Conserving Your Land

Find out more about permanently protecting your land with a Conservation Easement. 

Fenced in at Roundabout Meadows

Fenced in at Roundabout Meadows

Polluted water is not only bad for us and the environment, but it’s bad for livestock as well,” says Celia Vuocolo, habitat and stewardship specialist at PEC.

A significant stewardship project is wrapping up this fall at Roundabout Meadows, the 141- acre property near Gilbert’s Corner that was gifted to PEC in 2013. The project is focused on implementing agricultural Best Management Practices (BMPs) that will keep livestock away from the property’s streams and provide a clean source of water for cattle. As part of the effort, over 2 miles of fencing and almost a mile of pipeline plumbing for a watering system have been installed.

“Our long-term plan for Roundabout Meadows is to retain its agricultural use, and we want to do so in a manner that is in harmony with being good stewards of the land and water resources, while farming continues on the property,” says Michael Kane, director of conservation at PEC.

Renewed Accreditation

We are happy to announce our accreditation as a land trust was renewed in August 2016 — a mark of distinction in land conservation. Initially accredited in 2011, the renewal by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission signifies its continued confidence that PEC’s lands will be protected forever.

PEC Response to Threatening Online Posts

In the last couple of weeks, The Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) has been the subject of a number of articles published online. The articles relate to PEC’s monitoring and enforcement of a conservation easement on real property owned by Piedmont Agriculture Academy, LLC (“PAA”), of which Martha Boneta is a member. The history of this easement has been posted on PEC’s website for some time and can be found at this link: https://www.pecva.org/land-conservation/conserving-your-land/855-easement-on-ovoka

Making Progress at the Piedmont Overlook

Making Progress at the Piedmont Overlook

It’s been busy at the Overlook these past few months! PEC is in the final year of a cost-share agreement with the Natural Resources Conservation Service to improve the property’s habitat and increase its biodiversity. The mar­quee part of this grant is the creation of a 17-acre native grass and wildflower meadow on land that was formerly a pasture dominated by tall fescue.

Fracking and Conservation Easements?

Not a Good Fit

Next week, the Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF), a public agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the state's largest holder of conservation easements, will be reviewing a number of new properties for potential protection. Several of the easements they'll be considering would explicitly permit drilling for oil and gas, including the use of hydraulic fracturing, in areas that have little to no history of drilling.

Allowing this type of industrial mineral extraction on land that has been permanently protected with a conservation easement is contrary to the purpose of most easements.

Ask VOF to Take a Second Look