David L. Huguenin grew up watching his father farm Roseland Plantation in Jasper County, and his children represent the eighth generation on the historic plantation that used to span 25,000 acres.

Chunk after chunk, the property was sold during hard economic times that followed the Civil War, when three antebellum houses were burned.

LOWCOUNTRY OPEN LAND TRUST A new conservation easement now protects part of David Huguenin's ancestral home, Roseland Plantation, on the banks of the Coosawhatchie River in Jasper County. This avenue of oaks is near the family cemetery, which dates back to the 1790s.

In 1982, when Huguenin had just 10 acres, he vowed to reassemble the plantation.

"I'm chipping away at it," he said, after closing last week on 468 adjoining acres, primarily marsh.

So far Huguenin has amassed 842 acres, and he said he will continue to add to Roseland until he eventually is laid to rest with six generations of his ancestors in a plantation cemetery dating back to the 1790s.

"It's home," Huguenin said from Augusta where he lives during the week. "I've spent more time there than anywhere," adding that he goes home to Roseland three weekends a month.

"My kids are down there all the time," he said of Stephanie, 25, a College of Charleston graduate, and Patrick David, 18. Each has chosen a home site there.

Huguenin and his wife Deborah want not only to rebuild the plantation but to hold it together for their children and grand- children.

After four years of discussion, the family agreed a conservation easement would do that best.

The Huguenins donated a first conservation easement on 158 acres to the Charleston-based Lowcountry Open Land Trust. As the plantation grows, he said, "My intention is to put the whole thing under easement."

The easement outlines what may and may not be done on the land, for instance preventing development and protecting a 100-foot-wide forested buffer along the waterfront.

"The easement keeps Roseland intact. It can never be subdivided," he said.

An easement provides federal tax benefits, Huguenin said, but his love of the land and desire to preserve Roseland were the driving force."Roseland's rich history is deeply rooted in its forests, rice fields and ancient oaks," Haynie said. "The land itself is a legacy of the story of our state and nation."

LOWCOUNTRY OPEN LAND TRUST The easement includes a 42-acre former rice field in which Huguenin has installed wood duck nesting boxes and which he manages for waterfowl.

Thanks to the Huguenins, he said, "That legacy will be protected forever."

The plantation has nearly perfectly preserved Civil War breastworks that were constructed under the supervision of Gen. Robert E. Lee before the war. Also, the last Confederate commander of Fort Sumter, Thomas Huguenin, was born and raised at Roseland.

During Sherman's 1865 march, three antebellum houses were burned, and Huguenin's property contains the ruins of all three as well as a centuries-old avenue of oaks.

The conservation easement protects the Civil War breastworks, the 10-acre avenue of oaks, the nearby family cemetery, the area between the avenue and the Coosawhatchie River, and a wooded buffer along the river.

The waterfront is totally undeveloped, and the easement ensures that boaters always will have a scenic view as they pass Roseland.

The easement also protects a 42-acre duck pond, once a rice field, that Huguenin manages for waterfowl and where he has installed wood duck-nesting boxes.

Former farm fields now grow longleaf pine, which Huguenin planted not to harvest but rather to establish a type of forest that has become rare in this state.