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Kaine lauds river easement
Governor lauds Fredericksburg's river easementDate published: 7/1/2007 BY EMILY BATTLE Fredericksburg leaders have a powerful state voice praising their decision to preserve 4,232 acres along the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers. Standing near the site of the former Embrey Dam, Gov. Tim Kaine said yesterday that the city's action will be a compelling story for him to tell as he pursues his goal of preserving 400,000 acres of open space in the commonwealth by the end of his four-year term. "I'm going to tell your story all over Virginia, so I can encourage other communities to do the same," Kaine told a group of state and regional leaders gathered to celebrate the river easement, which the City Council approved in April 2006. His ambitious preservation goal has required Kaine to take a more aggressive approach to conservation. Instead of waiting for landowners to start talking to state agencies about using easements and other tools to protect their land, Kaine said state officials--and sometimes the governor himself--are now trying to start those talks. He told a story about canoeing on the James River in Botetourt County last July 3 and taking out at a farm. Kaine asked the landowner if the farm was under conservation easement. It wasn't, but the owner seemed interested. So Kaine had Secretary of Natural Resources Preston Bryant call him on July 4, and the 700-acre property is now preserved forever under a conservation easement. Kaine said that in 2006--the first year of his term--95,000 acres of Virginia land were preserved using tools such as easements. That's about double what the state was preserving each year before then, but Kaine said he'll have to step up his efforts if he wants to meet his 400,000-acre goal. To try to get there, he said, state officials are now looking for opportunities to preserve swaths of 10,000-20,000 acres in one shot. In particular, he said, he has been talking to paper companies with huge holdings of forest land. Fredericksburg's 4,232-acre river easement may look small compared to that, but leaders of the groups that helped make it happen said it's remarkable in that it will preserve the pristine experience of a trip down the Rappahannock forever. "In our brief time that we spend on this planet, how many things do we do that have the potential to last forever?" Friends of the Rappahannock Executive Director John Tippett asked. The easement permanently restricts development on lands lining the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers for more than 30 miles upstream. The city retains ownership of the land, and the development rights are held by The Nature Conservancy, the Virginia Outdoors Foundation and the Virginia Board of Game and Inland Fisheries. It took three years of planning, including some intense and at times contentious meetings and negotiations, to get six of Fredericksburg's seven City Council members to approve the easement. Councilman Hashmel Turner abstained from the vote. Mayor Tom Tomzak--who was at first skeptical--said that in looking at the intense growth pressures the region has faced over the past several years, it became clear the city had to act quickly to preserve the land. "We knew these external pressures were only going to worsen," Tomzak said. "Fredericksburg can be proud of the example we have set." Emily Battle: 540/374-5413Email: ebattle@freelancestar.com
Read more stories about Fredericksburg Date published: 7/1/2007
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