PrintOne of the newest additions to the MFHA roster has already gained national prominence through their conservation efforts.
When someone asks Nina Burke, MFH, and self-described “conservation nut” why she devotes so much of her time and energy to preserving open space, she responds with a question of her own.
“When you live in the country and you look out your back window,” she says, “what would you rather see: a bunch of houses, or a view of a marsh or a river, untouched and undeveloped forever and ever?”
That simple sentiment, coupled with a deep love of foxhunting, inspired Burke to campaign relentlessly alongside other Lowcountry Hunt members and in concert with the Lowcountry Open Land Trust to help preserve thousands of pristine acres in the coastal region of South Carolina.
The Masters of Foxhounds Associ-ation recognized the efforts of Lowcountry Hunt and Lowcountry Open Land Trust by awarding them the 2009 MFHA Conservation Award.
It’s quite an honor for a fledgling hunt, founded in the spring of 2006, registered in 2007 and just recognized in 2009, to receive such recognition.
Lowcountry operates in the South Carolina “low country” area known as the ACE Basin, framed by the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto rivers. Seven non-contiguous fixtures, including several antebellum plantations, scattered across Colleton, Beaufort, Jasper and Hampton counties comprise the hunt’s territory. That diversity means the terrain varies from woodlands and hayfields to swamps and saltwater marshes. The hunt enjoys excellent quarry, with abundant gray fox, coyote and bobcat.
Members ride in the company of other creatures, including bald eagles, alligators and armadillos, which have found safe haven from the encroaching development on protected lands, thanks largely to the hunt’s considerable conservation efforts.
According to director of land protection for the LOLT, Lewis Hay, that area encompasses 350,000 acres of the least-developed land on the Eastern Seaboard. That area, bracketed by Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head with Charleston in the middle, was “discovered” in the 1940s and ‘50s, and the pressure to turn the historically rural area into suburbia has increased exponentially since then.
As rising land values forced longtime landowners to sell off pieces of property to developers, nonprofit conservation groups like LOLT stepped in to try to mitigate the effects on the delicate ecosystem, primarily by helping private individuals place their property in conservation easement.
To date, LOLT, a non-profit 501(c)3, has ensured the protection of more than 81,100 acres in the ACE Basin, and they’ve found an eager collaborator in Lowcountry Hunt.
Rural Appreciation
Land conservation has been a cornerstone of the hunt since its inception. The founders selected the hunt’s colors, indigo and gold, to reflect its strong tie to the land, as indigo and “Carolina Gold” rice are two of the region’s most important crops.
And Lowcountry’s mission statement notes the organization intended to “encourage an appreciation for rural heritage and native lands and to promote conservation of the hunt country in the lowcountry of South Carolina.”
Part of that mission comes from leading by example, as both of the foundation fixtures, owned by Burke and the family of her Jt.-Masters Mark Shamb-ley and Melinda Shambley, are protected by easements, and they encourage their fellow subscribers to place their own land in easement.
