By Andy Brack, editor and publisher  |  More than 400 people Sunday celebrated the protection of 300,000 acres of majestic Lowcountry landscapes over the last 30 years on a balmy Sunday straight out of central casting.

The 30th anniversary of protecting the ACE Basin, the confluence of the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto rivers stretching from southern Charleston County through Beaufort County, attracted private landowners and the federal government as well as conservation organizations ranging from Ducks Unlimited to the Nature Conservancy.

“More ducks, fewer people” was the translation of a Latin phrase on commemorative glasses given to guests at the ceremony west of Adams Run on Yonge’s Island at historic Willtown Bluff Plantation, first settled in 1714.  Now owned by the Lane family of Charleston and Savannah, it is an epicenter for collaborative conservation effort championed for three decades to safeguard the land and marshes of the Lowcountry.  Thes areas often are considered the last wild places along the Eastern seaboard.