For more than fifty years, the Mark family has called their land on Lady’s Island home. As children, they rode bikes down quiet dirt roads, rode freely on horseback, and watched stars fill a dark night sky. Over time those roads grew busier, forests gave way to subdivisions, and the glow of new development slowly crept closer to the edges of their family home.

When a landowner protects their property with a conservation easement many assume the hard work is done. In truth, that’s when our responsibility truly begins.

Luke Inabinett is a man of the land and the sea. His roots on St. Helena Island run deep — his family has lived, worked, and farmed this land for nearly a century. For Luke, the land is more than soil beneath his feet; it’s memory, tradition, and pride passed down through generations.

St. Helena Island is sacred ground. It's a place where culture, history, and rural landscapes remain deeply intertwined and still very much alive. And for decades, the island has been protected by a simple zoning tool: the Cultural Protection Overlay (CPO).

At the Open Land Trust, we are in the business of forever and this spring, forever is now in reach for one of the Lowcountry’s most iconic landscapes. Chelsea is a 2,700-acre property with saltmarsh, maritime forest, and 7 miles of creek frontage along Hazzard Creek in Jasper County in the heart of the Port Royal Sound. 

Just off the scenic stretch of Sheldon Church Road, where the past lingers in the ruins of an 18th-century church and ancient oaks stretch their limbs overhead, something new is taking root.