The leader of an organization that educates American communities on the benefits of smart planning believes that desirable urban communities can play a role in promoting rural land conservation.
Our Work
Safeguarding the landscapes, communities and heritage of the Piedmont by involving citizens in public policy and land conservation. Learn more about our work by browsing the subject areas below and find out how to get involved!
Award-Winning Farmer Protects Farmland for Future Generations
This past summer, in an effort to preserve the prime farmland and help ensure continued operations, the Nixons chose to permanently protect 382 acres of their land through a conservation easement with the Piedmont Environmental Council, Culpeper Soil and Water Conservation District and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Groups Release Safety and Traffic Solutions for Route 15 North of Leesburg
With the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors scheduled to vote on a first phase widening of Route 15 for 3.6 miles north of Leesburg, a coalition of smart growth, conservation and preservation groups and numerous local residents are pressing the Board to instead adopt an approach that is safer, cheaper and more effective.
Fauquier County Updating the Rural Lands Plan
The Rural Lands Plan is a section of the Fauquier County Comprehensive Plan, and much as the name implies, it outlines land use policies and the desired future for the rural areas. This chapter is very important because over 90% of the County is planned to remain categorized as rural land. Although the majority of new growth is happening within the growth areas of the County (e.g. Warrenton, Bealeton, New Baltimore, etc.), about half of the nearly 70,000 residents of the county live in these rural areas. In addition, all residents of Fauquier are connected to the rural lands by locally grown goods, through tourism, and by simply driving through them.
The Larson Native Plant Garden
“We want the land to serve as a showcase for future workshops to educate the public on the use of natives to create backyard habitat,” said Larson.
A Ride to Surprise and Delight
About two dozen cyclists gathered on the evening of June 21, garlanded their bikes with lights and reflective decorations, and set out for a relaxed four-mile celebration of the Summer Solstice. The route through Charlottesville followed a combination of quiet neighborhood streets and roads with bike lanes. The colorful and musical procession elicited reactions of surprise and delight.
A Legacy of Love
Through the Headwaters Stream Initiative, an astounding 3,765 trees were planted on 16 acres the Goodall property in Madison County, including 4,600 linear feet of stream.
Larson Native Plant Garden Opening
With umbrellas in hand, attendees of the Larson Native Plant Garden Reception ventured out to admire the well-designed landscape around PEC’s headquarters office in Warrenton, Va. Named in honor of the organization’s former vice president, Doug Larson, the visionary of the project, the garden has 118 species of native perennials, woodies and grasses.
“It’s already proving to be an educational tool,” says Doug. “People in our beautiful front yard were reading the names of the plants and really taking it all in; and that’s just folks walking down the street. I think it’s going to show people in Warrenton what they can do with native plants.”
Loudoun Plans for More Scattered Development
The Loudoun County Comprehensive plan is being revised through a process called Envision Loudoun. It is a particularly important policy framework for a county like Loudoun, which is consistently one of the fastest growing jurisdictions in the U.S…Unfortunately, upon reading the released draft, I don’t believe it represents the majority of Loudoun resident’s values and interests expressed in the Envision Loudoun public input phase.
Your General Assembly Update
The beginning of spring marks the end of the 2018 Virginia General Assembly session. Well, sort of. In the case of the budget, there was no resolution, which means the fate of conservation funding and the general path forward is still up in the air. To address this, the Governor has announced that a special session will convene on April 11.
One of the bigger issues taking up bandwidth this year was Medicaid expansion. The House’s budget bill included the expansion, while the Senate’s bill did not — this set up a showdown in the budget conference committee. Due to this and other differences, the conferees were unable to come to an agreement, meaning it will be some time before we know what programs will be affected.