the Bay will further deteriorate if action
is not taken to improve water quality. One of the best ways to
protect the Bay is to prevent the urban conversion of open
lands that are part of the Bay watershed. In Virginia, the Chesapeake
Bay watershed represents 60% of the state’s land area.
The 2000 Chesapeake Bay Agreement that Virginia signed
committed the state to permanently protect from development 20%
of the land area in the Virginia portion of the watershed by
2010. We have five years and 400,000 acres left to go to meet
this obligation.
CALL TO ACTION
The statistics cited here are cause for
concern, but they also represent a call to action. Local
governments are political subdivisions of the Commonwealth and
therefore share responsibility for conserving natural and
cultural land resources for future generations. Only through cooperative
state and local land use planning and land conservation will
the citizens of Virginia be assured the clean air and clean
water mandated by Article XI of the Virginia Constitution. Our
working with local governments represents our best chance to
fulfill the prophecy promised by Article XI. VOF has partnered
with local governments for purchase of development rights
programs as well as cooperating on donated easements. The
challenge is clear, and working together VOF and local
governments can fashion
a conservation future where the whole is
truly more than just the sum of the parts. Neither partner can
be fully successful without the cooperation, coordination, and
collaboration of the other. Working together, VOF, conservation
landowners, and Virginia local governments can mold a
sustainable land use fabric that accommodates population growth
with appropriate reverence for heritage. The land conservation
challenge is great, but the rewards of meeting the challenge
pay perpetual dividends. 
For more information:
G. Robert Lee
VOF Executive Director
101 North 14th St.
17th Floor
Richmond, VA 23219
(804) 225-2147
www.virginiaoutdoorsfoundation.org
For a presentation on VOF/Local Government
heritage partnering contact Bob Lee at
804-225-2147 or blee@vofonline.org
804-225-2147 or blee@vofonline.org