State Senator Emmet Hanger, Jr., received a framed map showing conserved lands during his announcement of the million-acre milestone at the Virginia Conservation & Greenways Conference in April.
Virginia’s land preservation tax credit has fueled the protection of more than 1 million acres of open space, announced Senator Emmett Hanger, Jr., last week at the Virginia Land and Greenways Conference sponsored by Virginia’s United Land Trusts (VaULT).
Hanger, a cosponsor of the 1999 bill that established the tax credit, said, “The land preservation tax credit was a joint effort coming out of the Commission on the Future of Virginia’s Environment. None of us imagined that it would be as big as it would be.”
Sen. Hanger was joined by conservation leaders from around the state, including VOF’s Brett Glymph, to mark the milestone.
The tax credit incentivizes landowners to voluntarily limit future development on their land and conserve important natural, cultural, scenic and historic resources. A VaULT announcement about the million-acre milestone noted that in the 35 years prior to the tax credit, according to Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation data, roughly 175,000 acres had been permanently protected by conservation easements in Virginia. In the 22 years since, more than seven times that amount, totaling more than 1,275,000 acres, have been conserved statewide, making Virginia a national leader in private land conservation.
Of VOF’s 880,000-acre easement portfolio, approximately 85 percent – 745,000 acres – were conserved after the tax credit took effect.
“Our foundation has worked with thousands of landowners who’ve utilized this program, and most of them have reinvested the tax credits back into the land by expanding their farming and forestry operations and enhancing wildlife habitat,” said VOF Executive Director Brett Glymph. “These lands will benefit Virginians for generations to come.”
Read the full VaULT announcement, including photos from the conference and congratulations from elected officials and conservation leaders from around the state, on VaULT’s website.
With help from the Virginia Outdoors Foundation’s Get Outdoors Fund, former students and descendants continue their work toward the preservation of the Pine Grove School and its surrounding green space, where generations of Black children received a quality education during the Jim Crow era.
For nearly half a century, the Pine Grove school in Cumberland County was a thriving community hub. Built in 1917 as part of the Rosenwald rural school building program, the two-room schoolhouse “educated children from kindergarten through middle school. It was the only place for Black children to learn” during segregation, says Stephanie Willett, whose grandfather and mother, as well as some aunts and uncles, went to the school. In all, 181 children in the community attended the school during its operation.
Booker T Washington created the program to address the lack of educational opportunities for Black children during segregation. Philanthropist Julius Rosenwald helped to finance it along with contributions from the communities themselves.
After the integration of public schools in Virginia in 1964, members of the Pine Grove community bought the schoolhouse at auction and used it for a time as the Pine Grove Community Center, but ultimately it fell into disuse, and over the decades the building’s age started to show. In 2018, a little more than a century after its construction, a group of community members prevented another auction by paying the back taxes on the schoolhouse and acquiring the deed. The organization was called the Agee Miller Mayo Dungy (AMMD) Pine Grove Project in honor of former students and their descendants, and its mission was to bring the building and its grounds back to life.
A $25,000 Get Outdoors Fund grant from VOF in 2021 has helped begin that work, by providing funds to maintain the grounds around the school, make the first legal plat map of the school parcel, install a fence to deter trespassing, restore outdoor lighting around the school building, and assist with operating costs. The vision is to create a park around the renovated school building, with a multi-purpose green space on the school grounds. The park will host community gatherings, interpretive space, and nature trails.
As AMMD Pine Grove Project’s fiscal manager, Willett says VOF’s early faith in the project laid the foundation for bigger asks. “We had gotten some mini grants, but VOF was our first big award. It gave us the confidence to go after funding from the National Park Service, and we got it.” The $290,000 NPS award will go toward stabilizing the building and mapping out the next steps toward rehabilitating it for use.
Former Pine Grove students and descendants came together on a 2022 workday to protect the school from water damage. An architect from UVA consulted on the project.
It is estimated that fewer than one-third of all Rosenwald schools built across the South still stand today, and those remaining were placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of most endangered historic buildings in 2003. The Pine Grove School had the further distinction of being listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2020 and was recognized again in 2020 as a National Historic Landmark. A celebration and placement of the marker will take place in late April.
The school’s latest designation also marks the newest challenge along the way to its rebirth: In 2021, Pine Grove School was included on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s yearly list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. The more specific “endangered” designation comes as a private company seeks permission to build a large landfill less than 1,000 feet from where the school stands. The Army Corps of Engineers is currently reviewing plans for the project.
AMMD has sponsored school tours of area Rosenwald schools to engage a younger generation of stewards of the site and its legacy.
In the meantime, programming related to the building and its history is going strong. Willett says that getting younger generations engaged with the meaning and legacy of the site was an early effort of AMMD Pine Grove Project, which has sponsored history writing contests in the local schools and used a Virginia Humanities grant to pay for student tours of other Rosenwald schools in the area that are still standing. “You plant seeds and you have to trust that they will bloom in due season. It’s one of the more rewarding aspects of what we do,” says Willett.
As for the possible approval of the neighboring landfill, AMMD Pine Grove Project is not deterred. “Restoring the school is important work,” she says. “It would be less than ideal if the landfill were there in our eyes, but we’re going to finish what we started.”
Gilbert's Corner Regional Park's three miles of mowed walking trails make it easy to enjoy views of the Bull Run Mountains.
Tracy Gillespie loves a good story. As manager of historic properties for NOVA Parks, she gets to tell them all the time. Like the one about Alexander “Yankee” Davis and his wife, Eliza, who lived on land that Gillespie now manages as part of Gilbert’s Corner Regional Park. The Davises were ostracized by their community when Alexander took the Union side during the Civil War. When he left to become a Union scout, Eliza was soon “an eyewitness to war,” Gillespie says. “We know that troops were crossing through what we now call Gilbert’s Corner Regional Park, very likely camping there as well. Eliza wrote a marvelous letter to her mother back in Connecticut in 1865.” Parts of the letter are reproduced on an interpretive sign in the park. “It’s a fascinating window into life on the home front.”
Gillespie also likes to tell the story of “Gilbert” himself, who purchased property at the corner of Routes 15 and 50, just across from present-day parkland, in the 1920s. There he built a gas station “where you could fill your tank for 27 cents a gallon while they made you a really good ham sandwich,” she says. Gilbert’s Corner is now the site of the area farmers’ market.
The park consists of 156 acres, 86 of which are owned by NOVA Parks and have been protected by a VOF easement since 2018. This acreage includes a wetlands mitigation area operated by the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust. The remainder of the park is owned and protected by the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC), which leases the land to NOVA Parks. Part of this acreage includes a study area for the Battle of Aldie in 1863.
Trails on the property pass through fields and over a portion of the wetlands protected by a VOF easement.
The park’s three miles of mowed walking trails pass through meadows and alongside wetlands and wooded areas, all within view of the Bull Run Mountains. Bluebird boxes maintained by volunteers line the trail. There is also a small chestnut orchard that was once maintained by the American Chestnut Foundation. Interpretive signs there recount the loss of the species to blight and the foundation’s efforts to bring it back.
A partnership with the Loudoun County library maintains a story walk along the trail. Gillespie says this is a popular destination for families with young children, as well as people of all ages who want access to a gentle walk.
Among the items on Gillespie’s wish list are trails connecting the park to the Gilbert’s Corner Farmer’s Market and a boardwalk that would get people over the wetlands and close to the Davis farm site.
“We’ve gotten a lot started by standing on the shoulders of VOF,” Gillespie states. “And we couldn’t do any of this without the PEC. They are good neighbors.” But there is still much work to be done. “It takes people,” she explains. “I have a very small staff and I rely on volunteers. I’m always looking for more.”
For information on how to volunteer at the park or to donate, visit the park website.
Pictured from left, Travis Voyles, Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources; Franklin Mayor Frank Rabil; VOF Senior Conservation Specialist Estie Thomas; Beechtree Group Manager Jamie Craig; Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation Director Matt Wells; and Virginia Department of Environmental Quality Director Michael Rolband.
A new city park in Franklin created with help from the Virginia Outdoors Foundation received a gold Governor’s Environmental Excellence Award at the Environment Virginia Symposium on March 28.
Blackwater Park is a 200-acre park in Franklin that opened in late 2022. The park is the result of a partnership between Beechtree Group LLC, the City of Franklin, and the Virginia Outdoors Foundation—each of which played a vital part in making the park possible. Blackwater Park was acquired, funded, and constructed by Beechtree Group and the Virginia Outdoors Foundation before being transferred to the City of Franklin. Beechtree led the effort by finding acquisition funds and holding the property for four and a half years while securing federal, state, and private grants.
Beechtree arranged for the installation of an 800-foot boardwalk, two miles of trails, and the construction of parking, roads, a pavilion, and kiosk. Signage and interpretive materials were also designed and installed by Beechtree. A trail constructed through Turkey Island was designed to serve both people and wildlife. The low-impact and ADA-compliant trail gives park visitors the opportunity to observe wildlife and learn from the educational signage. The trail can be closed during nesting season, if necessary, to reduce impacts on the turkey flock. An easement on park land along the river and the adjacent forested wetlands prohibits harvesting. This ensures a wooded buffer of 500 to 1,000 feet along the Blackwater River. The park serves as a flood storage area for the city, helps to protect a vulnerable part of the town, and provides habitat for two threatened species.
Governor Glenn Youngkin joined officials from the city and VOF, as well as local partners and project supporters, for a ribbon-cutting event at Blackwater Park in December 2022.
The project supports the Virginia Outdoors Plan by adding trails, natural area access, and outdoor space. The park has been designed to enable groups from elementary school age children to veteran outdoors people to spend time hiking, observing, and learning about the unique ecological resources that exist on the State Scenic Blackwater River.
“The creation of Blackwater Park is a tremendous community asset that will be enjoyed by our citizens and the surrounding Hampton Roads region for years to come,” said Franklin Mayor Frank Rabil. “We invite everyone, whether they live minutes or hours away, to come visit and experience the unique trails and boardwalk at Blackwater Park.”
“My partners and I are thrilled that we were able to make this gift to the City of Franklin,” added Jamie Craig of Beechtree Group.
VOF’s Estie Thomas, who managed the grant application and easement processes, noted, “This project protects some of the region’s most important nature resources, from bald cypress habitat to the scenic Blackwater River—all of which will be enjoyed by the public for generations to come.”
The annual Governor’s Environmental Excellence Awards recognize the significant contributions of environmental and conservation leaders in five categories: sustainability, environmental project, greening of government, land conservation, and implementation of the Virginia Outdoors Plan. They are given to businesses and industrial facilities, not-for-profit organizations, and government agencies.
Students and faculty at Pulaski County High School came out to meet an Earth Day challenge in 2021, installing the pollinator garden at the high school's new Sensory Trail.
Pulaski High School agricultural science teacher Carley Pavan-Ballard has always striven to keep students engaged and active in her courses. When the school reopened in the fall of 2020 after six months of COVID-19 lockdown, she says, it became even more important. “They were stir crazy in the classroom. I only had them one day a week and they were climbing up the walls.”
Taking her classes outside and getting them moving was the logical solution, so Pavan-Ballard started bringing students out to clean up the trails on the wooded lot next to the school. However, several kids with mobility or visual impairments couldn’t participate. An exception was Eden Helms, who always joined in, Pavan-Ballard says, despite a visual impairment that had led her to use a probing cane. But the cane wasn’t much help on the trails, Pavan-Ballard recalls. “It was like an obstacle course.”
Eden agrees. “The most difficult parts for me are the fallen branches and uneven ground. It’s hard to walk when you can’t see what is coming up next.” But it was important for her to be included and to be outside, she states. “My favorite thing is feeling the sunshine on my back and breathing the fresh air. I use my other senses to enjoy things.”
Students install calypso chimes in the sound garden. Pavan-Ballard says they have been involved at every stage of building the trail, from design to implementation. They are even researching costs and helping to write expense reports for the VOF grant.
Eden’s and other students’ experiences accessing the spaces outside of the school led all Pavan-Ballard’s students to ask how they could help the campus become more inclusive. Their answer: build an accessible sensory loop trail around the old apple orchard next to the school.
Sensory trails are designed to immerse kids in all their senses as they walk a trail. They provide stations that get kids to slow down and experience nature through sound or touch. Making a sensory trail accessible means taking mobility issues into account, with extra-wide and smooth paths that allow for wheelchair access. “Accessibility was a primary goal,” Pavan-Ballard says, so that students pre-K through 12 could enjoy the trail, whatever their abilities.
A wheelchair-accessible raised garden bed was designed, built, and tested by students.
All her students got involved quickly in designing and building the trail. To inform their efforts, they would walk the trails with their eyes closed, using another student as a guide. “It was a way for them to see how truly difficult it is to be out there without sight,” says Pavan-Ballard. “We also used a wheelchair so they could experience what it’s like to move around on wheels.”
The immersive stations, too, were thoughtfully designed by her students. There is a touch garden where students built a three-tiered raised garden, filled with plants that offer unique textures. “Lamb’s ear is incredibly soft, so we planted a bed full of it next to purple coneflower,” she says, “which is super prickly.”
A VOF Get Outdoors grant awarded in 2022 included funding for guide ropes and poles, an ADA-accessible picnic table and benches, and a standing calypso instrument for the sound garden. “It’s like a big xylophone and it makes soft, calming tones when you play it,” Pavan-Ballard explains. The sound garden also has birdfeeders, running water, and plants that make rustling sounds when the wind blows.
Students designed a stand for phones that allow people of all abilities to easily access informational videos through QR codes.
Eden’s input was essential, says Pavan-Ballard. “She played a huge role, as her ease in movement on the trail was something we studied hard.” Several of Eden’s suggestions were used in the final design, such as installing guide ropes along the trail and adding a rock bed to the sensory garden. From Eden’s perspective, rocks are one of the best things about the trail. “I like the way they feel, and to find ones that feel different than the others.” She says that she keeps the ones she likes in her pockets, a little piece of the outdoors that she can take with her.
“From a big-picture perspective, it’s an outdoor educational space, but when you look at every element that goes into it—horticulture, architecture, engineering, art–we’re doing so many different things and working with so many different classes that we’re making something that’s truly unique. Everything in there was imagined and developed by our students.”
Watch a short video produced by Pulaski High School TV Media students that teaches about monarch butterfly habitat, accessible on a phone through a QR code at the garden.
Back in 2020, we here at the preserve put out our first report to share in one place all the fantastic projects, people, and pictures for the year. We are proud to say that a new report is available for 2021, highlighting some truly memorable moments. From bioblitzes to fellowships, guided hikes to volunteer projects, 2021 was truly one for the books.
Between our daily duties, salamander sleuthing, and big events over the last several months, it has been admittedly a bit of a delay to get this report out there. But, in the meantime, we have also nearly completed the 2022 community impact report as well! So be on the lookout for that to become available very soon.
We are all so grateful for this unique community and our part in it. We hope you will enjoy this report and the ones to come. Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions you might have, or to ask how you can get involved!
The Rockfish Valley Foundation maintains trails, a park, and a natural history center designed to help kids make connections between indoors and out.
According to Peter Agelasto, technology isn’t an obstacle to getting kids outside to explore nature. In fact, it can be what gets them there. As a cofounder of the Rockfish Valley Foundation (RVF), Agelasto helped establish and maintain trails, a park, and a natural history center—all elements of an environmental literacy program that RVF is building on and around his historic farm, Elk Hill, in Nelson County.
Agelasto protected 168 acres of the farm along the South Rockfish River and Reid’s Creek with a VOF easement in 2005, the same year he and his wife, Betsy, founded RVF. Their mission is simple, Agelasto states. “We want to connect the indoors with the outdoors, and we’ve determined that technology is one way to do it.”
The “mud kitchen” in Spruce Creek Park is just one of the ways RVF encourages kids to get their hands dirty.
To help kids make those connections, RVF has developed its innovative Discovery iPad Program, which loans the tablets out to kids visiting its Natural History Center. The iPads are meant to be used outside, anywhere within the 25-acre Spruce Creek Park, the anchor to the trail system. The devices are loaded with naturalist apps that can help kids identify plants, birds, fungi, insects, and anything else they might spot and want to know more about on the park’s three trails: the Children’s Nature Trail, the Butterfly Trail and the Birding Trail.
A Wi-Fi connection is free throughout the park, and RVF is working to extend this capability into the loop trail system, which has paths along the South Fork of the Rockfish River and Reid’s Creek and traverses Elk Hill Farm between its active agricultural fields. RVF is also developing environmental literacy modules and seeking content from state agencies, local nonprofits and educators, Virginia Master Naturalists, and others. These will be accessible online, as well as from a cell phone or device anywhere within the Rockfish Valley Trail System.
“We’re planting native plants in the park and along the trails,” Agelasto says, “trying to build our resources for outdoor classrooms so that all students can come and access the content modules to study on their own.” North Branch is an Afton elementary school that has brought children out for several years in the spring for a multi-hour visit both indoors and out. “We’re expecting 35 children and 15 adults when they come back for a visit this March,” he states.
Open to the public year-round, the trails are highly popular. “We don’t have a monitoring system, but there are always at least five cars in the parking area, even when it rains,” Agelasto says. “And there are as many as 20 when the weather is nice.” The trails consist of loops that can be experienced on their own or all in one trip. “You can probably get in 10 or 11 miles before you step on yourself,” he adds. A partnership with the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library has also installed a StoryWalk on the Children’s Nature Trail in Spruce Creek Park and another along the Rockfish Valley Trails.
Trails are open year-round from dawn till dusk and can be accessed from four different trailheads with parking.
For anyone who wants to explore beyond the trails, RVF is developing an app with the College of William & Mary that will allow people to learn about the geology of the Blue Ridge Mountains as they drive along Route 151.
RVF also hosts “Plein Air Paint-Outs” along the trails and sponsors in-person and virtual talks on Rockfish Valley resources for newcomers to the area or anyone who wants to know more.
The Natural History Center is open weekends from April to December and staffed by volunteers. Volunteer work also includes invasive plant removal and native plantings along the trails. To see dates and times of scheduled events, a trail map, updates on ongoing projects, and volunteer opportunities, visit their website.
The new propagation center at the Hale Community Garden relies on volunteers to bring it to life.
Spend some time with Nicole Hersch, a planner and community designer for the New River Valley Regional Commission, and you’ll probably go home with a plant.
Not just any plant, though. As founder of the Southwest Virginia chapter of the Plant Virginia Natives Campaign, Hersch wants to grow people’s knowledge about plant species that are indigenous to the region. Their benefits include better water and soil quality and healthier ecosystems, Hersch says, but a lack of knowledge about natives and difficulty in sourcing them are barriers to getting more of these plants in the ground.
Volunteers prepared and distributed plant packages over two days during a distribution event in March 2022. Colored strings identified different plant species.
The Plant SWVA Campaign is addressing both obstacles, however, thanks to support from the Virginia Outdoors Foundation’s Forest CORE Fund. The $175,000 grant, awarded in 2021, will allow the campaign to produce, print and distribute 10,000 regional native plant guides, as well as partner with the Hale Community Garden in Blacksburg to set up a propagation center where people can find the right native plants for their gardens and yards. The grant has already funded a highly successful community distribution event in three counties, with 1,000 plants distributed in 2021 at three pickup locations, growing to 1,500 at seven locations in 2022.
But the guide is “the crux of the program,” says Hersch, because it will introduce people across 22 counties in the region to the beauty and resilience of native plants for the residential landscape. At 116 pages and 300 plants, “It’s a bit longer than most plant guides,” she adds, “but we wanted to take advantage of the fact that this guide will be in a lot of people’s living rooms. So we tried to think of all the questions people might have, like how do you start planting? What soil and sun conditions do these plants need? When do they bloom? What pollinators do they attract?”
The new propagation center will host large groupings of native plants that will serve as mother stock for sharing throughout the community.
Hersch says that one of the best things about the guide is its use of community-generated images. “All 300 photos come from the public,” she states, mostly from local naturalists and amateur photographers.
If the guide is the crux of the project, then its legacy is the propagation center, created in partnership with the nonprofit Live, Work, Eat, Grow (LWEG) at the Hale Community Garden. The garden will host large groupings of native plants that will serve as mother stock for seed collection, division and sharing throughout the community. A demonstration garden will give people ideas about how to use the plants in the landscape. The garden will be community-run and community-driven, Hersch states, thanks to LWEG’s robust volunteer program.
A neighbor to the garden takes advantage of the Fall Festival Plant Distribution event.
Programming at the garden will include seed collection and sowing workshops that will teach people how they can grow the plants on their own land. “It’s not all-or-nothing,” Hersch adds. “People can start with just one or two natives and still keep their favorite tulips or dahlias. The point is to demystify gardening with native plants and show people that their backyards can be part of an ecological solution.”
Hersch hopes to see the propagation model developed with LWEG at Hale replicated in other communities. In the meantime, come by the garden, where she has a plant she’d love for you to take home.
To sign up for volunteer workdays and updates about the campaign, or to see a list of native plant nurseries, go to the campaign website.
The Virginia Outdoors Foundation and Wetlands Watch have partnered to create the new Coastal Resilience & Trees Fund. The fund provides grants for projects that seek to achieve increased resilience to flooding, sea level rise, and extreme weather events in Virginia’s coastal communities. A portion of the fund will provide resources for increasing tree canopy in the coastal zone.
There is $185,000 available for 2023; $135,000 is available for coastal resilience projects, and $50,000 is available for tree planting projects. Eligible applicants may submit up to two proposals in each project category. No match is required, and applicants may request the full grant award upfront in order to accommodate applicants that require start-up funds for the project. Applications for the 2023 grant cycle are due no later than 11:59 p.m., April 4, 2023.
Projects may include green infrastructure practice installation, shoreline protection practice installation, stewardship, and tree planting projects. Projects may be on either privately or publicly owned land. Projects that are publicly accessible will be prioritized. Projects may vary widely in both their size and funding needs. This fund is meant to provide resources for projects that may not be eligible under other grants.
Funding is available to a wide range of organizations and private citizens. Eligible projects are those located in the coastal zone, as defined by the Coastal Zone Management Program.
2021-22 Natural Science Fellow Lauren Fuchs has been hard at work sampling the skin microbiomes of BRMNAP’s resident snakes. We will be sharing the full results of her ambitious study of the prevalence of the fungal pathogen Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola (Oo) among snakes throughout the state of Virginia soon, but in the meantime, we are proud to report her work has already led to a publication!
Volume 42 of the Virginia Herpetological Society’s journal, Catesbeiana, featured a research note authored by Lauren, her assistant, Erica Lyon, and the VOF’s own preserve manager, Joe Villari! In it, Lauren and team shared the exciting news that they had documented the first official sighting of a Dekay’s brown snake (Storeria dekayi) in Fauquier County. In fact, over the course of the study, they documented two Dekay’s brown snakes, both found on sunny days under carefully placed coverboards in the preserve’s north section.
An adorable close-up of the first documented DeKay’s in Fauquier County
While Dekay’s brown snakes are common throughout the state of Virginia, they had never been officially documented as appearing in Fauquier County until now. By taking the time to publish this finding, Lauren and team ensure that other scientists will have the most up to date information regarding this important species. As Lauren explained, “Reporting observations is important as it helps us better understand the distribution of a species within a particular region. There’s definitely something exciting about “filling in a gap” on a distribution map…With the case of the Dekay’s, I didn’t even think to check whether it was a county record because it seems like such a common species… luckily, Joe brought it to our attention!”
Filling in such “gaps” are especially important for snakes these days, as much of their preferred habitat is shrinking due to development and changing climates. As Lauren said, “Herpetological surveys provide valuable data on species diversity, distribution, and population demographics. This information can be critical in recognizing trends over time.”
Stay tuned to hear more from Lauren about the results of her research and her favorite parts about her time here at BRMNAP!
