The Alliance is working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service and local land trusts Shenandoah Valley Conservancy and Potomac Conservancy on a program that offers landowners cash compensation in addition to the traditional tax credits for protecting the forests, streams, and farms that are important to them with permanent conservation easements.
Conservation easements are a proven strategy to permanently protect valuable farms and forests, streams and rivers. Easements provide the opportunity to ensure that management practices for clean water, healthy soils and wildlife habitat will continue with future generations of landowners.
Top photo: Bill and Laura Ellen Beeler Wade celebrate protection of their multi-generation farm in Shenandoah County.
Land Protection Stories
The River that Runs Through Us
Our adventures on the South Fork of the Shenandoah River, only a mile or so from our home of 50 years, began with a canoe trip when our boys were four and six. My sister and her family joined us and she and I (novices both) set out in a rented canoe. Not long into the trip, we tipped over trying to navigate some riffles. Luckily a nearby fisherman came to our rescue and helped us retrieve and drain our canoe. Of course, this whole fiasco happened within sight of my sons and their cousins who found our dunking and subsequent struggle hilarious!
Thus encouraged, the next summer we undertook a three-day canoe camping trip with our gear packed in black garbage bags and lashed into the canoes with clothesline. Despite rain, wet tents, and a lost fishing rod, the trip was enough of a success to prompt a second canoe-camp adventure the following year – this time with a spiffy upgrade of dry bags and bungee cords.
Years after the boys had grown and left home, we had the opportunity to buy a beautiful piece of river bottom land. Our stretch of river, hemmed in by mountains, is perhaps the most scenic section of Shenandoah’s South Fork and its beauty has been a daily gift running through our lives.
Board Member Christine Andreae (Warren) and her husband placed their river property under conservation easement and established a 50-foot-wide riparian buffer for a third of a mile along the river. Today they enjoy this special spot under the tree canopy now towering over their heads.
Forty Years on Mossy Creek
Forty years ago my wife Jane and I were searching for a rural property to purchase. After visiting several that we concluded would not be the right match, we learned of a property along Mossy Creek in Augusta County. When we pulled into the driveway, we looked at each other and said “unless the inside of the house is a dump, this is it.” We have lived here ever since and grow more attached to the property every year.
Mossy Creek is a beautiful and important spring-fed stream that benefits the greater environment, native plants and wild-life and provides enjoyable recreation for trout anglers. The stream is regarded as one of the most desirable fly fishing streams in Virginia
Forty years later, we still feel lucky to live in such a special spot. We particularly enjoy our evenings sitting by the creek and reflecting on the day, while watching for the birds, often seeing great blue heron and an occasional bald eagle, and enjoying the chirp of the spring peepers and rustlings of other wildlife moving about.
Seth Coffman with Trout Unlimited shows completed restoration along Eddie and Jane’s section of Mossy Creek.
Board Member Eddie Bumbaugh (Augusta) and his wife worked with Trout Unlimited on two streambank restoration projects and are currently working with neighboring landowners and SVCC partners to explore the possibility of creating a riparian easement to preserve the stream for the future and grant permanent angler access to the stream.