Conservation Bank marks 600th grant, asks legislature for recurring and one-time funding
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Summary
The South Carolina Conservation Bank told a legislative subcommittee it has issued its 600th grant, protecting hundreds of thousands of acres and asked lawmakers for $6 million in recurring funds plus multiple nonrecurring allocations to expand working-lands and strategic acquisitions.
The South Carolina Conservation Bank reported a milestone to a legislative subcommittee on Feb. 24: "we have issued our 6 hundredth grant," the bank's director told members, and the bank now safeguards 434,000 acres statewide. Including partner programs, the bank said the total approaches roughly 1,000,000 acres protected.
Why it matters: The bank argued those protections come at low cost and high leverage for state dollars, telling lawmakers that recent projects averaged "under $2,500 an acre" and that each state dollar often attracted several dollars of federal or private match.
What was said: Bank board chairman Mike McShane presented formal budget requests to the panel, asking for $6,000,000 in additional recurring funding for the working-lands program, $25,000,000 nonrecurring for the conservation program, and an extra $10,000,000 for working agricultural lands. He also described support for a $150,000,000 state strategic land-acquisition line item, noting that request would encompass related DNR and Forestry Commission asks. McShane asked the committee to reinstate a coordination proviso that supports interagency project negotiation.
Program details and eligibility: During questioning, bank staff said the working-lands program targets farm operations where roughly 50% of household income is derived from agriculture; projects that narrowly miss that threshold may be served from the bank’s traditional conservation fund. The bank emphasized its flexibility to apply funds where they achieve the greatest acreage protections.
Examples and pipeline: Presenters highlighted large, recent projects including a PD landscape project (~62,000 acres) and county-level parks acquisitions; McShane said the bank has used state funding to leverage federal grants and private donations in multi-partner deals.
Next steps: The bank’s requests will be considered as part of the legislature’s budget process; presenters asked the committee to maintain the current provisos and to consider the recurring and one-time allocations that would expand the bank’s capacity to close more land-protection deals.