Rick Green Receives Peggy Adams Conservation Award
Greenwood, SC. Eighteen years ago, USCOG’s Rick Green became a founding member of the Upper Savannah Land Trust (USLT), whose mission is to encourage and support conservation of natural and scenic lands, farms, forests, waterways and open spaces in the counties of Abbeville, Anderson, Edgefield, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, Newberry and Saluda.
“It’s remarkable to think the Trust began 18 years ago with a 13-acre easement and today holds under easement nearly 50,000 acres over eight counties,” USLT Board member Frank Wideman said at the organization’s annual meeting March 22, 2018.
Green, who is USCOG’s Government Services Director, has helped lead the Land Trust from its humble beginnings to what has now become a nationally-accredited organization with 47,562 acres (147 easements) protected for future generations. The USLT has an office at Upper Savannah COG.
The USLT honored Green with the Peggy Adams Conservation Award at the annual meeting.
“This award is named for Peggy Adams, who is the founding member and first chair of the Upper Savannah Land Trust,” Wideman said as he presented the award. “It was Peggy and her husband B (Bluford) who had the vision, the passion and the drive to make the Trust a reality. The award is presented annually to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to further the mission of the Upper Savannah Land Trust.”
Wideman said Green’s leadership was especially critical in the early stages of the USLT’s development. Green has served as the organization’s secretary for all 18 years.
“Because he is so unassuming and his work is so well done, he has often been unrecognized and unrewarded,” Wideman said of Green. “He has helped provide (office) space, taken countless minutes, written numerous reports, and overseen an endless number of meetings.”
Green was appreciative of the award, telling those who attended the annual meeting in the Arts Center at the Federal Building in Greenwood, “This has been truly a group effort with a lot of people over the past 18 years. It is hard to believe we are where we are today.”
A conservation easement is a legal agreement between the landowner and land trust, enabling the landowners to put permanent restrictions on their property. It guarantees that future generations can enjoy the special qualities of the land without the fear of commercial development.
