Landowner protects two treasures, makes largest conservation donation in the region

MOBILE, ALABAMA -- An avid outdoorsman such as Campbell B. Lanier III appreciates the variety of nature’s wonders. So to ensure that the vast array of natural resources on his Sehoy and Enon Plantations, located on the edge of Alabama’s Black Belt, remain intact for future generations to enjoy, Mr. Lanier granted a perpetual conservation easement to the Alabama Forest Resources Center, Inc. in 2002 on 10,517 acres of his 13,000 plus acre quail plantation, Sehoy, near Hurtsboro, Alabama. For good measure he followed this with the donation of a 7,441 acre easement on the adjoining 12,000 acre Enon Plantation in 2003.

This marks the largest easement donations by a private landowner in Alabama and the entire region. It is one of the 30 largest conservation easements in the United States.

Dan Dumont, the executive director of the Alabama Forest Resources Center, a statewide working forest land trust headquartered in Mobile, says this donation is important for several reasons.

“The Sehoy and Enon easements are significant for Alabama because of their size and the quality and uniqueness of the habitat … and also because these donations should encourage other landowners to consider conservation easements as a tool for protecting their own land,” Mr. Dumont said. The Alabama Forest Resources Center was established in 1986, but only recently began accepting donations of conservation easements and fee lands to protect working forests and wildlife habitat.

The Lanier family will continue to own, manage, hunt and fish, and raise and sell timber on Sehoy, which lies in Bullock and Macon counties in east central Alabama. The conservation easement ensures that the land will not be developed and will be kept intact as open space. These properties were once part of the 27,000 acre du Pont family plantation and were purchased by the Laniers from various owners including Malcolm P. McLean and the Bermingham family. They had been managed as a farm and forestry-based operation and quail-hunting plantation. Mr. Lanier and his son Cam, who manages the property, have improved the habitat for quail and maintain one of the largest populations of native bobwhite quail in the country.

“Sehoy is a special place and means a great deal to our family. Three and sometimes four generations gather here to hunt and fish on weekends. In fact my daughter-in-law, Staci, gave birth to my newest grandson the night before we signed the Sehoy easement documents. Protecting this land and the hunting tradition for future generations is what this is all about,” Mr. Lanier said.

Historically, estate taxes and declining commodity prices have forced many landowners in Alabama’s Black Belt region to break up large properties into smaller units – a process known as fragmentation. Few plantations on the scale of Sehoy or Enon remain. Their size and prescribed fire management results in a rich diversity of soils, plant life and wildlife. Sehoy and Enon are home to approximately 400 plant species. In addition to the excellent bobwhite quail, whitetail deer and turkey populations Sehoy and Enon are also home to the Backman’s sparrow, common ground dove, the fox squirrel and other species whose numbers are declining in the southeast. Enon supports the largest population of the endangered red cockaded woodpecker on private lands in Alabama.

Sehoy Plantation’s forests are composed of open stands of mature shortleaf, longleaf and loblolly pine and hardwood bottomland, which serve as a source of economic return from the sale of timber and other forest products. Part of the property’s forestry management plan includes controlled, rotational burning to reduce excessive brush and debris from the forest floor and enhance the quail habitat. This use of prescribed fire supports many other fire dependant species of non-game wildlife, which are declining in Alabama and the southeast due to the absence of fire.

For more details on conservation easements, contact Dan Dumont, at (251) 433-2372 or alfrc@bellsouth.net.

About Campbell B. Lanier III Campbell B. Lanier III, from Lanett, Alabama, has served as Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, and a director of ITC Holding since the company’s inception in 1989. The company’s headquarters are in Valley, Alabama. Mr. Lanier also is Vice-Chairman of the Board and a director of ITC DeltaCom, Inc. and a director of KNOLOGY, Inc. Mr. Lanier is also a director of several privately held companies.

Mr. Lanier has also served as a Managing Director of South Atlantic Private Equity Fund, IV, Limited Partnership since July 1997.