For the Love of the Land features 100 conservation success stories from across Virginia, representing every legislative district—a sampling from among thousands of places in the Commonwealth that are now protected forever. At a time when many of the special places in Virginia could easily be lost, these stories remind us why land conservation is so important.

Using a value transfer approach, this study leverages the results of pre-existing studies to quantify the estimated annual contribution of nine such natural services – water quality, water supply, pollination, recreation, forest products, farm products, disturbance prevention, habitat, and carbon sequestration – to be approximately $21.8 billion.