Betty, John and Marguerite didn’t set out to save the Lowcountry. Not at first.

H&H Farm is a 534-acre family property just five miles west of Walterboro, where the Hiott and Clark families have long enjoyed the woods and waters of the ACE Basin.

Some conservation wins feel like the relief of finding the puzzle piece you’ve been searching for. Pocotaligo Station is one of those wins. This land sits where three counties (Beaufort, Hampton, Jasper) and two rivers (Tulifinny & Pocotaligo) meet.

One of the driving forces of success of the ACE Basin initiative – a thriving landscape of protected land totaling over 320,000 acres between the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto (ACE) Rivers – is that it started with just a few landowners and grew with passion, persistence and partnership. Neighbor to neighbor, landowner to landowner, state to federal agency, public park to private land trust for 36 years and counting.

Since 2002, Beaufort County voters have voted to tax themselves to protect land. First was the Rural and Critical Land Preservation Program; this property tax collection was the first local tax collected for land protection and served as an early model for others in the state. Seven other counties in SC have followed Beaufort’s lead and implemented a local land protection fund! In 2022, Beaufort continued to lead and created the Green Space Program, which is active today.