Wednesday marked the halfway point of Virginia’s 2020 General Assembly Session, a date known as ‘crossover.’ The House and Senate have each finished voting on the bills their members put forward, and now move on to consider legislation passed by the other body. While much legislating is left to be done, this is always a good time to provide an update about where various pieces of legislation stand.
Marco Sanchez
Local Land Conservation Surpasses 12,000 acres in 2019
In 2019, private landowners, working together with land trusts and public agencies, protected 12,475 acres of land in Albemarle, Clarke, Culpeper, Fauquier, Greene, Loudoun, Madison, Orange and Rappahannock counties. The 2019 conservation easements bring the total protected land in The Piedmont Environmental Council’s (PEC) nine-county region to 421,415 acres, accounting now for nearly 20 percent of the entire land area in the nine counties.
2020 General Assembly Session
With a new democratic majority in both the House and the Senate, there are new legislative priorities and an immense number of bills have been filed. Given this, we are working hard to track all of the relevant bills, as well as keep our issues in the minds of the legislators.
About the General Assembly
The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its bicameral body consists of the Virginia House of Delegates, with 100 members, and the Senate of Virginia, with 40 members.
Virginia Conservation Network (VCN)
PEC coordinates with our partners at the Virginia Conservation Network (VCN) on important statewide environmental issues—everything from clean energy and renewables to menhaden and Metro funding.
Gertraud Hechl
Gertraud Hechl joined PEC staff in the summer of 2019. Gertraud has a broad background in the arts and business and serves on several non-profit boards. She holds a degree in strategic management from Wirtschaftsuniversität, Vienna, where she also studied modern languages.
A Few Highlights from 2019
Through the generous support of our members and help from PEC’s partners, a lot of great things have happened this year! We’ve pulled together this quick list of some of the highlights from 2019 throughout our 9-county region.
Kendra Atkins
Kendra Atkins joined The Piedmont Environmental Council’s advancement team in December 2019.
Montpelier CEO Kat Imhoff to join The Piedmont Environmental Council
Piedmont Environmental Council President Chris Miller is pleased to announce the appointment of Kat Imhoff to the organization’s staff on Dec. 2. Imhoff joins the organization following seven years as president and CEO of James Madison’s Montpelier
2019 Photo Contest Winners & Finalists
We asked you to pick your favorite photos in four different categories: Beautiful Landscapes and Streetscapes, Native Plants and Wildlife, Outreach and Communications and the Youth Category. Congrats to Piedmont locals Cass Girvin, Susan Tucker and Ezra Staengl for their respective category wins!