Annual Meeting 2005

On March 16 the Northern Neck Land Conservancy (NNLC) celebrated its first anniversary at a meeting in Warsaw at the Rappahannock Community College.

Mary Louisa Pollard, president, welcomed more than eighty supporters and friends of Northern Neck Land Conservancy.   Representatives from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, The Nature Conservancy and the Virginia Farm Bureau were also present and available to answer specific conservation questions after the meeting.  

In her remarks, Pollard reminded the group why preservation of open space in the Northern Neck is a worthy goal.  “All of us, ‘born here’s’ and ‘come here’s’ alike recognize the charm and unique qualities that make our region special.”  Pollard said, “In the next 30 years, 70 percent of the family-owned farms in the Northern Neck will change hands, and they represent sizable holdings of undeveloped land, fields, forests, marshes.  What happens to those lands will affect the agricultural community as well as the quality of life of all of us."  

The work of the Northern Neck Land Conservancy “is to help those who want to save their working family farm, forest or wetlands by creating land preservation agreements for their land, tailored to their needs.” 

In their first year, NNLC has received 38 inquiries from landowners seeking to restrict development on their properties for the long term. The organization is currently pursuing eighteen of those for possible preservation agreements, also called conservation easements. NNLC is working in partnership with Virginia Outdoors Foundation, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Middle Peninsula Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy and Northern Neck Audubon Society in these efforts.  

John Wolf of the Chesapeake Bay Program of the National Park Service presented a fascinating computer mapping program to show one way to look at bay preservation issues.  By taking geographic, demographic, biological, and cultural information and putting it into this format, he has been able to create a Resource Lands Assessment Survey.  This is a proactive, strategic and more holistic view to identify the most important areas to protect. It crosses jurisdictional boundaries and looks for multipurpose use of land. It addresses areas of critical habitat, water quality, economic sustainability (forest and farm products), cultural viability, and understanding development pressure. 

His results are brilliantly colored maps showing the best farming soils, the most important forested areas, most important areas for protection of water quality, and areas where the largest pressure for growth will be occurring.