COLUMBIA, S.C. — Gov. Henry McMaster signed an executive order Thursday setting up a new statewide panel to coordinate how South Carolina protects its open land, wildlife, historic places and cultural heritage.
Executive Order 2026-24 creates the Governor’s Conservation Commission, an advisory group meant to get state agencies, local governments, private landowners and nonprofits pulling in the same direction. It took effect as soon as it was signed.
The commission’s job list is broad. It will advise McMaster and his cabinet agencies on how to save land and historic resources, push state agencies to coordinate, help counties and cities set their own conservation goals, look for public and private money, and build partnerships with universities, businesses and nonprofit groups. It is also charged with raising public awareness of the state’s history and culture.
Membership will mix government and outside voices. Certain state officials will sit on the panel by virtue of their jobs, and the governor can name as many as 26 more members from business and academia. The group can recommend but cannot act on its own.
The order builds on goals already on the books. About 3.4 million acres in South Carolina are now protected through easements, public ownership and similar tools, roughly 400,000 of them added since 2017. A land-protection coordination law the General Assembly passed this spring set a target of 7 million protected acres by 2050, which lawmakers estimated at about a third of the state’s land.
That target is a planning benchmark only. The law says it creates no mandate, does not require anyone to sell land and does not obligate lawmakers to spend money. McMaster has called for going further, to 10 million acres.
In announcing the commission, McMaster said the state’s economy, schools and conservation work depend on one another and that the panel is meant to bring people together to protect those resources for future generations.
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