A large chunk of land along the Sumter-Clarendon County line has been placed into a conservation easement under the auspice of the Wetlands Reserve Program.
Records show Rollingdale LLC of Sumter was paid $301,144 by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to protect 173.57 acres just north and west of where Interstate 95 intersects S.C. 527.
Most of the land is in Sumter County, said Charles Segars Jr., the vice president of Rollingdale, with a small portion crossing over into Clarendon County.
"We just wanted to protect it the way we found it," Segars said. "We didn't want to clear-cut it."
Ensuring the hardwoods remain intact was one of the goals to which he and David Kirven adhered, he said, while the agreement allows for the harvesting of pines.
"It was a way to generate some revenue and maintain the property the way it is," Segars said.
There's prime deer and turkey hunting on the tract, he said, which is roughly 100 acres of wetlands and 70 acres of dry land. However, as the land lies in the floodplain of the Black River, all of it is technically wetlands, he explained.
"We purchased it for recreational purposes and decided not to cut the hardwoods -- we liked the aesthetics," he said. "It's a neat place."
For conservation buffs, this easement comes on the heels of a significant land protection victory which saw 192 acres of land -- some of it along Lake Marion and Santee National Wildlife Refuge -- placed into permanent easement as well.
You can find that story here:
https://manninglive.com/2014/06/30/large-parcels-land-next-lake-refuge-placed-easement/
