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A. P. Hill buffer preserved
Army, conservation groups reach agreement to protect 1,320 acres near the fort from construction in the future.
Date published: 12/19/2006
By JENN ROWELL Army officials have reached agreement with several conservation groups to protect 1,320 acres near the post from development. The agreement, which will be signed today, is a first for the Caroline County post. Officials there hailed it as a major step in protecting the fort's training programs. "From the military standpoint, the people who are really going to benefit from these easements are the fighting men and women training at the installation," A.P. Hill spokesman Ken Perrotte said. "These easements help preserve realistic conditions for training." A.P. Hill is entering into a partnership with The Trust for Public Land, The Nature Conservancy, The Conservation Fund, Virginia Outdoors Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to acquire the first conservation easement under the Army Compatible Use Buffer Program. The program allows land buffers to be established around Army installations by paying landowners not to develop the land. The landowners are still able to use and live on the land, but it cannot be subdivided for major development. "We just don't want the land-use pattern to change to where all of a sudden there's 1,000 homes," said Lt. Col. Joe Knott, the Army's buffer program manager. The Trust for Public Land negotiated the agreement and the Virginia Outdoors Foundation will work with the landowners to ensure the terms are kept. "[The agreement] stays with the land, it doesn't go with the landowners, so that the Army and the conservation community don't have to worry," said Denise Schlener with the Trust for Public Land. During the next 10 to 15 years, the coalition will work to acquire more buffers through similar agreements with other landowners, Knott said. "It's like a jigsaw puzzle and this is the first piece," he said. The coalition partners work only with willing landowners, Schlener said. Eminent domain is not used to acquire land, she said. The easements were purchased with about $3 million from the Defense Department, $1 million from private groups and about $1 million from the state, said Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources Preston Bryant Jr. The state is concerned that encroachment around military bases could have an impact on the future of those installations, and the impact they have on the state and local economies. In 2005, the Base Realignment and Closure process cited significant encroachment around the Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach and recommended moving the East Coast Master Jet Base to Florida, taking more than 11,000 jobs with it. "We don't want A.P. Hill to find itself in the same position as Oceana," Bryant said. "There are lots of interests at play--conservation and economic." To reach JENN ROWELL:
Read more stories about Fredericksburg Date published: 12/19/2006
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