Page 27 – Virginia Outdoors Foundation

VOF protected 15,928 acres of open space in 2018

The Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF) recorded 70 open-space easements in 41 counties and cities in 2018. The 15,928 acres of newly protected land includes VOF’s first easements in the cities of Alexandria and Richmond. Ten of the projects require permanent public access to the land. These projects received about $1.3 million in funding from the foundation’s Preservation Trust Fund and include the following:

Hansborough Ridge in Culpeper County, a Virginia Historic Landmark and part of the Civil War Brandy Station Battlefield
The Hottel Keller Homestead in Shenandoah County, site of the Shenandoah Germanic Heritage Museum
Hazel Hollow, an 11-acre tract that will provide greenway access to the New River in Pulaski County
The historic garden adjoining the Murray-Dick-Fawcett House in the City of Alexandria

The remaining projects were mostly donated easements on privately owned, working landscapes. Open-space easements allow landowners to restrict future residential and industrial development on their land, while continuing compatible uses such as farming and forestry.

Because of the public benefits of open space such as improved water quality and wildlife habitat, easement donors are eligible for federal and state tax benefits.

VOF now protects more than 835,000 acres of open space across Virginia. These lands help to protect more than 4,200 miles of streams and rivers, 237,000 acres in ecologically significant landscapes, 386 miles along designated scenic roads and rivers, 333 miles of threatened and endangered species waters, and 147 miles along designated hiking and biking trails. Since being established by the General Assembly in 1966, VOF has preserved open space at a rate of nearly two acres every hour. About 95 percent of all Virginians live within 10 miles of VOF-protected land.

The Clifton Institute, Fauquier County

A ring of children crowd around a kneeling camp counselor, who holds a dragonfly just inches from their faces.

“How can you tell this guy is a predator?” the counselor asks.

“Big eyes!” one child volunteers.

“Spiky legs to hold prey!” another says.

This is a typical scene at the Clifton Institute, an environmental education center and research station located in Fauquier County, about an hour’s drive from Washington, D.C. Protected by a VOF easement since 2008, the 900 acres of eastern deciduous forest and open fields serve as a biological field station, providing an outdoor classroom and living laboratory to researchers, students, and the community at large.

“Our goal is to get people to realize what they’ve got in their own backyard,” says Bert Harris, the Institute’s executive director. Bert and his wife, Eleanor, who is managing director of the Institute, are both biologists and adjunct professors at American and George Mason Universities.

They are also part of a new team that is growing the Institute’s work in research, ecological restoration, and education. Research experiments are being conducted on the property now that measure the importance of vernal pools for salamander populations and the effects of cows on soil quality and habitat. In addition, members of the community are taking to the trails to catalogue the species present on the property with iNaturalist — an online, crowdsourcing website where naturalists, citizen scientists, and biologists can share their observations. So far, they’ve discovered more than 730 species on the Institute’s grounds and have catalogued them at https://www.inaturalist.org/places/clifton-institute-field-station.

Restoration initiatives include restoring 300 acres of native grassland and shrub fields on the property. “We’re planning a huge experiment,” Bert says. “We want to plant 10-acre blocks with different seed mixes and try different methods of maintenance, such as prescribed fire and tilling. The goal is to see which treatment works best for establishing a functioning native grassland. This way we can educate landowners from what we find out.”

Landowners aren’t the only ones benefiting from the Institute’s work. A newly hired full-time educational associate, Alison Zak, is establishing a curriculum for students of all ages. She and other staff will have their hands full in 2019, as the Institute expects to host 800 elementary, middle, and high school students from private, public, and home schools in its outdoor classroom.

The Institute’s monthly Saturday youth hike is a popular activity for kids 5 and up, who can learn about ecology, conservation, and different species native to the Piedmont region while having fun outside. For adults, bird walks and naturalist seminars conducted by experts several times a month are an opportunity to learn about wildlife in the field.

The Institute is a nice fit for a county that has long embraced land conservation. Fauquier is VOF’s largest county for easements, with 71,000 acres protected. VOF also owns and manages the nearby Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve, a popular destination for hikers and an important block of habitat that’s just a 15-minute drive from the Institute.

Despite the conservation success in the area, residential and commercial development pressure continues. “Urban sprawl in this area is advancing pretty fast, and there is still so much here to save,” Bert says. “Ours is one of the bigger properties in the region. Just knowing it will always stay that way is fantastic. We’re trying to convince our neighbors to protect their land, too.”

VOF announces $3.6 million for forest conservation in Southwest Virginia

The Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF) today announced $3,629,710 in grants to support seven on-the-ground projects that protect and restore forests in Giles, Roanoke, Montgomery, Botetourt, Rockbridge, Bedford and Pittsylvania counties. Several of the projects will also create new opportunities for outdoor recreation and education in their communities.

These grants were awarded from the Forest CORE (Community Opportunities for Restoration and Enhancement) Fund — a component of VOF’s TERRA program, which administers funds resulting from legal and regulatory actions involving Virginia’s natural resources. The Forest CORE Fund was established with $15 million received by the Commonwealth of Virginia to mitigate for forest fragmentation caused by the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

Forest fragmentation occurs when large, contiguous forests are broken into smaller forests separated by roads, utility corridors, housing, and other development. Fragmentation can weaken forest health resiliency, degrade habitat, interfere with the movement and reproduction of animals, and increase invasive plants and other pests, resulting in loss of biodiversity.

This first round of grants was announced in August 2018, and a second round is expected to open in early 2019. The expenditure of the funds is tied to the tree-clearing and grubbing activity of pipeline developers. Approximately 48 percent of the pipeline right-of-way in Virginia has been cleared and grubbed to date.

Said VOF Executive Director Brett Glymph, “When selecting grant recipients, our board looked at not only projects that offset the permanent loss of forest cover caused by the pipeline, but also at projects that would yield other benefits to local communities, such as providing new opportunities for public access for recreation and education, as well as wildlife habitat, scenic viewsheds, and water quality.”

VOF staff met with local officials, planning districts, conservation partners, and state agencies during the program creation and application process to make sure that community needs would be well represented in scoring criteria.

The projects that have been approved for funding are:

Chestnut Ridge, Giles County, $915,500

The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation proposes to acquire 808 acres of forest in one of the highest-rated and least-protected ecological cores in the region. The proposed acreage provides a key buffer to a documented stand of old-growth forest, which is partially protected on an existing State Natural Area Preserve. If acquired, the acreage would receive the highest protection that can be afforded under state statute and be managed for the long-term benefit of an intact significant natural forest community, including American chestnut and butternut — species that have been widely decimated throughout the region.

Poor Mountain-Greenways Connector, Roanoke County, $500,000

The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation proposes to acquire 279 acres of intact pine-oak-heath forests that adjoin an existing State Natural Area Preserve. This acreage complements the Roanoke Valley Greenways plan. All acreage will be permanently protected, thereby minimizing long-term forest fragmentation in a mapped ecological core and protecting the viewshed for the City of Salem and other residents. The tract will also support efforts to assemble a landscape-scale site that may allow for the reintroduction of fire as an important natural disturbance, as well as bring added protection to a globally rare woody shrub species.

Brush Mountain Preservation and Park, Montgomery County, $1,205,800

The New River Land Trust, in partnership with the Poverty Creek Trails Coalition, proposes to purchase 553 acres of intact forest on the Brush Mountain ridgeline in and adjacent to the Town of Blacksburg and Virginia Tech in Montgomery County. After purchase, the properties will be transferred to public ownership and be preserved as forested public parks. The project will create community open space with a system of multi-use trails available for recreation and nature-based educational programs.

Appalachian Trail Core Forest and Viewshed Protection, Botetourt County, $376,500

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy proposes to acquire 243 acres of high-quality forest to preserve the Appalachian Trail footpath at Tinker Cliffs, buffer Carvin’s Cove, and protect the viewshed of McAfee Knob, which is one of the most photographed vistas on the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. The property will be ultimately transferred to the National Park Service.

Mystic Forest, Rockbridge County, $360,000

The Virginia Outdoors Foundation proposes to acquire open-space easements on land that will connect Adams Peak — a designated “roadless area” of the George Washington National Forest and eligible for wilderness designation — with orphaned parcels of forestland owned by the U.S. Forest Service in Rockbridge and Amherst counties. At the center of the project is 40 acres of old-growth forest that has been owned by the same Monacan Indian family for nine generations. The property contains trees more than 300 years old. When finished, roughly 15,000 acres of pristine forestland will be connected for wildlife and recreation.

Explore Park Forest Preservation, Bedford and Roanoke Counties, $165,450

Roanoke County proposes to purchase several properties adjacent to Explore Park and within the viewshed of the park, which is a public recreational facility. The project will preserve the existing forests and viewsheds for the Blue Ridge Parkway and Roanoke River Parkway, prevent development of the properties, and provide public access for outdoor recreational activities such as hiking, biking, fishing, and bird-watching.

Wayside Park Trail, Pittsylvania County, $106,460

Pittsylvania County is working to create one mile of multi-use, crushed stone trails in Wayside Park by integrating a 3,780-foot park maintenance road and an existing 1,500-foot trail previously constructed by a local Boy Scout troop. This trail project is part of a larger master plan to renovate the nearly 100-year-old park to return it to its former glory as a community asset and beacon of conservation and recreation. The park’s size and natural resources including Sycamore Creek that runs through the park, abundant wildlife, and forest covering more than 37 acres of the park, making it the largest county-owned park in Pittsylvania County. The project will permanently prohibit commercial timbering on the property, and funds from the grant will assist with trail development.

Rockingham farmers help protect headwaters of “showcase” Smith Creek watershed

Bartholomew and Christina Johnson of Rockingham have made a significant contribution to water quality protection in the Smith Creek Watershed by donating an open-space easement on their farm to VOF.

The 48 acres near Keezletown contain a large portion of the headwaters of Smith Creek. The easement requires existing stream buffers to be permanently maintained on the property. The buffers help to maintain the water quality by limiting development and livestock access, which can cause sedimentation and pollution.

Smith Creek is one of three watersheds in the nation designated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service as a “Showcase Watershed.” The goal of the designation program is to produce measurable improvements in water quality within a specific geographical area. To do this, NRCS is working with state and local agencies to engage more than 90 percent of the farmers in these watersheds, giving them the technical and financial tools to enhance clean water practices on their farms.

From 2010 to 2017 in the Smith Creek Watershed alone, the NRCS program helped farmers manage nutrients on more than 5,826 acres, plant 3,223 acres of cover crops, implement rotational grazing on 726 acres, and install over 26.1 miles of livestock fencing.

To date, VOF has protected more than 1,300 acres in the Smith Creek watershed.

“The Johnsons have a small farm, but they have so much frontage on Smith Creek and one of its major tributaries,” says VOF easement specialist Laura Thurman, who worked on the project. “Plus, it contains brook floater, a species of mollusk that the state of Virginia lists as ‘endangered,’ so we knew it needed protection.”

The easement also prohibits division of the property — another protection important to Bart Johnson.

“I grew up here, and it’s always been this little pocket of really nice farms that are still intact and very scenic,” he says. “I would like to see it stay the same.”

VOF announces new year-round public visitation hours at the preserve

After reviewing our visitation data and annual management goals – and receiving valuable input from the surrounding community, preserve visitors, partners, staff and volunteers – we are excited to announce that there will NOT be a 2018 winter closure this year at the preserve! Instead, we will have a slightly earlier hour of closure (4:30pm), from November 15th to March 15th each year (to coincide with the lack of afternoon daylight). Our days of operation will remain the same (Friday, Saturday and Sunday).

As a reminder, we at VOF-BRMNAP are perpetually tasked and dedicated to mitigating and minimizing the impacts of public visitation on the preserve’s ecosystem. Our goal is to be able to perpetually offer a truly great place to come experience the magic and wonder of nature – no matter the season! The Virginia Outdoors Foundation worked with DCR-Natural Heritage to permanently protect what is now VOF-BRMNAP to provide us all with an incredible opportunity to utilize this preserved space as a living classroom, laboratory and museum – a natural oasis in the ever-changing corner of the world that is Northern Virginia.

We could not do this without your support and want to thank you all for supporting these goals!

Please plan on visiting this winter and showing us that you support and appreciate our new OPEN winter schedule and, while visiting, please do keep in mind that BRMNAP is a nature-focused preserve (rather than a recreation-focused park). Mindful and careful visitation practices will help ensure that we can sustain these increased hours of access and keep our preserve’s ecosystem healthy and our trail network maintained!

Looking forward to seeing you all on the trails! Though don’t forget to bring those scarves, mittens and coats – it is looking like it may be a cold one this year!

New, year-round hours for the preserve are as follows:

8:00am – 6:00pm March 16^th – November 14^th

8:00am – 4:30pm November 15^th – March 15^th

Corduroy roads found under old trail system at the preserve

If you have hiked along BRMNAP’s Green Trail, you may have noticed an old road bed that has been somewhat-recently exposed by rainwater-driven erosion at its juncture with the old Mountain Access road. The exposed logs (shown in the accompanying photos) closely resemble a corduroy road, a popular type of road construction used during the American Civil War. Corduroy roads are characterized by logs laid perpendicular to road direction and they were implemented where goods or people needed to cross through water-saturated, muddy or swampy areas.

The recent exposure of this historical roadbed at BRMNAP serves as just one form of evidence of the now state-designated Natural Area Preserve’s peopled past. While the road beds recent exposure opens an intriguing avenue of research into the preserve’s cultural history, it also brings up challenges for trail maintenance.

A healthy ecosystem is comprised of native plants and animals that exist and interact in a balance along with abiotic factors (such as water and geologic features). VOF-BRMNAP staff actively manage the preserve to help maintain this balance by monitoring natural communities and minimizing human-use and impact. Despite protecting the preserve from human impact and change, the natural environment still perpetually alters the landscape on its own. Sometimes this natural dynamism fosters the exciting discovery of new cultural or environmental features, but these changes can also present new management challenges.

The small logs that compose the corduroy road were exposed by the rainwaters that run down the mountain after each heavy rain event. While erosion (of all types) is a constant threat to the trail system at BRMNAP, rainwater erosion has, over the past few years, caused the lower portion of the Mountain Access Road to be largely comprised of uneven substrate and perennially wet areas. It has become obvious that this presents an obstacle to preserve visitors and because of this, we are in the process of re-routing the trail network along this section. This re-route will keep hikers off this less suitable trail, while still winding visitors through all-of-our unique natural and cultural treasures. We will be sure to update you all here (and in the form of appropriate signage) as soon as this project is completed!

VOF-BRMNAP staff (with an extremely healthy dose of volunteer contribution!) are dedicated to maintaining (and occasionally creating) sustainable trails on the preserve that provide visitors with a place to observe flora, fauna and historic/cultural remnants in a balanced, natural setting.
We are currently trying to discover as much as we can about our cultural holdings at BRMNAP. If you are interested in volunteering (with trail work or potential citizen-science monitoring projects), or if you have any information on the history of this corduroy road (or any cultural resources held within the preserve), please send an email to our Preserve Technician, Summers Cleary (scleary@vofonline.org) or our Preserve Manager, Joe Villari, (jvillari@vofonline.org).

VOF board chair seeks protection for Land Preservation Tax Credits at IRS hearing

On Nov. 5, VOF Board Chair Eleanor Weston Brown spoke at an Internal Revenue Service hearing in Washington, D.C., to address a proposed regulation that could cause unintended negative consequences for Virginia’s Land Preservation Tax Credit (LPTC) program.

Brown, a tax attorney, said that a proposal to treat state and local tax credits as a payment would reduce the ability of donors to fully utilize federal tax deductions for easement and land donations. In Virginia, donors are eligible to receive LPTCs worth 40 percent of the donation, and may also deduct up to 100 percent of the donation’s value on their federal income taxes. The IRS proposal would not allow donors to claim a federal deduction for the 40 percent received in LPTCs.

The proposed regulation is designed to address recent developments in State and Local Tax (SALT) policy, in which some states have used tax credit programs as a workaround to a $10,000 cap on federal deductions for SALT taxes. If enacted it would take effect retroactively to August 28, 2018.

“The proposed regulation significantly undercuts the stated goals of Congress in enacting tax deductions for land conservation,” said Brown. “VOF urges the IRS to reconsider the proposed regulation as it applies to state tax credits for land conservation.”

Specifically, Brown asked the IRS to exempt such credits from the rule. If they do not, she asked that the effective date be moved to 2019 to allow VOF to complete as many as 75 easement projects that are already underway, and whose landowners began the process under the old rules. She also said that if the rule is enacted and LPTCs are not exempted, that the reductions in tax liability should be given basis.

Brown was joined at the hearing by VOF Executive Director Brett Glymph, as well as representatives from Virginia United Land Trusts, the Land Trust Alliance, and the Piedmont Environmental Council.

A copy of Ms. Brown’s written comments to the IRS are available below.

[wpfilebase tag=file id=560 tpl=simple /]

VOF holds community input forum for Hayfields at Highland Center

Dozens of residents and community leaders attended a forum at the Highland Center in Monterey on October 9 to provide their thoughts on potential future uses of Hayfields Farm, a 1,034-acre property in Highland County acquired by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation in 2017.

The forum was facilitated by Stantec, an architecture and planning firm contracted by VOF to guide the planning process. Stantec staff, assisted by VOF staff, presented information about the property and conducted exercises to learn people’s hopes and fears for the property, which must be maintained as permanent open space. [wpfilebase tag=fileurl id=559 linktext=’A copy of the presentation can be downloaded here’ /].

Two main themes emerged from the community. The first is a desire for there to be some level of public access to the property’s natural resources, which include fields, forests, trails, ponds, and a one-mile stretch of the Bullpasture River. The second is to see the property generate economic activity for the community, in the form of jobs, tourism, tax revenue, or a combination of the three.

Specific ideas that were floated during the forum included using the site for educational or institutional research, a state park or campground, a venue for arts or retreats, or a wellness or rehabilitation center. The biggest fears among community members were that nothing would happen with the property, or that development would negatively affect the natural beauty of the area. Some residents mentioned traffic and loss of dark skies as specific concerns.

The forum was the first step in a process of engaging local, regional, and state stakeholders from a broad spectrum of interests to determine what the highest needs are that could be served by a large open-space property, what kinds of solutions could meet those needs, and which partners in the public and private sectors could be brought together to achieve our goals. VOF and Stantec will be reaching out to other potential stakeholders over the coming weeks, including people and organizations in the areas of healthcare, education, recreation, and economic development.

“While conserving open space is the primary objective of the Hayfields project, it’s important that we explore ways to help address other needs in the Commonwealth,” says VOF deputy director of stewardship Martha Little, who is overseeing the planning process. “We want to maximize the public benefit of Hayfields, and getting there will require innovation, partnerships, and thinking big.”

Enrichmond hosting several community meetings on Evergreen project

During October, the Enrichmond Foundation will host public meetings throughout the City of Richmond to get input from family members, community leaders, volunteers, and anyone else interested in the conservation and restoration efforts at historic Evergreen Cemetery. Visit https://enrichmond.org/events/historic-evergreen-cemetery-a-community-conversation/ for dates, locations, and times.

The meetings are a continuation of Enrichmond’s planning process for the property, which it acquired in 2017 and is the resting place of more than 10,000 African-Americans dating back to the 19th century, including notable Richmond leaders such as Maggie L. Walker and John Mitchell, Jr. The Virginia Outdoors Foundation has been working with Enrichmond to record an open-space easement on the cemetery, to ensure that the overgrowth, vandalism, and trash that plagued it for decades will not be part of its future. VOF has allocated $400,000 of public funding to protect and restore Evergreen along with the neighboring East End Cemetery.

The public meetings will be facilitated by volunteer members of Evergreen’s Executive Planning and Review Team (ExPRT committee), as well as Enrichmond staff. VOF trustee Viola Baskerville, who has family members buried at Evergreen, serves on the ExPRT committee.

Says VOF Executive Director Brett Glymph, “Enrichmond has done a remarkable job assembling a team of family members, volunteers, and other partners to ensure that we restore dignity to this national treasure in a way that’s consistent with the vision and values of the Richmond community.”

VOF announces new grant program, seeks proposals for forest conservation

The Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF) has created a new program that will administer funds derived from legal and regulatory actions that result from impairment to Virginia’s natural resources.

The need for the program arose following mitigation agreements between the Commonwealth of Virginia and the developers of two natural gas pipelines — Atlantic Coast Pipeline and Mountain Valley Pipeline — in which VOF was named a mitigation partner and asked to administer $39,650,000 to offset forest fragmentation caused by pipeline construction.

The new program, called TERRA, initially will house two funds named the Forest CORE Funds, one for each pipeline’s impact region. VOF will provide grants to state agencies, localities, and other public bodies as well as private 501(c)(3) conservation groups that work to protect, connect, and restore forest resources through conservation easements, acquisition, reforestation, or enhancement activities. An interagency workgroup comprised of the Department of Conservation and Recreation, Department of Forestry, Department of Transportation, Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, Department of Environmental Quality, and Virginia Outdoors Foundation worked together to define the scope of the mitigation grant program, guide VOF’s administration of the funding, and set timelines and project criteria.

VOF now is accepting proposals for the first round of grants for the Forest CORE Fund covering the Mountain Valley Pipeline region. This round seeks to disburse $3 million of the fund’s total of $15 million. The request for proposals, which includes guidelines and application materials, may be found online at https://www.vof.org/terra/fcf-mvp/ or obtained from program manager Emily White. The deadline for applications is October 31, 2018.

A grant round for the Forest CORE Fund in the Atlantic Coast Pipeline region will be established in early 2019 using $24,650,000 from the mitigation agreement between the Commonwealth and ACP.

VOF will host a workshop for applicants on September 12 at the Vinton Library in Roanoke County to discuss the project selection process in detail and answer questions from potential applicants. Interested attendees need to register in advance as space is limited. Click here for event details, including a link to register.

As part of the process of developing the grant criteria, VOF sought input from a broad group of stakeholders in the Mountain Valley Pipeline region, with a high priority on communities most directly impacted by the project. Stakeholders include all directly impacted localities, planning districts, soil and water conservation districts, land trusts covering the region, local foresters, as well as the U.S. Forest Service. In addition, input was sought from Virginia’s United Land Trusts, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the Nature Conservancy, the Conservation Fund, and the other mitigation partners named in the agreements (U.S. Endowment for Forestry & Communities, the Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts, and Virginia Endowment for the Environment). VOF also posted the draft grant materials online for public input on August 9, 2018 and received written and verbal comments at its August 22 board meeting when the materials were adopted.

“We have set a high bar for transparency and accountability in the development of this program, and we’ll maintain that commitment throughout the selection of the projects, just as VOF does for all of its conservation work on behalf of the public,” says VOF Executive Director Brett Glymph.

VOF will continue to seek and welcome input from stakeholders as it refines the Forest CORE Fund programs for future grant rounds. Anyone interested in providing feedback should email Emily White at ewhite@vofonline.org, or submit their comments through our online form at https://www.vof.org/comments/.