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Resilience office highlights land conservation leverage, seeks to show partners and mapping work on wetlands
Summary
The Office of Resilience briefed the committee on recent land acquisitions, the leverage achieved with partner funding and a pending multi-state Carbon Pollution Reduction Grant award; staff said they are mapping wetlands and isolated wetlands and expect draft NOAA data in the fall.
Agency officials told the Legislative Oversight Subcommittee on Oct. 12 that the state has combined public and partner funds to conserve multiple tracts and that leverage — nonstate funding or donated value that stretches state dollars — is a critical metric the office will provide to the Legislature.
"When I say leverage, I mean ... if you're going to do $100 worth of conservation, leverage is you may put in $60 and $40 are coming from other sources," the chair said during discussion about reporting metrics; agency staff agreed to include leverage figures in future reports.
The office listed recent contributions to land and conservation easements, including: $700,000 for the Black River Saint Andrews tract; $20,000,000 for Tiger Oaks land acquisition; $1,900,000 for the Catawba Indian Nesbitt tract in Lancaster; $1,000,000 for North Island in Berkeley; $2,000,000 for Saluda Bluffs and Pickings; roughly $8,000,000 toward Waties Island family portions; $14,000,000 for Snows Island; $5,000,000 for River Forks; and other easement contributions. The transcript includes some transcription irregularities and a few numeric clarifications in follow-up exchange; agency staff said some purchases are easements rather than fee simple acquisitions.
Alex Butler, resilience director and a master's-level hydrologist, described why land protection is included in resilience planning. "Preserving the flood plains slows that water across the landscape," Butler said. He said staff mapped watersheds statewide, prioritized floodways, floodplains, wetlands and soils with high infiltration to identify lands that provide the biggest mitigation benefit.
On isolated wetlands, Butler said the office is working with NOAA and expects draft data from NOAA in early fall; the office will then run analysis and hoped to provide draft information to the committee by the fall. The office said it is coordinating with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Department of Environmental Services (DES) on those datasets.
Separately, staff reported a multi-state coalition award under EPA Carbon Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) funding that will provide roughly $50,000,000 directly to the agency for land conservation and an additional approximately $39,000,000 to The Nature Conservancy for regional conservation efforts; the four-state coalition included South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.
Why it matters: Agency staff said conservation easements and large acquisitions both reduce flood risk by slowing and storing water across the landscape and that demonstrating leverage strengthens future General Assembly support.
The agency agreed to provide the committee a future report that includes leverage calculations, appraised prices and clearer documentation of which purchases were easements versus fee-simple acquisitions.
