Nearly 150 acres of Rappahannock land placed under conservation easement in 2021
► Nonprofit reports 25% of Piedmont now under easement ► Largest property conserved in 2021 located in neighboring Culpeper
Rappahannock County in 2021 gained a signi cant property placed under easement, bringing the county’s total acreage protected by conservation measures to 33,557, according to the Warrenton-based nonpro t Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC).
The new property, owned by the Hitt Family Farm Trust and located near Amissville in the county’s eastern corner along the Rappahannock River and on the Fauquier County border near the Culpeper County line, is an amendment to an existing easement to protect an additional 143 acres of land, according to spokesperson Jason McGarvey with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF), which oversaw the easement.
“It’s a pretty substantial amendment. And amendments are something we do a lot more in counties like Rappahannock, where we’ve already done a lot of conservation easements,” he said. “These are amendments to either add acreage or to increase protections through additional terms like forestry restrictions or reducing division rights … sometimes landowners down the road may decide to strengthen their easement, and we help them do that.”
Easements protect the natural, agricultural, scenic and cultural resources that land can provide. Landowners who donate easements may be eligible to receive tax bene ts for their contribution that extinguishes development rights and protects a property’s conservation values, according to PEC.
A conservation easement is a voluntary agreement between a landowner and a public agency or a nonpro t conservation group. As part of a suite of public policies ranging from local comprehensive plans to the multi-state Chesapeake Bay agreement, conservation easements limit development on private land, PEC said.
The Hitt family, which owns the Falls Church-based construction rm Hitt Contracting, wasn’t able to be reached for comment by the Rappahannock News’ Wednesday morning print deadline. McGarvey in an interview noted the family o en prefers to keep a low pro le as it relates to their conservation e orts.
Part of the family’s easement, which totals 536 acres, is also partially located in Culpeper County, according to a summary of the conservation e ort.
A large number of the new acreage placed under easement contains forest of high conservation value as designated by the Virginia Department of Forestry, according to the report. The property stretches over 5,000 feet along the Rappahannock River and over 10,000 feet of its tributaries. According to PEC Rappahannock County Field Representative Laura O’Brien, protection of the waterway bolsters the organization’s ability to improve water quality.
The area fronted by the river is also home to the green oater, a globally rare freshwater mussel that is designated as a species of concern by both Virginia Commonwealth University and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the report said.
The terms of the easement outline the permission of only ve dwellings on the property that must not exceed 13,000 square feet. Also permitted are non-residential outbuildings to serve as amenities for residential use and a small family chapel in the area located next to the cemetery on the property. Additionally, no buildings or structures larger than 400 square feet are permitted to be constructed within 300 feet of State Routes 669 or 613, according to the report.
PEC’s annual overview of new and existing conservation easements in the Piedmont region found that Private landowners in 2021 partnered with various land trusts and conservation agencies to protect an additional 6,474 acres of land in Albemarle, Clarke, Culpeper, Fauquier, Greene, Loudoun, Madison, Orange counties in addition to the one in Rappahannock. more than 25% of public and private land in Virginia’s Piedmont is now placed under conservation easements, the organization said.
Conserved lands provide clean air and drinking water, natural ood controls, scenic views that attract millions to the region, wildlife habitat, and strong agricultural, forestry and recreational economies. Fi y- ve new conservation easements closed last year, bringing the total permanently protected land in The Piedmont Environmental Council’s (PEC) nine-county region to close to 433,132 acres.
“Virginia is fortunate to have a variety of organizations willing and able to hold permanent conservation easements,” said PEC President Chris Miller, noting that the 2021 numbers re ect easements closed by all of these conservation organizations, including PEC, VOF, the Land Trust of Virginia, state agencies, local governments and other land trusts.
He continued, “We are thankful that so many families continue to recognize the important role they can play in balancing personal and public conservation goals. The cumulative impact over the past 50 years is that just over 25$ of public and private lands within our Piedmont service area are permanently protected. That is halfway toward ful lling PEC’s vision of working with landowners and other allied organizations to see 50% of the region’s rural areas preserved.”
The largest property conserved in 2021 was the 761 acres of gently rolling hills and lush agricultural farmland at Horseshoe Farm in Culpeper County, according to PEC. Owned by Sheldon Clark since 2019, Horseshoe Farm sits at the con uence of the Robinson River and the Rapidan River, which supplies drinking water to Fredericksburg and other downstream communities.
The farm’s extensive frontage on both rivers, along with its adjacency to other conserved properties on the Orange and Madison sides of these waterways, gives conservation of this active, agricultural property signi cant water quality importance.
The easement, which is held by the VOF, also protects several wetland areas, prime agricultural soils used for primarily corn and soybeans, and a historic Greek revival home built in the mid-1800s, according to PEC. The property’s history can be traced back to an English land grant to former Lt. Gov. Alexander Spotswood, with historical signi cance in the Revolutionary War through the second world war.
“Conservation of land and history for future generations is important to me, and conservation was the goal from the moment I bought Horseshoe Farm,” said Clark, who has also conserved about 3,000 acres on Clark Mountain since 2000. “Our concept has been to preserve land from Clark Mountain all the way to Culpeper, because the history, scenic views, and water quality and conservation are very important here. All of this area serves as a watershed supplying drinking water for Fredericksburg and areas east, and being somewhat close to Richmond and Washington D.C., we do have development pressures. It would be a shame to lose the history and the beauty of this area. There are many good reasons to leave it open and undeveloped,” Clark said.
“Seeing a property of this size, with so many historic resources, conserved along the Rapidan River is exciting. It really supports PEC’s e orts in the upper Rappahannock watershed to preserve productive farmland and restore water quality, locally and in the support of the Chesapeake Bay agreement,” PEC Director of Conservation Mike Kane said in a statement.
Kane said in a news release that another noteworthy development is the amount of land conservation occuring in Loudoun County. For the second consecutive year, Loudoun, one of the fastest growing counties in the nation, led the region’s conservation totals, with 3,507 acres. Loudoun’s totals included a new 35-acre easement near Lincoln, donated by Patrick and Susan Holden and held by PEC.
In addition to nonpro t conservation groups, a number of counties operate programs that acquire conservation easements, either through purchase or donation. In Clarke County, the county’s Easement Authority conserved more than 244 acres, including a heavily forested 181-acre property along Mt. Carmel Road, a designated Virginia Scenic Byway. Conservation of this property extinguished nine dwelling unit rights that will ensure the long-term protection of the property’s sensitive natural and scenic resources, according to PEC.