Monroe County’s green pasturelands, the bank of the Gauley River where a father and daughter cast their fishing rods for trout, a patch of green grass in Huntington where two children kick a soccer ball, the eastern panhandle’s farmland where a woman leans over to drop seeds into the soil, a Tucker County mountain covered with a few of the state’s remaining red spruce, and a forested backyard home to hundreds of songbirds. These are just a few of the special places that make West Virginia West Virginia.

Looking Upriver from the Bridge at Sharp's Tunnel 11 miles north of Marlinton on the Greenbrier River Trail

• successfully partnered with private landowners to protect nearly 500 acres of land,
• helped to facilitate the protection of special places like the viewshed seen from Coopers Rock State Forest overlook,
• consulted with over 75 private landowners interested in conserving their land,
• organized a seminar on the tax advantages of conservation ease-ments by nationally renowned attorney Stephen Small,
• given educational presentations to citizens, conservation organizations, and others,
• reached out to citizens, businesses, and other conservation organizations at events like the West Virginia Conference on the Environment and the Land Trust Alliance’s National Land Trust Rally, and
• held public meetings around the state to find out which lands you want to protect.

      Now the West Virginia Land Trust has a new Executive Director (see page 2) and an office in Charleston, and is actively working to help landowners protect their property. The West Virginia Land Trust is also developing plans for the coming year to effectively assist citizens to take conservation measures into their own hands. That means you! We want you to have a voice in the land use choices that will determine the future character of West Virginia communities. We hope this issue of the ViewShed will help you to learn more about the West Virginia Land Trust, land conservation, and how you can get involved in efforts to protect special places in your own community.

Vibrant Colors Herald the Coming Cold Weather

From the Director’s Desk

      A creek runs through my grandparents’ land – from the mountaintop down through the forest, along the edge of the garden, and into the green grass. I used to put my grandmother's black rubber boots on, climb down into the creek, and follow it from the grass towards the mountain slope. When I close my eyes, I can feel the cool air running through the creek bed and I can see the crawdaddies poking out from beneath the stones. This is my special place.
      A special place is more than land and water. A special place tugs you to a time and to a people, brings you to peace, and leaves you open to life. It is a place where you feel connected to your own life and to the life around you. A farmer's special place may be his field, a wildlife watcher's a forest, a city dweller's may be a tiny garden patch, a hiker's an entire expanse of mountains, a historian's the site of a major Civil War battle, a child's may be a field of green where she can run and play. West Virginians have many special places. That is why the West Virginia Land Trust is here.

The Land Trust Community The West Virginia Land Trust is part of a growing community of land trusts throughout the state and the country. America's over 900 land trusts have helped to protect millions of acres of land. Land trusts have been successful because of their ability to respond creatively and effectively to local conservation needs. In West Virginia, citizens have formed land trusts to deal with conservation needs in particular regions of the state, in specific watersheds, and in areas of high ecological value. These include land trusts such as the West Virginia Cave Conservancy, Cacapon & Lost Rivers Land Trust, Greenbrier Land Conservation Trust, Harpers Ferry Land Trust, Indian Creek Conservancy, Land Trust of the Eastern Panhandle, and the West Virginia Chapter of the The Nature Conservancy. For land trust contact information, log on to the Land Trust Alliance's web site (www.lta.org). The land trusts of West Virginia work to ensure that land throughout the state continues to contribute to the community well being by providing scenic beauty, water quality, wildlife diversity, recreational opportunities, and cultural and historic legacies.

      The West Virginia Land Trust works to help West Virginians protect those special places. I am thrilled to become a part of such good work, such needed work. I grew up in West Virginia and experienced the life and beauty of the mountains and valleys. I stomped through my grandparent's creek in Boone County, watched hawks near Peters Mountain, hiked in Kanawha and Pocahontas Counties, and admired the farmland as my family toured the eastern panhandle. Yet there are many more special places left unprotected and open to unwanted development. I do not know, nor could I ever know, all of those places. But if I can get to know a handful of the people who love these lands, then maybe the West Virginia Land Trust - along with citizens from across the state - can help to protect these special places.
      Protecting farmlands, forests, urban green spaces, and other natural areas takes the imagination, commitment, and hard work of whole communities. That is why the West Virginia Land Trust is reaching out to you. Your support is critical to making this good work happen. We want to hear from you, to learn of the lands you want to protect, and to welcome you as a member of the West Virginia Land Trust. Together, we will keep our communities healthy and livable for our children and grandchildren.

     Beth Wheatley

 

People to Land A Look at the Hodges Property Along the Cacapon River       The Hodges family property stretches along the beautiful Cacapon River in Hampshire County. The family named the 277.5 acre mixed deciduous and oak-pine forest the Hodges-Keville Preserve after donating a conservation easement to the West Virginia Land Trust in 1999. When asked why his family decided to protect the property with an easement, John Hogdes Sr. replied "This has been a special place in my family’s life since we discovered it in the early 1960’s while canoeing on the Cacapon River. We want to see it preserved in its natural state, with a minimum of human interference. Hopefully others will participate in a similar way, or in other ways, to assure that at least a portion of our great natural heritage is protected in perpetuity."       The children of John I. Hodges, Sr. – Shirley Costley and John Hodges, Jr. – now own the land. John Hodges, Jr., better known as Jack, is a wildlife biologist and pilot for the United States Fish & Wildlife Service. Shirley Costley is retired and lives in Oregon. Mr. Hodges, Sr. notes that the family roots are in West Virginia where his parents were born, raised, and educated.       The Hodges-Keville Preserve consists of riparian habitat and a forested hillside that is primarily covered with sugar maple on the lower slope and gradually grades into hickory, Chestnut oak, and Virginia pine. Upper slopes are extremely steep and rocky, and in many locations, form boulder fields and variations of talus slope, with scattered mountain laurel thickets in the understory. Turkey, deer, fox, flying squirrels, owls, hawks, song-birds, and numerous other smaller animals make their home on the Hodges family property.

West Virginians Say Land Conservation
is Important – and
West Virginia’s Private Landowners
Are Key to Conserving Land       West Virginians feel strongly about protecting the state’s greatest resource – the life and beauty of the mountains and valleys. In February of 2000, The Nature Conservancy of West Virginia and the West Virginia Land Trust sponsored a telephone survey among a representative sample of 507 voters in West Virginia. Peter Hart Research Associates, Inc. conducted the poll. This survey found that seven in ten (69%) voters rate preserving forests, mountains, and natural areas as a very important issue facing the state.
      West Virginians have good reason to see land conservation as an important issue. Less than 9% of West Virginia's total land area is in public ownership. Private landowners steward most of the state's farmland, wildlife habitat, forests, watersheds, wetlands, urban green spaces, and historic landscapes. Much of this private land contributes to community well being by providing scenic beauty, water quality, wildlife diversity, recreational opportunities, and cultural and historic legacies. The future of West Virginia?s special places, and whether or not they will be conserved for future generations, will be determined by private landowners.
      Yet many private landowners are not aware of their land conservation options. They may not know, for instance, that a conservation easement can protect their land permanently and allow the land to remain in private ownership. They do not realize that conservation easements are extremely flexible, allowing them to identify specific ways in which the property will be used while preserving conservation values. And conservation easements are not the only tool in the private landowner’s conservation toolbox.
      One of the primary roles of the West Virginia Land Trust is to educate private landowners – as well as communities, public agencies, attorneys, assessors, financial planners, and others – about their conservation options. To fulfill this important educational role, the West Virginia Land Trust will explore one land conservation tool in each issue of the Viewshed. In this issue and the next, we will look at conservation easements.

What is a Conservation Easement?       Donating a conservation easement to a qualified conservation organization, such as the West Virginia Land Trust, protects your land permanently and allows the land to remain in private ownership. Working with the Land Trust, the landowner identifies specific ways in which the property will be used while preserving conservation values. Easements ordinarily prohibit activities like industrial, commercial, and intensive residential development while allowing agriculture, forestry, and recreation. Terms of the easement can be flexible and tailored to the landowner’s needs and to the particular conservation values of the land. Under conservation easements, the landowners may continue to live on, enjoy, and manage the land; sell it; or pass it on to their heirs. The easement is legally binding on all future landowners. If conservation easements meet standards established by the Internal Revenue Service, landowners may also benefit by receiving tax benefits.

      The West Virginia Land Trusts holds conservation easements on three properties. Each of these easements was written specifically to meet the needs of the landowner and to protect the conservation values of the land. One of the Land Trust’s easements protects a working farm in Harding County, another protects a 101-acre nature preserve on Cheat Lake, and the third easement protects a forested property along the Cacapon River. The West Virginia Land Trust is responsible for upholding the integrity of each of these conservation easements by operating a solid land stewardship program and enforcing the covenants of the easement. The land-owners of each of these properties have said the benefit of donating an easement is simply knowing that their land will be protected forever.
      The West Virginia Land Trust knows that land conservation is important to citizens of this state. We want to work with landowners and others to open the conservation toolbox and we look forward to crafting conservation strategies that meet private landowners’ and communities’ needs.