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- EIN 52-2452879
- (843) 745-7055
- 8570 Rivers Ave Ste 170 N Charleston SC 29406-9893 USA
- www.heirsproperty.org
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Nonprofit Overview
Causes: Crime & Law, Legal Services
Mission: To protect heirs' property and promote the sustainable use of land to provide increased economic benefit to low wealth families through education, legal services, and forestry technical assistance. Heirs' property is land that is owned, in common by multiple family members. It is an unstable and risky way to own land, because it can be easily lost. The center's work helps prevent the loss of heirs' property and promotes the wealth-building asset of land ownership through sustainable forestry; forestry is a 21 billion industry in sc. The successful impact of the center's work in 2017 is measured both quantitatively and qualitatively. In the face of rampant development across sc, families are more able to keep their family land and pass it down to the next generation if it is protected and economically productive. Qualitatively, the impact of this work is revealed in changes in the attitudes, behaviors and actions taken by the families we help to improve their circumstances. Our target a
Programs: The center provided legal education and direct legal services, which resulted in the following: quantitatively, the center conducted 34 education seminars on heirs' property issues and resolution and forestland management which increased knowledge among 665 landowners, resulting in 318 landowners coming into the center for additional information and help with resolving title issues to land with a tax assessed value of 38. 3m. Those landowners collectively owned 4,436 acres of land about which they can make better-informed decisions about its preservation and productivity. Of those 318 persons, 220 were accepted as full or pending clients to receive direct, legal services to protect their family land. 184 wills were drafted to help prevent the growth of heirs' property and 22 titles were resolved on land with a total tax-assessed value of 2. 2m.
the center provided education and forestry technical assistance and connected historically underserved landowners (hulos) to markets to sell their timber products, which resulted in the following. - 5 educational workshops were conducted at which 146 individuals learned the importance of and how to sustainably manage their family forests - 39 hulos were assisted in submitting applications to the us department of agriculture's natural resourses conservation service environmental quality incentives program and received 234,000 in financial assistance to implement conservation activities prescribed in their forest management / conservation activity plans. - 5 hulos received assistance in submitting applications to become american tree farm certified - 5 hulos received assistance in selling their timber, which resulted in 167,192 to benefit these low-wealth individuals landowner story: a multi-legacy of land. . . Preserved and productive in the 1920's, dennis freeman, who grew up on tom bee plantation, persuaded his relatives and friends to pool their money and buy 328 acres of waterfront and wooded property on st. Helena island to recreate, to hunt and fish, to launch boats to nearby islands, to cut firewood and to provide family burial grounds. They still own it today. It is called lands end woodlands, inc. All titles to the land are cleared and it is held by the owners as a non-profit corporation under the state of south carolina. For years, the families cut trees and organized fish fries and other social events to raise money to pay the taxes. Ultimately, there needed to be a plan, and that plan became forest management. Since 2013, they have been participating in the center's sustainable forestry program (sfp), where they received forestry education and technical expertise, and are now implementing a long term forest management plan with usda/nrcs financial assistance. The land is becoming an economic engine for this generation and the next. They are even considering placing a conservation easement on it which would protect forever the natural resources, beauty and unique ecological and historic character of the property. Who would have thought that growing trees could help preserve and honor an ancestral legacy for generations to come?