Virginia Outdoors Foundation

The Virginia Outdoors Foundation is a quasi-state agency formed by the Virginia General Assembly in 1966 "to promote the preservation of open space lands and to encourage private gifts of money, securities, land or other property to preserve the natural, scenic, historic, open-space and recreational areas of the Commonwealth." It currently owns 3,366 acres (13.62 km2) of public land[1] and holds and manages conservation easements on approximately 780,000 acres (3,200 km2) of private land.[2]

The Virginia Outdoors Foundation is governed and administered by a board of seven at-large trustees appointed by Virginia governors for four-year staggered terms. The sitting governor appoints a chairman from among the seven trustees.[3]

Some of the properties that the Virginia Outdoors Foundation currently protects through conservation easements include Carvins Cove Natural Reserve[4] and Mill Mountain[5] owned by the City of Roanoke, Wildwood Park[6] in the City of Radford, Shirley Plantation[7] in Charles City County, James Madison's Montpelier[8] in Orange County, the Hermitage Museum and Gardens[9] in the City of Norfolk, and more than 4,000 acres of land along the Rappahannock River owned by the City of Fredericksburg.[10]

As of 2008, 20 percent of the land in Clarke County, Virginia was covered by conservation easements.[11]

References

  1. ↑ VOF-owned properties
  2. ↑ Virginia Outdoors Foundation conservation easement statistics, broken down by locality
  3. ↑ Virginia Outdoors Foundation board of trustees
  4. ↑ Adams, Mason. "Easement protects land at Carvins Cove". The Roanoke Times. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
  5. ↑ Harvey, Neil. "Kaine announces easements to protect Mill Mountain". The Roanoke Times. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
  6. ↑ Matzke-Fawcett, Amy. "Radford puts park in conservation easement". The Roanoke Times. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
  7. ↑ Shirley Plantation, Governor Kaine Announces Shirley Plantation Easement Donation.
  8. ↑ Schemmer, Clint. "Montpelier land being saved". The Free Lance-Star. The Free Lance-Star Publishing Co. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
  9. ↑ McGarvey, Jason. "VOF’s first easement in Norfolk protects a cultural and natural gem". Virginia Outdoors Foundation. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  10. ↑ City of Fredericksburg, City Manager's office.
  11. ↑ Oleniacz, Laura (October 20, 2008). "One-fifth of Clarke is protected". The Winchester Star. Retrieved 2008-10-20.

External links


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