COLUMBIA — The head of the state’s land conservation agency will leave his role this summer, he announced Friday.
Raleigh West has led the Conservation Bank, an agency of four full-time employees that coordinates land protection projects across the state, since 2019. After the fiscal year ends June 30, West plans to establish his own law firm specializing in conservation.
West took over the agency, which distributes state grants to conservation projects, during a period of turmoil, as legislators threatened to repeal funding over money management questions. He was the first to head the Conservation Bank after legislators made the agency permanent, instead of allowing it to dissolve that year as the legislation that created it in 2002 required…