Page 26 – Virginia Outdoors Foundation

VOF to host fishing and painting events at Hayfields as planning process continues

*250 rainbow and golden rainbow trout were stocked for the June Fishing Day.*

The Virginia Outdoors Foundation will be opening Hayfields Farm in Highland County to the public for two community events in June.

The first event will be a free fishing day on Saturday, June 8, from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on a portion of the one-mile stretch of the Bullpasture River that runs through the property.

The morning will be reserved for anglers with children, so that youth have the first opportunity to catch some of the 250 rainbow and golden rainbow trout that have been stocked. After 12:00 p.m., the river will be open to anyone. The creel limit will be two trout per angler. The event coincides with Free Fishing Days sponsored by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, so anglers will not need a license.

Hayfields Farm is located at 524 Hayfields Lane, approximately seven miles south of McDowell on Bullpasture River Road. For questions about the fishing day, contact Harry Hibbitts, hhibbitts@vofonline.org, (540) 430-0292.

Later in June, on Friday the 28th, VOF will open Hayfields from dawn until dusk for painters participating in the Highland County Artists’ Weekend, sponsored by the Highland County Arts Council.

Painters of all experience levels will be welcome to paint independently or with friends in a “plein air” setting at Hayfields and other designated spaces throughout the county. The event will culminate with a “wet-paint show and sale” open to the public on Sunday afternoon from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Highland Center in Monterey.

Highland County Artists’ Weekend registration is open through June 12. Registration forms can be found at www.highlandcounty.org. To find out more contact Liz Delahoussaye, edelahoussaye@yahoo.com, (540) 468-2916

The events are an opportunity for locals to enjoy Hayfields while VOF continues its long-term management planning process for the 1,034-acre property.

Hayfields Farm was acquired by the foundation in 2017 as mitigation for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline crossing nine VOF easements in High, Bath, and Augusta counties.

VOF initiated planning for the property in 2018 by seeking community and stakeholder input on potential future uses of the farm that could benefit the public, while also protecting the natural resources on the property.

Working with a firm called Stantec, in October 2018 the foundation held a community engagement workshop at the Highlands Center and heard from citizens and community leaders about their aspirational goals for the property, as well as the region’s overall needs. Economic development, public access, and preservation emerged as central themes from the forum. Discussion of potential uses ranged from a state park to an agricultural research facility to a health and wellness facility serving youth and wounded veterans.

Input received from the community and from a survey to potential partners was compiled in a report, which can be downloaded here.

As a next step, VOF is using the community and partner input to draft a Request for Interest that will be announced in the coming weeks. The purpose of the request will be to spark further dialogue and creative thinking on how Hayfields could be managed for both economic development and conservation. VOF will also continue conversations with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries about the property’s potential as state-owned public land. “Because there is no pressure to rush the process, we have an opportunity to be thoughtful and creative about how Hayfields can best benefit the public,” says Martha Little. “This is a remarkable property, with a lot of high conservation value and potential to meet multiple needs for the region. We want to make sure we get it right, and that starts by bringing as many stakeholders as possible to the table.”

Gravely Nature Preserve, Henry County

Situated a few miles south of Martinsville on the Smith River, the 75-acre Gravely Nature Preserve has many stories to tell.

One of the original 19th-century tobacco barns on the preserve.

One of these comes from the old tobacco barns and a family cemetery on the property, which bear witness to its 19th-century history as a tobacco plantation.

Another is told by the rich populations of plants and animals that have reclaimed the property since, which speak of nature’s resilience.

Finally, the park amenities that exist on the property now, including an outdoor education center and 2.5 miles of trails with interpretive signage, are testimony to how a local non-profit, the county government, and the community can come together for everyone’s benefit.

This last story starts with Richard P. Gravely, the industrialist and amateur archeologist who owned the property, and whose will provided for its preservation as “a wildlife habitat and nature conservancy.” His heirs donated the property to the Virginia Museum of Natural History and helped to place it under an open-space easement with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation in 1993.

When the museum wanted to sell the protected property in 2008, the Dan River Basin Association (DRBA) saw an opportunity.

“As a natural space, the ecosystem benefits the property provides to the communities of the Dan River Basin are worth preserving, so we approached Henry County Parks and Recreation and they agreed to purchase it,” says Brian Williams, program manager at the DRBA.

A short stretch of trail along Eggleston Falls Road.

“A grant from the Harvest Foundation helped to finance the creation of the preserve, but the rest came from Parks and Recreation and donations in-kind,” Williams says. “Henry County and many volunteers from DRBA contributed in-kind donations for trail construction and maintenance.”

The preserve adds a unique experience to what Parks and Recreation was already managing for public access, says director Roger Adams. “There are 27 parks in Henry County, but most of them have playgrounds, playing fields, and other sports amenities. Gravely is completely different; it’s like an informal botanical garden.”

Spring blooms such as toadshade trillium, bloodroot, and trout-lily are abundant on the property, along with a variety of ferns. But the botanical highlight of the preserve is probably the Rhododendron Trail. In the spring, visitors can pass through a tunnel of flowering rhododendron on their way down a sloping trail to the river. Mountain laurel is plentiful on the slopes, as well.

Hiking clubs meet on the property to walk the trails, and boaters can enjoy the lush views by putting in nearby at the Marrowbone Creek Access and then floating down the Smith River Blueway to Mitchell Bridge or North Carolina.

While people from all over enjoy the recreational opportunities Gravely provides, the preserve remains a community project, Williams says. “Even now, major maintenance needs are handled by Parks and Recreation, but volunteers take care of daily maintenance and clean-up. It’s the community’s park. People have taken responsibility for it.”

Wes Kent, Augusta County

Wes Kent has always had farming in his sights. “My father didn’t own a farm, but he managed one, and it’s what I always wanted to do,” he says. “Being able to feed people and produce a quality product is important to me.”

Kent owns and runs Winding River Farms in Augusta County, which he placed under easement with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation in 2011. “We need to save farmland, and an easement can be the perfect tool,” he states.

The easement protects 180 acres, with more than 117 acres of high-quality soils, and includes a mile of frontage on the Middle River. Kent prevents runoff from his farm from going into the river by maintaining a forested buffer along much of the riverbank and fencing the cattle out of the rest.

The tax credits he earned from the easement enabled Kent to buy a second farm in 2011 that had already been protected through a VOF easement.

The adjacent properties now form a 300-acre block of protected farmland, with about 130 head of dairy cows, 40 angus cow/calf pairs, and two turkey houses that produce about 100,000 turkeys a year. He also grows corn, alfalfa, and hay on another 350 acres, which he leases.

To stay competitive, he’s made technological improvements to his operation. “I milked in a parlor for 15 years, every day, twice a day, all morning and half of the evening. It was physically demanding,” he says. Now Kent has two robots that milk the cows. “It’s better for me and it’s better for them. The cows get to decide when they need milking, which is less stressful to them and leads to a better product.”

His years of hard work and innovation have been recognized with an environmental stewardship award from the Headwaters Soil and Water Conservation District, a “Friend of the Environment” award from Cargill, and the Virginia State Farm Bureau’s Young Farmer Achievement Award.

This year, he is one of four recipients of a Producer of the Year Award by the Maryland and Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association. The designation recognizes members who produce high-quality milk while demonstrating outstanding overall farm management, environmental sustainability, and community engagement.

The easement lets him keep doing what he loves doing, Kent says. “It’s beautiful land, and it’s going to stay that way. I couldn’t ask for a better place to work.”

200+ species identified at first-ever Bull Run Mountains “BioBlitz”

The Virginia Outdoors Foundation partnered with the Bull Run Mountains Conservancy and the Clifton Institute on April 28 to host our inaugural BioBlitz at the Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve. The event involved surveying flora and fauna in the Jackson Hollow section of the preserve to better document the biodiversity of this ecological gem, which is located just 35 miles west of Washington, D.C.

Unlike the southern section of the preserve, Jackson Hollow does not have regular public access. Instead, because of its rich biodiversity, this section is utilized for scientific research, stream restoration work, brook trout reintroduction at Catharpin Creek, and the BioBlitz.

Assisting with the BioBlitz were volunteer experts from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, Virginia Native Plant Society, Prince William County, the Mycological Association of Washington, and National Geographic Explorers. Even the mayor of Warrenton, a fungi enthusiast, joined in. These experts led participants in six different surveys:

Bird survey
Amphibian and reptile survey
Arthropod survey
Fungi survey
Plant survey
Moth and nocturnal species survey

Participants observed 281 different organisms, of which 226 were identified down to the species level. A full list of all organisms observed can be found here.

“This was quite the accomplishment for our first ever BioBlitz,” says preserve manager Joe Villari. “Amazingly, it is only a snapshot of the biodiversity that the preserve protects. Discovering and identifying the species within the preserve is crucial to conducting informed management decisions and protecting this delicate ecosystem.”

VOF and its partners will conduct the BioBlitz again in 2020 with the hope of expanding our species list. To learn more about this and other programs at the preserve, visit http://www.bullrunmountains.org/.

New easement in Southampton supports bat habitat, adds canoe access on the Nottoway River

A portion of the Nottoway River, which fronts the property for about two miles.

Critical habitat for a threatened bat species will be preserved thanks to a new open-space easement recorded by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation in Southampton County.

The easement on the “Shand’s Tract,” as it’s called, was supported by $700,000 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, North American Wetlands Conservation Act and $50,000 from the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund, which is administered by the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities and provides grants to protect environmentally sensitive bottomland and wetland forests in North Carolina and Virginia.

The property includes 8,000 feet of frontage along the Nottoway River, as well as 425 acres of cypress and tupelo swampland. In addition to helping protect the tract, Enviva funds will be used to enhance public access by supporting the acquisition of a boat ramp that will be owned by the town of Courtland, giving the public permanent access to the waterway.

The cypress swamp forest that will be preserved is of high ecological and conservation value. These bottomlands provide shelter for several species of bats most impacted by the white-nose syndrome — a fungal disease associated with the death of millions of bats. During late spring and summer, bats rely on the large mature trees for roosting and for rearing their young. The bats also provide a natural and economic benefit to farmers and foresters in the community by consuming tons of harmful insects and pests.

“In addition to providing a home for the bats, the riparian river frontage is a high priority watershed, as it is home to at least two documented threatened aquatic species and multiple neo-tropical and migratory bird species,” said VOF Executive Director Brett Glymph. “We so appreciate the funding made available through the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund to conserve important habitats like this one in our state, as well as all of our partners in this project, including Ducks Unlimited and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”

“At the Endowment, we are committed to both forests and the people that rely on them,” said Carlton Owen, President and CEO of the U. S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities. “These forests that will be protected are of significant value not only because they are home to threatened and endangered species, but because they also provide flood mitigation services and contribute to the quality of life for the communities that surround them.”

Virginia Military Institute Cadets Give Back at VOF’s House Mountain Reserve

Cadets and VOF staff Tommy Oravetz get ready for their workday on House Mountain.

Armed with loopers and handsaws, cadets from Virginia Military Institute (VMI) helped to clear a section of trail in VOF’s 875-acre House Mountain Reserve last week as part of their spring field training exercises.

The trail has become clogged with mountain laurel, rhododendron branches, small trees, and debris from storms.

“If you’re over six feet tall, you have to duck. The trail corridor has gotten really tight,” says Tommy Oravetz, land conservation specialist in VOF’s Blacksburg office. “We don’t have dedicated staff right now to maintain the property, so partnerships with the surrounding community are really important.”

VMI cadets have a special relationship with the mountain, says Cadet Emily Clark, a senior who helped organize the trip. “We hike up the mountain as part of team-building exercises in our first year, and it becomes part of our lives here. It’s always right there. It felt good to help out. I would 100% do it again.”

VOF opens 2019 RFP for Forest CORE Fund grants

The Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF) is accepting proposals for the second round of grants for the Forest CORE Fund covering the Mountain Valley Pipeline region. This round seeks to disburse $3 million to offset forest fragmentation caused by pipeline construction. The request for proposals, which includes guidelines and application materials, may be found online at https://www.vof.org/terra/fcf-mvp/ or obtained from program manager Emily White. The deadline for applications is June 28, 2019.

While the focus of the grant program is to protect large tracts of high quality forest, the program also incorporates community support in its evaluation process. Changes to the program adopted by the VOF Board of Trustees in March are designed to increase emphasis on community support. Trustees voted to allocate no less than 20 percent of the funds made available toward projects that have great importance to the community and show a high level of community support. Projects will be scored on their ecological significance, as well as their impact to the community and their capacity to address and incorporate environmental justice.

VOF will host a workshop for applicants on May 8 at the Vinton Library in Roanoke County to discuss the project selection process in detail and answer questions from potential applicants. Interested attendees need to register by close of business on May 1 as space is limited. Click here for event details, including a link to register.

Grant criteria was developed with input from a broad group of stakeholders in the Mountain Valley Pipeline region. Stakeholders include all directly impacted localities, planning districts, soil and water conservation districts, land trusts covering the region, local foresters, as well as the U.S. Forest Service. In addition, input was sought from Virginia’s United Land Trusts, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the Nature Conservancy, the Conservation Fund, and the other mitigation partners named in the agreements (U.S. Endowment for Forestry & Communities, the Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts, and Virginia Endowment for the Environment).

VOF will continue to seek and welcome input from stakeholders as it refines the Forest CORE Fund programs for future grant rounds. Anyone interested in providing feedback should email Emily White at ewhite@vofonline.org, or submit their comments through our online form at https://www.vof.org/comments/.

Rust Nature Sanctuary, Loudoun County

When she decided to place her home and its 63 acres of forest and meadow under easement with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation in 1994, Margaret Rust was beginning to feel surrounded. The town of Leesburg had recently built houses near her property line to the east, and a 600-lot residential development was slated to break ground to the west.

“This is a beautiful, unique and well-balanced habitat that I would like to save as a refuge for all types of wildlife, as it is now, and I earnestly believe, should remain,” she wrote in a letter to VOF’s board. “It is the future of the land that I am trying to protect.”

That future is now, and Rust’s foresight spearheaded a partnership between VOF, the Audubon Naturalist Society, and NOVA Parks that safeguards natural space in an area that has seen record residential development for the past 50 years.

“Loudoun is one of the fastest growing counties in Virginia,” says Erika Richardson, VOF’s assistant director of stewardship for the Piedmont Region. “This permanently protected property, located near the town of Leesburg, gives the public access to 68 acres of open space, which is a great benefit to the citizens of the Commonwealth.”

The partnership began not long after Rust’s death, when her heirs donated the VOF-protected property to the Audubon Naturalist Society (ANS). ANS’s mission is to inspire residents of the greater Washington, DC, region to appreciate, understand, and protect their natural environment.

ANS expanded this mission at Rust in 2008, when the organization bought an adjacent 5 acres with wetland to the west of the property, helping to preserve breeding grounds for the rare Jefferson salamander. The new land required additional stewardship resources, and in 2013, the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority (NOVA Parks) came on board to manage the grounds.

The partnership “allows both organizations to play to our strengths,” ANS Executive Director Lisa Alexander states. “NOVA Parks provides outstanding stewardship of the building and grounds. Audubon Naturalist Society delivers top-notch environmental education programs to children, families, and teachers.”

Working with Loudoun County Public Schools, ANS runs the Rust Watershed Adventures program, which trains elementary teachers to lead their classes through hands-on learning activities on the Rust property. The children visit Rust Nature Sanctuary on field trips where they learn to monitor water quality and identify the small aquatic insects that depend on the watershed.

More than 1,600 Loudoun County students visited Rust in 2018 alone. With the help of ANS staff and local stormwater engineers, the students and teachers take what they learn back to their communities and implement projects around their own schools to improve water quality.

Preschool children and their parents can take advantage of the resources ANS provides at Rust, as well. The Fresh Air Kids program is designed for children 5 or younger and includes nature-based crafts and a hike on the property.

Paul McCray manages the grounds for NOVA Parks and has seen kids discover ways to become watershed stewards every year. “My favorite project was with one elementary school group,” he says. “They planted a line of 60 trees across the meadow as a corridor so that birds and small mammals could use it to reach the wetland pond from the forested area. These were kids who lived in town and who had never gotten the chance to plant a tree before.”

For area hikers of all ages, 2.5 miles of trails on the property lead through diverse habitats: pine and hardwood forests, a pond, and a 15-acre meadow with persimmon trees. “You’re just 200 feet from the town limits, but you feel like you’re out in the country,” McCray says. Interpretive signs along the way educate visitors about wildlife and forest succession.

The trails are open daily to the public from dawn-to-dusk. For information, go to https://www.novaparks.com/parks/rust-sanctuary/things-to-do.

Rust Manor House hosts weddings, receptions, parties, and meetings. For information, go to rustmanor.com.

For information about Rust Watershed Adventures, email Susanne.Ortmann@ANShome.org.

For more information and dates for ANS’s Fresh Air Kids class, go to https://anshome.org/parents/.

Sally Johnson, Washington County

After twelve years of running her family farm, Sally Johnson still sounds surprised to be there. “It was not something I was thinking to do. When I was a teenager I couldn’t get away fast enough,” she says.

When her father died and her mother needed help, however, she took over and has never looked back. Now a certified “Master Cattle Operator” through Virginia Tech, Johnson runs a 60-head heifer operation on the 60 acres where her father used to farm tobacco and raise dairy cattle.

“Initially, I was pretty green,” she says. “I thought I would do what my father had done, but he didn’t seek out resources or they weren’t available. But with modern-day technology and me being persistent, I found ways to make improvements.”

Family support was key. “I could not have done any of this without my family,” Johnson says. “It really helped that my brother was already farming. He was able to help me develop a stable business model, because I was determined not to go into debt.”

Johnson was also determined that the farm stay a farm. After seeing a residential subdivision constructed on land along the northern edge of the property, formerly part of her father’s land, she knew she needed to make sure that what was left was protected. Through a grant from VOF’s Preservation Trust Fund, she placed an open-space easement on the property in 2017.

Restrictions in the easement forbid division of the property, limit the collective footprint of buildings and structures, and protect the unique topography, including a cave containing a karst ecosystem evaluated by specialists from Virginia’s Natural Heritage Program.

Other language in the easement deed inspired Johnson to go even further in her conservation efforts, as VOF easement specialist Neal Kilgore recalls. “We were going over deed language and came to the part about the alternative energy structures that could be built on the property,” he says. “She told me she was really interested in solar, and I was able to put her in touch with some contractors who could help her.”

Now the farm, along with Johnson’s residence, is completely off the grid. “She’s got the Cadillac of solar systems,” Kilgore says. “She has 36 solar panels, and she can monitor the energy production on each one. If one goes out, she knows right away which one it is.”

Johnson has also worked with the USDA’s Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program to fence her cattle out of the pond on the property and install water troughs and fencing. She has planted more trees in consultation with the Virginia Department of Forestry.

“You can tell she has a real steward’s heart,” Kilgore says. “She is unique in her curiosity about the natural resources on her property and in her willingness to do whatever she can to protect them.”

Scheier Natural Area, Fluvanna County

“We all live downstream.” It’s a popular catchphrase in conservation circles nowadays, communicating in a nutshell how our waterways connect us all.

Homesteaders Howard and Neva Scheier may not have heard it put quite that way when they arrived in Virginia in the 1950s, but they knew the importance of undeveloped land to clean water in the Rivanna River watershed. They took steps during their lifetime to make sure the streams and forest on their 100 acres in Fluvanna County would remain in their natural state long after they were gone.

After their deaths, they left the land to the Rivanna Conservation Society, now the Rivanna Conservation Alliance (RCA). RCA placed the property under easement with VOF in 1997 and named it the Scheier Natural Area (SNA) in honor of the couple.

The main conservation value being protected by the easement is water quality. One way the easement achieves this is by restricting timbering. “The maintenance of the land in its natural condition provides a buffer to the streams that flow from it” and further into the watershed, says Bob Troy, board chair and chief executive of RCA.

But continued protection of the watershed was just part of the Scheiers’ legacy. Out of many possible conservation organizations, the couple chose RCA to manage the land because of the organization’s mission: to involve and educate the community about watersheds and water quality.

Under RCA’s management, the Scheier homestead is now an outdoor classroom that offers hands-on educational opportunities to middle and elementary schoolchildren. Workshops include primitive survival skills, pond ecology, bird identification, amphibians, and edible and medicinal plants. These opportunities were enhanced in 2018 by the completion of the all-weather Scheier Education Center, which will host workshops and events year-round.

The Primitive Survival Skills Workshop is offered for a registration fee twice a year, in the spring and the fall, by Virginia Master Naturalist and homesteader Steve Pullinger. “It’s a basic 101 for people who want to be a little more empowered,” he says. “If you’re canoeing and you’re a day away from any support and a flood comes up and washes all your gear away, how would you survive?”

Attendees learn to use the surroundings as a life-saving resource, which also leads to a better appreciation of the natural world. “Nature will house us, feed us, and clothe us if we know what to do,” Pullinger says. “Once we realize how nature can take care of our needs, we become better at taking care of it.”

For those interested in helping RCA take care of the watershed, Scheier hosts clean-up days and trainings for water monitoring throughout the year.

The property is a resource for day hikers, too, with three miles of trails open during daylight hours from April to September. The trails are maintained by RCA in coordination with a volunteer group called Friends of Scheier.

“Scheier Natural Area provides a unique capacity for RCA to bring its vision to reality,” Troy states. “By offering a way to engage in our watershed through streams and ponds on the property and to see the value of natural reserves and buffers beyond the waterways themselves, SNA gives visitors the full context of a watershed.”

The next Primitive Survival Skills Workshop is March 30. To sign up, go to https://www.stevepullinger.com/workshops.html

For a calendar of all upcoming events and volunteer opportunities at SNA, go to rivannariver.org.