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Conservation Bank officials and partners tell committee program leverages state dollars, protects working lands
Summary
The director of the South Carolina Conservation Bank described two decades of grants protecting 400,000 acres and $287 million in state grants leveraged to protect $1.1 billion in real-estate interest; multiple partners and beneficiaries testified in support and described local projects and federal matches.
Riley (Riley/Raleigh in the transcript) West, director of the South Carolina Conservation Bank, told the House Legislative Oversight Committee the bank’s mission is to protect the state’s natural and historic places through voluntary agreements with willing landowners and competitive grants.
West said the bank has awarded about $287 million in grants over roughly 20 years to protect around 400,000 acres, leveraging public and private matching funds so the bank’s funding has helped preserve roughly $1.1 billion in land value — a roughly 1-to-4 leverage ratio by his account. He described the bank as ‘‘private-property-rights friendly’’: most work is done by negotiation and compensation rather than regulation, including fee-title purchases and…
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