Conservation News

October 2014

from the Land Trust of Virginia

Bluemont Rural Village Conservation Study On October 15, the Land Trust of Virginia gave a presentation to citizens of Bluemont regarding the potential for land conservation in and around the village. The presentation focused on the numerous conservation values that are so abundant in this part of the Piedmont. These values include natural and cultural resources such as forests, wetlands, streams, rivers, farmland soils, scenic byways, and historic districts and properties. A geographic information system (GIS) study and analysis of these conservation values, performed by LTV Director of Stewardship Ashton Cole, revealed a significant number of properties in the Bluemont area that include these specific values and would be excellent candidates for conservation easement donation.

L T V h a s c o n d u c t e d s i m i l a r s t u d i e s a n d presentations in numerous other towns and villages including Lovettsville, Warrenton, Hillsboro, Waterford, Lincoln, Buckland and Hume, as well as along the western slopes of the Blue Ridge in Clarke County and along the entire length of Goose Creek. These studies reveal the great potential and need that remains for additional land conservation. The

main goals of these studies are to inspire interest in land conservation and provide information and

LTV’s Annual Meeting will be held this year on November 19th at the Carriage House at Oatlands, located at 20850 Oatlands Plantation Lane, Leesburg, VA. There will be a Social Hour from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm followed by the Annual Meeting from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

Our Annual Meeting is open to all LTV’s members and is an opportunity to meet and talk with our staff, board of directors, and Chairman’s Advisory Council members. Our staff, board and volunteers do the work of the Land Trust of Virginia, but that work would not be possible without the help of our

valued members. We want to meet you as well, and to thank you for everything you do to support our conservation efforts. Please join us!

RSVP at 540-687-8441 or john@landtrustva.org.

Join Us for the 2014 LTV Annual Meeting!

education regarding conservation tax incentives and conservation easements as a land conservation tool.

The continued funding necessary to conduct these studies, made possible with support from our members like you, allows LTV to continue this critical conservation work in our beautiful towns and villages. Special thanks to Virginia Farm Credit and the Virginia Environmental Endowment for providing funding for the Bluemont Village Study, and thanks also to Charlie Westbrook of Atoka Conservation Exchange who gave an excellent presentation regarding the financial incentives that are associated with conservation easement donation. For more maps displaying our findings in this and other Rural Village Studies, visit landtrustva.org.

Presenters Charlie Westbrook (left) and Ashton Cole

Every autumn, LTV embarks on its Fall Campaign. The success of the campaign means more great easements and the stewardship to ensure they stay great.

We expect to finish out the year strong and set the stage for even more success in 2015. And, as a reminder , the Land Trust Accredi tat ion Commission recently reaccredited the Land Trust of Virginia. This accomplishment underscores the quality of our work.

Your support ensures that LTV has the financial resources to operate at a very effective and efficient level. We continue to be a lean and productive organization supported by very capable staff and a board and advisory council that contribute thousands of hours.

Every year the LTV Board, Advisory Council and several major supporters make some significant financial contributions to kick off the Fall

Campaign. We hope you will be inspired to do the same. Your donation of cash, stock, vehicles, real estate and other valuable assets makes our work possible. Every dollar contributed translates into permanent easements in Loudoun, Fauquier and neighboring counties.

Your contributions are building an enduring conservation legacy in our community. LTV now has more than 14,000 acres under easement with more on the way. Your support of our mission protects farms and forests, streams and rivers, natural areas, historic properties, battlefields and rural communities. As you know, there is much more to be done. One of LTV’s primary strategic goals is to increase the intake of easements and protect more land with significant conservation values in the years ahead.

Thanks again for everything you do to support and advance the mission of LTV.

A Letter from Birge Watkins, Chairman

Last month the Land Trust of Virginia’s Director of Conservation Programs and Acting Executive Director, John Magistro, and Vice President, Chris Dematatis, attended the Land Trust Alliance’s annual conference. The conference known as “Rally”, was held this year in Providence, Rhode Island, and drew more than 1,800 representatives from land trusts and other conservation organizations.

LTV receives accreditation renewal award

During the opening session, LTV received its certificate of renewed accreditation status from

L a r r y K e u t e r , Chairman of the Land Trust Accreditation Commission. As we shared with you in last month’s newsletter, LTV is among the first forty-three land trusts to be reaccredited and is one of the first two land trusts in

V irg inia , a long with the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust, to achieve that status.

LTV meets LTA’s Board Member Challenge

LTV is also proud, once again, to have all of our board members hold individual LTA memberships. This is the fifth consecutive year that LTV has held the distinction of being among a small group of land trusts to have met the criteria for the LTA’s Board Member Chal lenge with 100% board member participation.

LTV seminar presentation

Each year’s Rally features two days of concurrent seminars dealing with many aspects of land trust operations. This year John and Chris held a seminar titled “Interpreting and Administering ‘Vintage’ Conservation Easements.” They covered issues presented by older conservation easements that contain terms not as precise, or as clearly defined, as they are in today’s easements. These issues are common to land trusts with easements written more than ten or fifteen years ago when a deed of gift may have been less than ten pages long. Today’s easements are often three times that length or longer.

Their presentation was one of the best attended of the twenty seminars held that Friday morning. Every seat was filled and an overflow crowd stood at the back of the room. The audience broke into applause at the end of the presentation, a bit unusual for such Rally seminars, but very gratifying for John and Chris!

Land Trust of Virginia at the Land Trust Alliance Rally

LTV Vice President, Chris Dematatis, accepting the award

Join Us!Support the Land Trust of Virginia! Be a part of preserving our natural landscape and historic heritage for future generations.

As an LTV member, you’ll receive our newsletter and invitations to special events, our annual garden party, and our annual meeting. Membership levels are listed below.

LTV accepts tax-deductible gifts of real estate, securities, and personal property as well as monetary gifts. Contact our office (540-687-8441) for more information.

Become a member on our website! Visit www.landtrustva.org and click the “donate now” button!

Or, you can mail a check, along with this form, to LTV at P.O. Box 14, Middleburg, VA 20118.

Name ____________________________________________________________________________________________

Address __________________________________________________________________________________________

Phone ____________________________________________________________________________________________

E-mail _____________________________________________________________________________________________

I would like to join LTV at the following level:

Please contact me:

With additional information on land conservation

With information on how to take an active role and volunteer with LTV

Regarding a legacy gift of real estate, securities, or other personal property.

$50 Individual$100 Family$250 Advocate$500 Supporter

$1,000 Guardian$2,000 Steward$5,000 Protector$10,000 President’s Circle

Our SharedLegacy of Conservation

acres of farmlandmiles of streams, rivers, & creeksacres of battlefieldacres of forest

8,20964

1,3975,708protected forever

George and Rab Thompson

The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) is known for maintaining more than 1,000 miles of trails, including 240 miles of the Appalachian Trail. What some may not know, however, is that since 1975 the PATC has worked to acquire and protect land along the Blue Ridge Mountains. They have donated conservation easements on four of these properties to the Land Trust of Virginia.

In 2005 they placed an easement on the 95-acre Meadows Cabin Tract in Madison County. In 2006 they donated easements on the 145-acre Blackburn Property located north of Round Hill in Loudoun County and the 234-acre Entry Run Property in Green County. In 2007 they protected the 270-acre Vining Tract located, also located in Greene County. The Greene County conservation easements are co-held with the Blue Ridge Foothills Conservancy, based in Hood, Virginia (BlueRidgeFoothills Conservancy.org).

These four easements donated to LTV, which protect a total of almost 745 acres of mountainside land, generated Virginia Land Preservation Tax Credits for the PATC. The sale of these credits enabled them to

acquire other properties that they would not have been able to otherwise protect. One such property is 65 acres located in Shaver Hollow just below the Pinnacles picnic grounds along Skyline Drive. The

property adjoins the Shenandoah National Park and protects a view enjoyed by thousands of park visitors each year and by hikers on the Appalachian Trail.

T h e L a n d T r u s t o f Virginia is proud to have worked with the PATC on these four conservations e a s e m e n t s . I t i s especially rewarding to

know that we played a part in helping this conservation-minded organization to further their land protection programs in other parts of Virginia.

For more information on the PATC, go to www.patc.net.

Conservation Partner Profile:

An extraordinary view from a PATC property protected by LTV in Madison County, Virginia.

The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club

Sponsor Profile:

Jim Rich is one of the Land Trusts of Virginia’s longest serving board members and was instrumental in the earliest planning for LTV’s transition from its beginnings as an all-volunteer organization into a professionally staffed land trust. He recalls the efforts LTV made in the late 1990’s and early and mid-2000’s to consider how best to staff our land trust, how to manage the stewardship of our easement properties, to work productively with landowners’ attorneys, and to spread the word and educate the community about land conservation. The Land Trust of Virginia may have grown into a larger and successful land trust, but Jim is quick to point out that LTV’s concerns and challenges today are much the same as when he joined the board.

Jim has been Chairman of the Department of Historic Resources, was twice appointed to the Commonwealth Transportation Board, served on the board of Scenic Virginia, and was a member of the Route 50 task force that established the traffic calming measures on Route 50 from Gilberts Corner to Upperville. In addition, he has given his time to many other efforts made elsewhere in Virginia to protect the many conservation values that surround us.

When asked about his interest in land conservation, Jim speaks of the how blessed we are to live in a state with such an abundance of scenic and historic values and of his concerns about not letting those blessings “slip through our fingers.” His travels take him to places like Tuscany and Provence, regions that are well known for their pastoral landscapes. Yet each time he returns to his home in The Plains he is reminded of how fortunate he feels to live in the heart of an area with a special beauty of its own. It is a beauty that is appreciated and cherished by others who live here, many of whom have donated conservation easements on their properties. That blend of scenic beauty, coupled with the natural resources and areas of historic importance found throughout much of the Virginia countryside, is the reason that Jim Rich has devoted so much of his time and energy over the years to build the Land Trust of Virginia into a land trust that landowners know can be a trusted partner in helping them to protect those conservation values.

Board member profile:Jim Rich

Middleburg BankMiddleburg Bank has been a supporter of the Land Trust of Virginia for many years. Its support comes not only through donations, but also through the many ways in which it is an advocate for land conservation. Their roots are in the Middleburg area, an area with one of the greatest concentrations of privately protected land in Virginia and in the US. Middleburg Bank, through its knowledge of and support for conservation easements, has played a role in many of the land conservation success stories in Loudoun and Fauquier Counties.

Over the decades, the number of Middleburg Bank’s branches has grown and the areas served have spread to other parts of Virginia, but it is still very much a community bank. The Land Trust of Virginia appreciates the ongoing financial support provided by Middleburg Bank and looks forward to being a part of many more conservation success stories in the future that will be made possible, in part, through their generosity and cooperation.

P.O. BOX 14MIDDLEBURG, VIRGINIA 20118

2013 - 2014Board of DirectorsBirge S. Watkins, ChairmanCarole Taylor, PresidentChris Dematatis, Vice PresidentSally Kurtz, SecretaryJames Behan, TreasurerHarry AthertonJay BryantHenry C. DayPatricia EwingPhil PaschallLaura RheintgenJames RichClaude SchochTurner T. Smith, Jr.George Thompson

Advisory CouncilAva AbramowitzChilds F. BurdenSteffanie BurgevinPatric CopelandPenny DenegreWayne GibbensMissy JanesMerritt JonesYakir LubowskyMalcom MathesonMary Leigh McDanielAnne McIntoshJudge Terrence NeyMs. Allen OhrstromLinda PorterSchuyler RichardsonJohn RustEdith Smart

Staff & ContractorsJohn MagistroActing Executive Director and Director of Conservation Programs

Ashton ColeDirector of Stewardship

Stacie RaedelOffice Manager

Art CampbellLegal Counsel

Stephen C. PriceGeneral Counsel

Hunton and Williams LLPPro Bono Counsel

Non-Profit U.S. Postage

PAIDMiddleburg, VA

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VolunteersThe Land Trust of Virginia began more than twenty years ago as an all-volunteer organization. Although we have grown into a professionally staffed and fully accredited land trust, our organization continues to rely on the time and energy so generously contributed by so many volunteers. Our Board of Directors and our Chairman’s Advisory Council donate accumulatively thousands of hours to the Land Trust of Virginia each year. Their diverse backgrounds and experience, coupled with their shared interest in land conservation, enable them to guide LTV and to chart its continued growth.

The work of our board and advisory council members is, in turn, supported by small, but vitally important, groups of volunteers who have made it possible for the Land Trust of Virginia to become such a successful land conservation organization. Look for profiles of some of these unsung heroes of LTV in future issues of Conservation News.

Thank You!