Protecting Essex Farms

Where Conservation Legacy meets Duty

This March, we completed a project in partnership with the Rhodes family and key partner organizations to permanently protect 900 acres of their family land in the heart of the Ashepoo-Combahee-Edisto (ACE) Basin.

This property known as Essex Farms includes 2.3 miles of river frontage, highly productive farm and forest land, and plays a vital role in maintaining the rural character of the Dale community in northern Beaufort County.

It’s also an important piece of a much bigger picture — protecting this land helps support the mission of Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort by keeping the airspace above, and the land below the flight training routes open and safe for our pilots.

Essex Farms is now protected through a voluntary conservation easement. That means the land will stay just the way it is — natural, open, and productive.

The Rhodes family still owns the land, they continue to pay property taxes, and they can sell the property or pass the land down to future generations. What’s important is that the conservation easement “runs with the land”—the protections stay in place, forever.

National Security

The United States Navy contributed funding and will help monitor the land alongside us to make sure the conservation easement is upheld.

“Protecting land under these flight corridors is essential,” said Colonel Mark Bortnem. “It helps ensure public safety, improves training conditions, supports a dark night sky needed for combat training, and conserves natural and cultural resources. This project adds nearly 900 more acres in our flight corridor, thanks to strong partnerships with landowners and local organizations.”

Strategic Partnerships make Conservation Possible

This project was a true team effort. In addition to the U.S. Navy and the Rhodes family, the new Beaufort County Greenspace Program and the South Carolina Conservation Bank were key partners in this project.

Essex Farms is the Greenspace Program’s third funded property—and their first focused on farmland preservation. We’re proud to have supported the Greenspace Program from the beginning, helping advocate for it with voters in 2022. Today, we work closely with landowners like the Rhodes family to apply for this funding and make conservation possible.

The South Carolina Conservation Bank has also been an essential partner on local conservation projects. Over the past three years, we’ve teamed up with the Bank to protect more than 6,000 acres in Beaufort and Jasper Counties. That includes Essex Farms (this project), along with Bowers Farm and Gregorie Neck.

With development pressure increasing, the timing of this project and several others underway is critical.

Family Leadership and a Community Commitment

Land conservation is often a family affair. Molly Rhodes represents the fifth generation of her family to live with this land, love it, and care for it. In fact, there’s a full-circle story here: back when our executive director Kristin Williams was in college, she babysat Molly. Now, Molly’s daughter will grow up exploring land we’ve worked together to protect.

As Molly told us:

“We have all been taught to value and appreciate the land, as well as the importance of being a good steward. My family bought this piece of land the same year that I was born, and I love that my daughter will grow up seeing this tract exactly as I have been able to see it throughout my entire life.”

This land means something deeply personal to Molly and her family — and we’re honored to help protect it for generations to come.