Gilbert’s Corner Regional Park, Loudoun County

Gilbert's Corner Regional Park, Loudoun County
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.

Gilbert's Corner Regional Park, Loudoun County
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.

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Blackwater Park project wins Governor’s Environmental Excellence Award

Blackwater Park project wins Governor’s Environmental Excellence Award
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.

Ribbon-cutting at Blackwater Park, December 2022
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.

For a complete list of 2023 winners, click here.

Sensory Trail, Pulaski County

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.
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. 

 

2021 Community Impact Report Now Available!

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!

Elk Hill Farm and the Rockfish Valley Trail System, Nelson County

Elk Hill Farm and the Rockfish Valley Trail System, Nelson County
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.

Plant SWVA Natives Campaign and Propagation Center, Montgomery County

The new propagation center at the Hale Community Garden relies on volunteers to  bring it to life.
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.

VOF & Wetlands Watch announce Coastal Resilience & Trees Fund

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.

The Coastal Resilience & Trees Fund grant manual, program timeline, applicant eligibility, grant application materials, and more can be viewed at https://wetlandswatch.org/coastal-resilience-trees-fund.

Please direct any questions to Wetlands Watch via email at grants@wetlandswatch.org.

Sssssnake ssscience on the preserve with natural science fellow, Lauren Fuchs

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!

Ssssstay tuned for more updates from Lauren!

T.G. Howard Community Center and Calfee Community & Cultural Center, Pulaski County

A creek runs between the T.G. Howard Community Center and the former Calfee Training School. Both buildings are undergoing renovations in order to serve the community of Pulaski better than ever with help from VOF's Preservation Trust Fund.
A creek runs between the T.G. Howard Community Center and the former Calfee Training School. Both buildings are undergoing renovations in order to serve the community of Pulaski better than ever with help from VOF's Preservation Trust Fund.
The Calfee Training School and the T.G. Howard Community Center sit just across a creek from one another and have provided African American families with educational and recreational programming for generations. After decades of service, both buildings sat unused until the late 2010s, when momentum to restore each facility started to build. “The projects have some of the same DNA,” says Guy Smith, director of Pulaski County Department of Social Services, “but if Calfee is an ocean liner, T.G. Howard is a little tugboat.”

 

T.G. Howard Community Center and Calfee Community & Cultural Center, Pulaski County
The WPA-era school building will soon be home to the Calfee Community and Cultural Center.

Built in 1939 by the Works Progress Administration, the Calfee Training School building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The school’s history exemplifies the struggle of African Americans for equal education in the early- to mid-20th century, says Binti Villinger, communications director for the Calfee Community and Cultural Center (CCCC). “The courage shown by Calfee’s African American faculty and families to challenge discrimination during segregation is an integral part of Pulaski’s, and America’s, history,” she notes. While T.G. Howard’s building is less architecturally significant, its history is just as important. Known as “the Black Y,” the center was built by the Black community in 1965 as an alternative to Pulaski’s whites-only YMCA.

T.G. Howard Community Center and Calfee Community & Cultural Center, Pulaski County
Parents and kids line up at one of T.G. Howard's community outreach events, providing Pulaski schoolkids with bookbags and supplies in August of 2022.

Calfee closed its doors in 1966, when public schools in the area desegregated. Over the years, the building housed kindergarten classes and was later used as office space for local businesses, though it has been vacant for the past decade. T.G. Howard discontinued operations due to lack of funds in 2013. Though both buildings fell under disrepair, they still hold a special place in the hearts of Pulaski’s African American community. Smith states that older people recall their school years at Calfee fondly. “It’s hard to meet anyone of a certain age in Pulaski’s African American community who didn’t experience T.G. Howard growing up,” he says. “I did. And most of our parents went to Calfee.”

Villinger, whose mother attended Calfee, agrees. “Both spaces rallied around African American families as strong community centers during challenging periods of history. Once Calfee closed in the mid 1960s, that hub shifted to T.G. Howard. It was hard to see such significant places neglected.”

Each building took its own route toward renewal. The CCCC nonprofit was formed in 2019 and concentrated on raising funds to restore its historic building, which will serve the New River Valley in multiple ways, Villinger says. A childcare center, community kitchen, local African American history museum, digital lab and pay-what-you-can café are among the planned offerings. 

T.G. Howard started some renovation work with Habitat for Humanity and local volunteers, but the GO Fund award helped push the project forward.

T.G. Howard also formed a nonprofit, but board members decided the building could wait. Instead, they focused on addressing the needs of the local community during the COVID pandemic. “One of the earliest was bringing food to first responders,” Smith states. “We also started a mask initiative when masks were hard to come by. With the spirit of community service taking off during the pandemic, we were well-equipped to react to needs in the moment.”  

Now, both buildings are getting a second life with the help of twin $80,000 grants from the Virginia Outdoors Foundation’s Preservation Trust Fund. Both properties will be protected with a no-division open-space easement that requires public access. The creek that runs between them, Tract Fork, will gain buffer protections. T.G Howard completed extensive renovations in 2022 and is positioned to reopen later this year. Calfee plans to begin construction this spring and has just been awarded an additional $20,000 from VOF’s Get Outdoors Fund to develop the Greene Outdoor Play Space, which will provide the preschool with a space to foster creativity and an appreciation of nature. The space will be open to the public on evenings and weekends.

 

T.G. Howard Community Center and Calfee Community & Cultural Center, Pulaski County
A rendering of the planned Greene Outdoor Play Space at the CCCC.

“Both projects have seen tremendous local support and the two centers will complement each other,” Villinger adds. “We look forward to collaborating and serving the current needs of the entire community.”

$2 million available in latest grant round for open space projects

The Virginia Outdoors Foundation is making $1.8 million available from its Preservation Trust Fund program and $200,000 from its Get Outdoors Fund for grants that protect open space for public use and other public benefits.

Preservation Trust Fund grants for the spring 2023 grant round will prioritize projects that result in significant public access, but funds may also be used for projects that protect exceptional conservation values such as water quality, historic and cultural resources, wildlife habitat, and high-quality farmland and forestland. A real estate interest must either be acquired by a local government or conveyed to VOF to be eligible for funding, and protection must meet the requirements of Virginia’s Open-Space Land Act. There is no minimum or maximum on Preservation Trust Fund grants, but historically they have averaged approximately $150,000.

Get Outdoors Fund grants may be used to fund projects that create, protect, expand, or enhance access to open space in underserved communities. Proposals up to $25,000 may be considered.

The Get Outdoors Fund requires pre-applications to be submitted through VOF’s online grants portal by February 21, 2023. Invitations to submit a full application will be issued within one week of pre-application receipt. If an organization has been awarded more than $5,000 in a past grant round, the previous project must be completed before an applicant may reapply. Past applicants must submit new pre-applications. A resubmitted pre-application without significant revision will not be considered. In addition, applicants may not apply more than twice with the same concept.

Full applications for both programs must be submitted online using our grants application portal. Full applications must be submitted by March 7, 2023. Grant awards will be announced in June. Eligibility requirements, sample applications, and other materials may be found online at https://vof.org/ptf and https://vof.org/go. VOF encourages potential applicants to contact staff prior to applying to discuss eligibility and seek guidance on producing a successful application. Contact grants@vof.org with questions or for information on how to apply. To schedule a short meeting with grant program staff to discuss project ideas, use https://doodle.com/bp/emilynelson/time-to-talk.