Every acre has a story. Here's one we'll never forget: Rainbow Farms

At CLT, we believe every acre tells a story – stories of resilience, beauty, and connection that stretch back generations and reach forward into a future we're protecting together.

As we enter this holiday season, we invite you to step into one of our earliest chapters: the conservation of Rainbow Farms in Eastover, SC.

As one of CLT's earliest conserved properties in Richland County, this 942-acre easement helped build the foundation for everything we do today. And it represents something special in central South Carolina: a large, intact working landscape where agriculture, wildlife, and military mission are protected together through conservation.

Here's what makes Rainbow Farms irreplaceable:

• Strategic location adjacent to McEntire ANG Base – ensuring compatible land use that protects both the military mission and the natural landscape from incompatible development
• Approximately 500 acres of diverse woodlands – including longleaf and loblolly pine stands mixed with mature hardwood bottoms that provide critical habitat for deer, turkey, quail, and countless other species
• A 56-acre pond and multiple wetland impoundments – supporting waterfowl populations and serving as vital stopover habitat during migration
• Working farmland – approximately 480 acres of irrigated and dry cropland that demonstrates how agriculture and conservation can thrive together
• A large upland tract in Richland County – providing essential open space in a rapidly developing region

Without protection, this former farm faced the same pressures confronting rural land across the region: fragmentation and development incompatible with both the surrounding military installation and the ecological integrity of the landscape.

When the Boyd family decided to place their property under conservation easement in 2001, everything changed.

Today, Rainbow Farm's pine forests, hardwood bottoms, wetlands, and working fields are protected forever. Current owner and CLT Board Member, Charles Carson, continues the stewardship of the land, ensuring the white-tailed deer that browse its edges, the wood ducks that nest along its waters, and the bobwhite quail that flourish in its managed habitats have a permanent home. The open space buffer it provides for McEntire ANG Base ensures mission compatibility for generations to come.

This is what your support protects – not just acres on a map, but functioning landscapes that sustain wildlife, support agriculture, serve military needs, and define the rural character of our region.

Your support makes stories like this possible.

Rainbow Farms was part of the beginning, but the story continues. Your support of CLT helps us identify and protect the next critical piece of central SC's natural and working lands – the forests that shelter our wildlife, the farms that feed our communities, and the open spaces that make our region home.

This holiday season, we ask for your help in creating new stories to share.

Visit congareelt.org/donatenow to make a year end gift to CLT.