect across the state.
These efforts are especially important because according to the U.S. Census Bureau, South Carolina ranks in the top five states for population growth in 2024, and the state also ranks highly in many other development categories.
The SCFC is a longtime landowner in SC, and the agency currently owns five state forests:
| Property | Acquisition |
|---|---|
| Harbison State Forest | Purchased in 1951 |
| *Manchester State Forest | Deeded to the state in 1955 |
| Piedmont Forestry Center/Poe Creek State Forest | Purchased in 1969/2000 |
| *Sand Hills State Forest | Deeded to the state in 1991 |
| Wee Tee State Forest | Purchased in 2003 |
*SCFC management of Manchester and Sand Hills State Forest began in the 1930s while the properties were under federal ownership.
The decision-making process
Over the years, SCFC has added adjacent pieces of land to existing ownership where it made sense. In 2020, as part of the agency’s strategic plan update, agency leadership decided that there was a need to increase our efforts to protect and conserve working forests by growing our state forest system.
A set of priorities and criteria was created to provide guidance to the evaluation process for potential acquisitions.
Priorities are broken into three categories:
- Inholdings and adjacent properties
- Priority forestland
- Potential new state forests
Criteria for land acquisition projects is based on:
- Drive time from existing state forest facilities
- Acreage
- Forest cover type
- Percent evergreen
- Conserve working forest map from State Forest Action Plan
- SC Conservation Bank statewide priorities map
- Existing infrastructure
- Road systems
- Potential of future additions
- Public access
Recent success
In 2024, an opportunity became available for the agency to hold a conservation easement on a large amount of working forest. Holding conservation easements had not been done by the agency previously; however, this opportunity could not be overlooked and could set precedent for other large conservation easements.
This was presented to the Commission and was approved as a strategy to move forward on a case-by-case basis. The Pee Dee Basin Initiative, which you can read more about in this issue, is the single largest conservation easement in South Carolina history, at 61,000-plus acres.
A conservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and a government agency or a qualified conservation organization (land trust) that restricts certain uses of the property to protect its conservation values. This agreement allows the land to remain under private ownership while ensuring its protection for future generations.
In other words, the landowner decides to sell certain rights of their property. The most common use of a conservation easement is for a landowner to sell his or her development rights. Conservation easements are perpetual and are attached to the property forever. In return, the landowner is paid for the rights given up and can receive a cash payment, tax incentive or a combination of both.
A collaborative effort
The SCFC partners with many different organizations to make all these projects come together.
Several of them are state agencies, which meet quarterly to discuss and coordinate efforts of land acquisition strategies across the state:
- SC Conservation Bank (SCCB)
- SC Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR)
- SC Parks, Recreation & Tourism (SCPRT)
- SC Department of Transportation (SCDOT)
- SC Department of Commerce and SC Office of Resilience (SCOR)
Other partners include SC land trust organizations, county greenbelts, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Open Space Institute (OSI), The Conservation Fund and others.
All of these organizations work to find available land for sale that meets the needs of the agencies and the landowners, and then they put together strategies for acquisition or protection.
From concept to ownership
The process to take a project from an idea to ownership can be lengthy. Projects typically take one to two years to move through the process from evaluation to purchase. Other projects can take five-plus years to come full circle.
Every project must be approved by SCFC Commissioners, the state Joint Bond Review Committee (JBRC) and the State Fiscal Accountability Authority (SFAA). During these approvals, facts and due diligence items, such as appraisals, environmental assessments, title searches, surveys and building assessments, are presented to make sure the state and the landowner are getting a fair and equitable deal.
New projects
- Millaree (Richland County / 4,959 acres / slated to become a new state forest)
- Pee Dee Basin Initiative (61,000-acre conservation easement and fee simple acquisition of 880 acres on Wee Tee State Forest)
- Beech Hill (Dorchester County / 1,644 acres / slated to become a new state forest)
- Chelsea Plantation (Jasper County / 2,700 acres / slated to become a new state forest)
- Buckfield (Beaufort County / 1,742 acres / slated to become a new state forest)
- Carvers Bay (Georgetown County / 8,061 acres / slated to become a new state forest)
- Lost Creek (Richland County / 71 acres / addition to Harbison State Forest)
We also have five other projects on the docket that are not quite ready for public announcement.
“Conservation means development as much as it does protection. I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land, but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us.” – Theodore Roosevelt
Looking ahead
Since we started in 2020, 48 projects have been evaluated, encompassing 133,776 acres with a fair market value of $591,379,303.
The SCFC is actively pursuing 12 of these projects for 90,709 acres and a fair market value of $228,308,500. The SCFC anticipates closing on three to four of these projects this fiscal year.
We will continue to work with partners and evaluate land projects to benefit the whole of the state and create a legacy for future generations.