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2008 RESULTED IN A STRONG YEAR FOR CONSERVATION IN THE STATE ABOUT THE VOF

2008 another strong year for conservation easements

Date published: 2/16/2009

BY RUSTY DENNEN

While the economy tanked in 2008, it was another strong year for land conservation across Virginia.

That's according to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, which had its second-best year ever signing up landowners for conservation easements.

According to VOF Executive Director Bob Lee, 64,840 acres (about 100 square miles) in 64 localities were placed under conservation easements with the agency last year. The VOF is the state's largest holder of such easements. In 2006, a record year, 71,183 acres were preserved. A conservation easement permanently protects land from most types of development, while giving landowners tax breaks.

Lee says a combination of Virginia tax credits, federal tax breaks and a growing culture of conservation are responsible, despite the fact that state credits were reduced in 2007. Still, 60,370 acres were added that year.

"I think there's still a strong impetus," Lee said.

In the Fredericksburg area, 7,017 acres were put under VOF easements in 2008. Other agencies, such as The Nature Conservancy, the Trust for Public Land and now the Virginia Department of Forestry, also hold conservation easements in Virginia.

According to Lee, Amelia County led the list of localities last year in VOF easements, with 6,999 acres. Most of that was because of one large landowner. If not for that, "Rockbridge [County] would have led for the third year," Lee said, noting that landowners pay attention to what their neighbors are doing. In Rockbridge "it just has caught fire, and we saw this in Fauquier" County, he said.

In Fauquier, more than 60,000 acres are under VOF easements. In Rockbridge, in western Virginia, easements cover more than 20,000 acres. "You reach a certain threshold, people have a good experience and you have a momentum," Lee said.

The Piedmont, which includes Loudoun, Clarke, Fauquier, Culpeper, Rappahannock, Madison, Orange, Greene and Albemarle counties, is a hot locale.

According to the Piedmont Environmental Council, based in Warrenton, landowners in those localities protected 14,100 acres in 2008.

In Orange County, 1,752 acres were recorded by the VOF, with more than 700 acres protected under easements held by other conservation agencies.

The Virginia Outdoors Foundation was created by the state legislature in the 1960s to preserve open space. The VOF now protects roughly 525,000 acres in 102 cities and counties--an area 2 times the size of Shenandoah National Park, and more than half the size of Rhode Island. In 2006, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine announced he wanted to protect an additional 400,000 acres of land in the Chesapeake Bay watershed by 2010. As of the end of last year, the state had protected approximately 360,000 acres. The VOF accounted for about 80 percent of that total. --Rusty Dennen

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Date published: 2/16/2009

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