Not just a land conservation organization any longer

 

Thirty years. Three thousand acres and counting. Working agricultural farms. Open spaces. Habitat protection. Public parks. Important historic properties. The Edisto River, Upper Shaws Creek, Horse Creek, Upper Three Runs Creek, Cedar Creek. Polo fields. Horse Farms.

The Aiken Land Conservancy is all about protecting the things you love about Aiken, the places that make Aiken a special place to live, work, raise a family, start a business, and spend the winter.

Over the last thirty years, the city and the county have grown and developed to attract new businesses, increase employment, provide better education for its citizens, and ensure proper housing opportunities—all worthy goals for your municipal and county government. But with that growth and development comes greater, more sophisticated challenges, like protecting our sources of clean water, our parkways and grand trees, and our historic, iconic vistas like South Boundary Avenue. Moreover, the Land Conservancy is exploring ways to work with the City and the Hitchcock Woods—the largest privately-managed urban forest in the country—to convert strategic, selected parkways into more efficient collectors and absorbers of unmanaged stormwater runoff that will protect water quality and deter damaging erosion from stormwater in the Woods.

As the goals have become more sophisticated and more complex, the Aiken Land Conservancy has grown and developed to meet those challenges. ALC is has been nationally accredited by the Land Trust Alliance, which requires those conservation organizations that bear its gold standard seal of approval to operate in accordance with the highest organizational and financial standards. Moreover, ALC’s board and advisory council is populated with folks of diverse experience and love and commitment to this very special place we call home.

Counting and Assessing the health of the trees in Aiken’s urban forest

Beginning In 2017, the Aiken Land Conservancy, primarily through the generous donation of board member, Rob Johnston, and his wife, Pam, funded a comprehensive inventory and assessment of all of the city’s trees located in the parkways, on city rights-of-way, and in city-owned parks and properties (23,000, by the way!) This database provides a blueprint for the city’s maintenance and replacement plans.

These stately trees are more than just beautiful; they provide critical shade from the southern sun, produce 14 tons of oxygen, and remove 820 tons of carbon dioxide from the air every year. They absorb up to 10,500 cubic feet of stormwater runoff each year, reducing localized flooding in the streets and erosion to our precious natural resources.

Protecting the Live Oaks on South Boundary Avenue

 

In addition, ALC is partnering with Aiken Streetscapes, the city and Dominion Power to preserve the iconic South Boundary Avenue and the 200+ live oaks that grace each side of the road between Banks Mill and Whiskey Road.  Through this South Boundary Live Oak Protection and Preservation Project, the city and Dominion will bury the power lines.  Aiken Streetscapes and ALC will fund the cost for proper pruning and care of these grand trees once the power line work is complete.

Protecting the Live Oaks on Winthrop Field

The city, ALC, and SCE&G (now Dominion Energy) entered into a public/private partnership to bury the power lines on Mead Avenue in the Aiken Historic Horse District to protect the live oaks along Winthrop Field from the effects of aggressive utility pruning practices. The undergrounding was completed in 2019 with funding from ALC, the city, the power company, and the then owners of the historic Clark Barn, Sandy and Don Nicolaisen.

 

York Street Bridge Parkway

ALC also partnered with the city, Enviroscape, and the Aiken Garden Club to restore the parkway south of the York Street Bridge after the city and the South Carolina Department of Transportation completed the renovation of the bridge, which has been designated the Skipper Perry Memorial Bridge. Through the work of Enviroscape and ALC, the parkway was irrigated, sodded, and planted with two large white oaks (fingers crossed, they survive the past brutal summer), as well as hearty azaleas, Camelia trees, and other native species of plants.

Moreover, the Land Conservancy is exploring ways to work with the City and the Hitchcock Woods—the largest privately-managed urban forest in the country—to convert strategic, selected parkways into more efficient collectors and absorbers of unmanaged stormwater runoff that will protect water quality and deter damaging erosion from stormwater in the Woods.