A place to call home

Protecting land for generations to come

St. Helena Island is a special place filled with special people. The land, the people, and the water are all interconnected and have been for generations. Protecting land on St. Helena is about more than protecting just the soil. It is about protecting a living culture.

Katie Daise, a 93-year-old native Gullah-Geechee from St. Helena Island knows this all too well.

Katie’s family land abuts Village Creek, a picturesque Lowcountry waterway teaming with life, and in the summer months, local shrimp boats can be seen at sunrise as they head out to the St. Helena Sound. It is a place that holds happy memories of times past. Katie wanted to make sure these memories and many more would always be there for her family, many of whom have moved away from St. Helena. She lovingly said of her decision, “I want them to have a place to come visit that they can say, ‘We are going home.’”

And now, with the house where she lives, and the land that she loves, her family truly can come home, year after year, into the future.

Ensuring the conservation of family land

Thanks to her vision and perseverance, Katie protected her land forever with the support of her family and in partnership with the Rural and Critical Lands Preservation Program and the Open Land Trust.

As with other conservation agreements held by the Open Land Trust, the land will remain in the ownership of Katie’s family. The agreement (referred to as a conservation easement) ensures that future development will be limited, including the number of docks built on Village Creek. The property remains on the tax rolls and can be transferred, bequeathed, or sold with the assurance that it will always be conserved and honor the wishes of Katie and her family.

As a locally supported conservation organization, we can respond to local landowners and help them protect these special places because of our land trust’s supporters and their generosity.

Thank you for making it possible to work with fellow community members like Katie who wish to leave a lasting legacy of the Lowcountry for all generations.