Dear Friends,

Innovation and relentless implementation. The combination of these two qualities is what makes The Piedmont Environmental Council particularly special in creating the space, the possibility and the foundation for conservation outcomes that endure. Sustained progress takes time, especially when you are trying to change land management practices or instill a conservation mindset. It can be advised by science and supported by access to resources, but it relies on an openness to new ideas and a steadfast commitment to implementation by individuals and families over generations. And, increasingly, it requires planning, investment and immediate action to steward and protect what has already been conserved.

That’s why our Annual Gathering at Eldon Farm on June 8 is so interesting and important this year. We’ll be celebrating a lifetime of work and vision of the Akre family, who are generously and carefully stewarding a 7,100-acre plot of land for the greater good. Built to test and demonstrate a new approach to the future of conservation, the Akre’s plans for Eldon Farm grew from three years of planning, drawing on generations of thinking about sustainability and led by one of the world’s preeminent landscape architects, Thomas Woltz. And the plans are girded by partnerships and the additional legal, technological and financial resources to endure for another two generations.

In the United States, we benefit from people and families innovating and collaborating on broader community-wide efforts that complement other public and private projects. The land at Eldon Farm connects the lands and ecosystems of Shenandoah National Park, Old Rag, and the Virginia Rapidan Wildlife Management Area to private lands conserved along the Hazel, Hughes, Rose and Rapidan tributaries that join to form the Upper Rappahannock watershed.

Importantly, the dramatic effort at Eldon Farm can be successful, at least in part, because thousands of other families — in Rappahannock County, in other areas of the Piedmont, and in the Shenandoah Valley adjoining Shenandoah National Park and George Washington National Forest — have also committed to the same set of ideas and a collective vision. The challenge of engaging, educating and empowering successive generations and new residents and decision makers is PEC’s essential work, amplified by the partnership of dozens of other organizations. After 50 years, our collective and cumulative impact is significant, dramatically visible on a global basis.

At the current scale of nearly 600,000 acres of conserved land in the PEC service area and millions of acres along the Appalachian Corridor, the work of PEC and our conservation partners is observable from space. During our annual meeting last year, Dr. Travis Belote’s keynote address showed, via satellite, the effects of this conservation on wildlife corridors and confirmed that the greater Shenandoah ecosystem is in the top 20% of global priorities for biodiversity, carbon capture and clean drinking water.

Just as important as the land, water, and biodiversity impacts of our work are the continuing and lasting benefits of community engagement and participation. The investment in PEC and conservation has inspired a higher level of community engagement across a range of issues, a diverse ecosystem of civic and social welfare organizations that complement ongoing land use planning and conservation efforts. We see this every day in your active participation in local government and civic organizations. The counties within PEC’s service area have high rates of voter participation year after year.

As a result, our communities are places people want to live in, visit and return to again and again. They are growing, arguably in a more sustainable and resilient way, faster than the state as a whole. Compared to the rest of Virginia and the rest of the U.S., the Virginia Piedmont has the communities people choose to move to, visit, enjoy, and invest in over time.

Sincerely,

Chris Miller, President

This article appeared in the 2025 Summer edition of The Piedmont Environmental Council’s member newsletter, The Piedmont View. If you’d like to become a PEC member or renew your membership, please visit pecva.org/join.