Tweak the conservation bank; don’t kill it

Take a look through the old pay logs at Cox Industries, and you’ll see the ups and downs of starting a business all over the page. One week my grandfather would have three employees, the next week two, the following six.

He kept at it because he’d learned that in business, if something doesn’t work, you tweak the plan. You don’t shut down the company. It’s a lesson we should take to heart when considering the future of the South Carolina Conservation Bank.

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Auditors rip land protection agency

Land protection bank must be saved, lawmakers say

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Today, Cox Industries employs more than 400 people. We’re based in Orangeburg because it had proximity to the most sawmills in the state when my grandfather was starting out.

I often tell people that South Carolina is the Saudi Arabia of southern yellow pine. The difference is that Saudi Arabia’s oil will run out. Our resource is renewable forever — so long as it’s protected. That protection is where the Conservation Bank comes in.

Since 2002, the bank has given conservation-minded landowners a way to sell development rights on their lands, protecting our state’s natural resources without the government commandeering large swaths of land.

Almost all of the conservation easements bought with bank funds allow for the production of timber. It’s good they’ve also protected thousands of acres for fishing, hunting and recreation, but quality of life is a side benefit to the protection of our forests and our economy.

We want government to protect natural resources as efficiently as possible, and there is no way we could conserve more acres for less money than we do today. Sure, the bank has weaknesses, but no more than any other new business. We can clean up operations, we can tighten restrictions, we can tweak the plan. Just don’t shut down the business.

We do grow money on trees in South Carolina. Every tree we grow is money, real money for our rural areas, our forest industries and the people they employ. As a conservative, how often do you get to advocate for a law that helps the environment? Let’s keep working on something with a lot of successes. Reauthorize the S.C. Conservation Bank now.

This story was originally published March 4, 2017 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Tweak the conservation bank; don’t kill it."