Gift Saves Albemarle Land / Nature Conservancy Will Use Some of the Acreage to Create a Mature Forest
Posted on: Tuesday, 7 March 2006, 12:00 CST
By CARLOS SANTOS
The Nature Conservancy in Virginia has received a donation that will protect almost 1,600 acres in Albemarle County and allow it to start an old-growth forest.
The gift, from two landowners who wish to remain anonymous, consists of a conservation easement on about 1,200 acres and an additional 378 acres that was given outright to the conservancy.
The property is adjacent to the historic mansion of Castle Hill.
"They decided that rather then develop it, they wanted to protect it," said Ridge Schuyler, director of the Conservancy's Piedmont Program. A 24-lot subdivision had been proposed for part of the 378- acre Walnut Mountain tract.
"That 1,600 hundred acres had been a worry to us," Schuyler said. "That one stuck out. That someone would come in and develop it."
Though conservation easements lower the resale value of land, it essentially prohibits development. The conservancy is a nonprofit organization that obtains land or easements to protect land and water quality.
Though it may take 100 years, the conservancy plans to grow an ecologically mature forest on the 378 acres, which will be called Walnut Mountain Preserve.
Schuyler said the area has productive soil, which first drew wealthy landowners to build historic homes, such as Castle Hill, along its ridges.
Castle Hill was built in 1764 by Thomas Walker and was also the home of William Cabell Rives, a lawyer, diplomat and politician born in Nelson County. The house is privately held.
That rich soil will nurture the proposed old-growth forest, Schuyler said. The current stand of trees on the 378 acres will be thinned to give healthy trees room to grow. Invasive species will be removed.
"There's very little old-growth forest in the Piedmont," Schuyler said. "We have few examples of the wild forests of old in Virginia. This acquisition moves us toward restoring ecological balance and improving the composition and growth of native hardwood forests."
The conservancy, whose state chapter is based in Charlottesville, now has about 4,600 acres in Albemarle County protected by conservation easements and owns about 930 acres outright. Statewide, the conservancy has just over 50,000 acres protected under conservation easements.
Contact staff writer Carlos Santos at csantos@timesdispatch.com or (434) 295-9542.
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO, MAP
Source: Richmond Times - Dispatch
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