Fishing, farmland and feral hogs: Key environmental bills SC lawmakers passed this year

South Carolina’s General Assembly wrapped up the second half of the 125^th legislative session last week after passing 133 bills. Counting the first half of the session, lawmakers passed 237 bills, 170 of which have been signed into law. Now, 61 bills await the governor’s signature before they go into effect.

This year, concerns about energy and conservation-related tax credits took center stage in environmental legislation.

One of the first environmental bills to pass in 2024 was the Working Agricultural Lands Act, signed into law in March. It allows farmers to receive compensation for placing a conservation easement or permanent environmental protection on their land.

While various bills relating to energy provision and managing solar growth were debated during the session, save for a House resolution, none made it to the governor’s desk.

H. 5118, a sweeping energy bill from Rep. G. Murrell Smith (R-Sumter), passed the House before the Senate passed it with an amendment. The House did not agree to the amendment, and the bill has been committed to conference.

Last year, lawmakers passed a bill splitting the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) into two separate entities. The split will officially take place this summer.

Here are some of the key bills legislators passed that focused on conservation or the environment:

H. 3951 – TheWorking Agricultural Lands Preservation Act

This bill, introduced by farmer and Rep. Patrick Haddon (R-Greenville), will compensate farmers if they place part of their land under a conservation easement.

A conservation easement protects land from residential and commercial development permanently. They lower property values because of their stringent limits on development. Haddon’s bill establishes a program within the South Carolina Conservation Bank to provide grants to farmers who meet specific requirements to offset some of the lost property value and conserve farmland in the Palmetto State.

According to the American Farmland Trust, the nation lost 2,000 acres of farmland on average each day from 2001 to 2016. In South Carolina, more than 280,000 acres were lost to development during that time. The report projects that across the country, more than 24 million acres of farmland could be fragmented, compromised, or altogether lost without protective policies.

Haddon said in February that South Carolina’s history with agriculture and the state’s reliance on it financially drove him to sponsor the bill.

“Since the early 2000s, we've lost nearly 300,000 acres of farmland,” he said during the South Carolina Conservation Coalition’s 2024 lobby day. “I'm not against development. I'm not against housing complexes, I just think we need to be smarter about where we put them, especially when we start looking at developments out in the middle of rural communities.”

Read more: Conservationists ask SC lawmakers for energy and agriculture support during lobby day

Haddon’s bill received unanimous support from the Senate and passed the House of Representatives 100-7.

Farmers will have to meet certain criteria to be approved for funding, such as the authority to transfer the land to another person, the threat of conversion of farmland, or the natural resources located on the land.

 H. 4047 – Protection ofEndangered species

Also in March, Gov. Henry McMaster signed an act protecting the locations of endangered species in the state. The bill received unanimous support from both chambers.

The state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) keeps data on federal and state-listed endangered or threatened species. Previously, endangered species data was subject to release if someone submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the agency. To help protect threatened plants and animals, the DNR is now prohibited from sharing specific information about their location, whether on public or private property.

Duncan Crotwell, DNR’s Director of Government Affairs, said the agency has been pushing to protect endangered species for several years.

“What we want to make sure is that if we were to get a FOIA request from somebody who may not have the best intentions in mind for that species, we're not just handing out all the information on location data and numbers that we may have on our internal systems that somebody could then use to go and exploit that species for profit,” Crotwell said.

Plants like the dwarf-flowered heartleaf, which is native to the Piedmont region, are protected under this act. A list of federally endangered species can be found on the South Carolina Wildlife Federation’s website.

H. 3121 -Recreational Trail Easement Income Tax Credit

Spartanburg Rep. Max Hyde (R) sponsored a bill allowing property owners to receive a one-time income tax credit if they place a recreational trail easement open to the public on their property.

The new law will apply to income taxes beginning after 2023. It will remain in place through 2028 and be repealed on Jan. 1, 2029.

The tax credit allows residents to attain an easement of 10 cents for each square foot of land donated. To be eligible, the trail must connect between a municipality or district trail or connect a local trail to a regional point of interest.

The bill received support from the South Carolina Conservation Coalition in February. Both chambers approved it unanimously in March and Gov. McMaster signed it on May 13.

H. 4612 –Aerial hog hunting

Rep. Bill Hixon, a Republican from Edgefield, filed a bill that would allow DNR to provide permits for the 4612 from helicopters in November. It received unanimous support from both chambers before Gov. McMaster signed it in May.

Without a permit, it remains illegal to shoot a feral hog from a helicopter.

If the DNR agrees that it is necessary, they will issue permits to people who will hunt the hogs to meet wildlife management objectives or protect any of the following:

• Land
• Water
• Wildlife
• Livestock
• Domesticated animals
• Human life
• Crops

Hunting feral hogs from a helicopter is not permitted on land less than 500 contiguous acres. The permit application must contain detailed information about the property, and issued permits must be reported to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service Special Agent that oversees the relevant area.

Anyone who violates the permit is guilty of a misdemeanor. DNR will compile a yearly report with the Secretary of the Interior.

H. 4387 –Bag limits on hybrid striped bass

A bill limiting how many hybrid striped bass an angler can catch each day passed the Senate unanimously at the end of April after passing the House 108-1 in February. The lone dissent came from Rep. Phillip Lowe, a Republican from Florence.

The bill primarily pertains to South Carolinians who live along the coast. Restrictions on striped bass fishing have already been enacted by the state legislature, but the new bill includes hybrid striped bass in that definition.

Crotwell said striped and hybrid striped bass are not endangered, but the DNR hopes to prevent any population decline.

“What we're trying to do is perhaps be more proactive, as opposed to reactive,” Crotwell said.

During certain times of the year, the state institutes “bag limits,” or the number of fish that can be kept daily.

The bill specifies the bodies of water that the limitations pertain to, and Crotwell doesn’t expect to see hybrid striped bass in any of those water bodies. However, he said he would never say never.

The driving force behind the addition was primarily to continue protecting striped bass, he said. The hybrid and striped bass are extremely similar in appearance. At times, when people received tickets for going over their bag limit for striped bass, they would say they believed it was a hybrid bass instead, Crotwell said.

“Including hybrid bass references for these other bodies of water where hybrids should not be found just makes sure that we can adequately enforce the laws that are on the books about striper bag limits,” he said. “We don't have to necessarily put it on somebody to say, ‘Hey, you need to be able to tell the difference right off the bat between a hybrid and a striped bass.’ This way, it streamlines it, and makes all the bag limits and size requirements and season closures the same.”

The bill went into effect on May 13. Fishing regulations for striped bass can be found in the DNR Hunting & Fishing Guide.

Sarah Swetlik covers climate change and environmental issues in South Carolina's Upstate for The Greenville News. Reach her at sswetlik@gannett.com or on X at @sarahgswetlik.

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