Conservation easements
January 2008
From the Piedmont Environmental Council Press Release:
(Warrenton, VA – January 24, 2008) In 2007, residents of the Piedmont protected 23,021 acres of open space through the use of conservation easements. In Rappahannock County, 1,115 acres were preserved in 2007 bringing the grand total of more than 26,000 acres of privately conserved land in the County.
The movement to protect privately-held rural land from development has been experiencing tremendous momentum in Virginia's Piedmont region, with landowners conserving an average of 23,714 acres every year for the last five years. The total for 2007 brings the number of acres conserved in the nine counties served by the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) to 293,364 acres, an acreage that is larger than Shenandoah National Park.
“We’re immensely pleased at what communities in the Piedmont have been able to accomplish to provide a legacy of conserved open space for our children and future generations,” says Chris Miller, President of PEC. “When it comes to conservation, this is one of the most successful regions in the entire country.”
The Piedmont region continues to lead the state of Virginia, which is among the top five states in the nation for protecting land through private conservation easements. The nine counties of Virginia’s Piedmont—including Loudoun, Clarke, Fauquier, Culpeper, Rappahannock, Madison, Orange, Greene, and Albemarle—have conserved more land than almost any state in the nation.
Bob Lee, the Executive Director of the Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF), said, “Calendar year 2007 witnessed the second highest annual acreage in new Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF) easements at 60,175 acres. VOF staff worked in collaboration with PEC staff to realize significant land conservation in each of the nine counties in the PEC service region. This year also represents 35 years of cooperative land conservation between VOF and PEC.”
According to a 2003 study that was done by the American Farmland Trust in Culpeper County, farms and other open lands use only $0.32 in local services for every dollar of taxes paid, while homes require $1.22 for every dollar paid. Land placed under permanent easement also lowers the value used by the state to determine local ability to pay, which results in increased funding from the Commonwealth for schools and other county services.
Easements also support two major industries of the Piedmont: agriculture and tourism. Like other landowners, farmers can gain needed capital by voluntarily conserving their land and earning a substantial state tax credit which they may either use or sell on the open market. Farmers also benefit from reduced appraisal values on their land, which lightens their tax burden. In Rappahannock, farmers also have the option of working with the publicly supported Farmland Preservation Program which purchases easement on working farmland.
Protecting the integrity of the rural landscape also preserves essential historic resources, provides vital habitat for wildlife, and safeguards the scenic views and recreation opportunities that sustain a high quality of life in the Piedmont. “Conservation easements help us to take care of many of the things that people in this region care about the most,” said Don Loock, PEC’s Land Conservation Officer for Rappahannock County.
Fall 2006
Since July, three easements have been added to the growing list in the county. First was Sidney and Ann Berry's 22-acre addition, engineered by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation in connection with expansion of the Washington Town water system storage facility on the property, and the James Massie family's 347 acres in Flint Hill. Clyde Koral, owner of Jordan River Farm in Flint Hill, put 329 acres into easement on August 25. Easement protection now extends to 23,856 Rappahannock acres, which is 18 percent of all private land in the county.
Summer 2006
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2006 Regional County
Easement Rankings
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(Percentage of total land within a county that is in conservation easement) |
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Fauquier |
20.3% |
Rappahannock |
17.0% |
Clarke |
15.0% |
Albemarle |
13.2% |
Loudoun |
11.7% |
Orange |
9.2% |
Madison |
4.0% |
Greene |
3.1% |
Culpeper |
2.2% |
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Steven and Lois Kerchner have granted to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation a conservation easement protecting their 73-acre property on Crest Hill Road east of Flint Hill. Granted to and accepted by VOF before the end of 2005, the easement was not recorded until February 22, 2006. It merges two tax-map parcels that may never be redivided, and protects 1,450 feet of frontage along Route 647, a designated Virginia By-way. The Kerchner gift brings total easement protection in Rappahannock to 23,158 acres—17 percent of all private land in the county. According to the Rappahannock County Conservation Alliance, which focuses on easements, the county now ranks second in the region served by the Piedmont Environmental Council—and no doubt in the commonwealth as well—in percent of private land now protected by easements. The total percentage of land in easements across the nine counties is 11.6 percent.
Spring 2006
Rappahannock County, Virginia landowners placed 2,735 acres in conservation easement in 2005, bringing the total acreage of land preserved in the county to 23,158 acres, 17 percent of all private land in the county.
For more information or to place a conservation easement...
Contact one of our sister organizations specializing in easements to learn more about the multiple benefits of placing your land in conservation easement; either Don Loock of the Piedmont Environmental Council at 540-987-9441 or Hal Hunter of RLEP and the Rappahannock County Conservation Alliance at 540-937-4744.
