The Board of Directors of the Pee Dee Land Trust is pleased to announce that David Harper will join the Pee Dee Land Trust as the organization’s new executive director effective October 9th.

Harper, his wife and daughter live in Columbia, where Harper most recently worked with the Palmetto Conservation Foundation. He has more than 22 years of experience in all aspects of land conservation and fundraising, primarily in North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Over the course of his career, he has raised more than $6 million in grants for conservation planning, easement acquisition, sustainable agriculture, and ecological restoration projects. Harper is a frequent public speaker at national, state, regional, and local conferences and workshops, and he served for 8 years as a municipal planning commission member in a fast-growing agricultural community near Philadelphia, with 3 years as chairperson.

Additionally, Harper and his wife maintain a blog about the food and culture of the South.

Pee Dee Land Trust has directly protected 15,000 acres in the Pee Dee Region of South Carolina, working in the nine counties that touch the Great Pee Dee River in South Carolina: Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Georgetown, Horry, Marion, Marlboro, and Williamsburg.  Its mission is to protect, and to promote an appreciation of, the natural, agricultural, and historical resources of the Pee Dee Region through voluntary land conservation and educational programs. For more information, see www.peedeelandtrust.org.