ing with private landowners who own the
lands deserving of recognition and protection, we can assist
local governments in the protection of special land resources
identified in the comprehensive plan as being worthy of land
stewardship. The VOF working in cooperation with conservation
inclined private landowners and local governments can protect
the historic and conservation values and purposes of important
lands. The public continues to benefit from these protected
land resources, but the properties stay on the local tax roles
and the public is not burdened by the costs of public property
ownership and maintenance.
Recently, the VOF Board of Trustees
approved a memorandum of understanding template that sets out
the mutual benefits of this VOF/Local Government proactive
partnership. As a state agency, VOF is represented by the
Attorney General and the perpetual stewardship of the
conservation values and purposes that give rise to the federal
and state tax benefits are assured by Commonwealth of Virginia
and enforced and defended, if necessary, by VOF and the Office
of the Attorney General. Local governments benefit from this partnership,
but are not required to shoulder the legal and financial obligations
of the stewardship of the conservation values and purposes of
easement properties. The VOF easements are recorded in the
Circuit Court Clerk’s Office in the jurisdiction where
the property is located. Having this direct knowledge of the
provisions of the easement, the local government can often act
as the eyes and ears of the public to make certain that
pertinent provisions of the locally recorded easement are
observed. This local knowledge benefits all parties in the
synergistic partnership.
EASEMENTS VITAL FOR FUTURE LAND USE SELF
DETERMINATION
Virginia is one of the fastest growing
states in the nation. Those special attributes for which our
state has been revered since colonists first landed at
Jamestown almost 400 years ago are at risk. Local land use
regulations in Virginia, as in other states, have not stemmed
the tide of inefficient human settlement patterns. Local
governments can not save all the land resources that represent
our uncommon wealth, but easements can help save some of the
most important of our heritage land resources and defining
cultural landscapes. Virginia, like its constituent local
governments, has an economic base that is grounded in natural
and cultural resources. The three leading economic generators
in the Commonwealth are resource based industries: agriculture,
forestry, and tourism. Continued rapid conversion of the
cultural and natural resource lands that support our
traditional economic base industries could be catastrophic for
future generations of Virginians.
Agriculture employs over 235,000 persons
in Virginia and agriculture related income in other sectors
accounts for one in every ten jobs in the state. But, the
American Farmland Trust warns that Virginia ranks 16th in the
nation in loss of prime farmland and the pace of farm
conversions in Virginia is accelerating.
Virginia has almost 16 million acres of
forestland and forest related products are the state’s
leading manufacturing industry. However, the Virginia
Department of Forestry recently concluded, as part of the Virginia
Forest Land Assessment, that over three million acres of
commercial timberland can no longer be considered rural enough
to permit sustainable management for forest products. Today,
the average forest tract size in Virginia is less than 30 acres
and over ten percent of our forestlands are on tracts of less
than ten acres. This is one of the consequences of the
suburbanization of rural Virginia!
Virginia ranks among the top ten states in
terms of tourist destinations, but if the natural, historic and
other cultural resources that attract tourists to Virginia are
not protected, this $14 billion dollar Virginia industry will
suffer as will the local economies that depend on these tourist
dollars.
There are qualitative as well as
quantitative consequences associated with the loss of important
conservation land resources. Open lands are important to air
and water quality. The 2002 Virginia Outdoors Plan recommends
that for environmental health reasons that tree canopies should
represent more than 40% of the spatial area. Yet between 1973 and
1997, tree canopy decreased 30% in the Chesapeake Bay region,
64% in the Washington Metropolitan region, and 24% in the
Roanoke area.
The Commonwealth of Virginia ranks in the
top ten among all states in globally rare plants and animals.
But of the 425 globally significant conservation sites
identified in Virginia, 61% are unprotected. A total of 125
species and exemplary natural communities have been identified
as likely to be lost in less than a decade if action is not
taken soon (Natural Heritage Technical Report 03-15).
The Chesapeake Bay is not only a valuable
state resource, it is truly a national treasure, but the health
of
