By Rob Hedelt
There’s no hesitation or soul searching when Kyle Pierson is asked to explain why he and wife Jen have placed nearly 90 acres of land in Farnham in a conservation easement with the Northern Neck Land Conservancy.
“It’s to preserve what we have,” the Richmond County resident said of the natural state of the land where the family grows timber, raises farm animals and Labrador retrievers and enjoys hunting, walking and escaping on trails throughout. “I want it to stay the way it is with trees and streams, and farmland.”
He added that the family will continue to use the property as they do now, “We can still hunt it. We can camp on it. We want it to be and stay natural. We felt like this is the best way to preserve what we have here. Even if we pass away, our kids will have it. It’s never going to be developed.”
The conservation easement held by Northern Neck Land Conservancy is a legally binding agreement that prohibits the commercial or residential development of the property, while still allowing uses like hunting, farming, timbering and more. In return for the easement’s donation, the Pierson’s and others who adopt them can receive federal tax deductions and state tax credits.
Pierson, who works throughout the region with his father in a long-time family construction business called Deck World, said over recent years he has purchased different parcels of land near where the family lives. The family combined the properties to create the nearly 90-acre farm that is covered by the easement.
The Pierson’s – Kyle, Jen and children Hunter and Jessa – explained that for their family, getting outdoors is a central part of their lives.
Sundays especially are filled with walking through the woods, navigating miles of trails on foot or on Gators. But every day they are out feeding cows, pigs and chickens, caring for the Labradors or simply enjoying a chance to commune with nature.
Jen, who works as a dental hygienist, added, “We have lots of Labs. We turn them loose and walk through the trails on Sundays. When the children were younger, we’d go with a Gator and ride them around. They’ve taken to that and go out on their own now. Jessa has a 4-wheeler and loves to ride.”
Kyle, who grew up next door and has hunted the property his whole life, said that hunting isn’t just a pastime for him.
“I have a passion for it, I love it so much,” he said, noting that if land like theirs isn’t preserved in some way, there will cease to be places where hunting is possible in the future.
“You won’t have 90 acres, not even 45 acres, in trees where you can hunt,” he said. “There will be houses or solar farms.”
On the property, multiple hunting stands rise into the air above the timber that Hunter and Jessa helped to replant. Kyle’s brothers gather for weeks in peak hunting season, one coming all the way from Nova Scotia to join in.
Kyle said one of the misunderstandings many people have about conservation easements is that they somehow allow the public to come onto the land put under them. They don’t.
“If the easement did dictate that, if it had people coming onto our property, or if the easement forced us to give up a right like hunting or growing timber, we wouldn’t have agreed to it,” he said.
He noted that while the easement does restrict the development rights that Pierson says would have otherwise let him build a number of houses on his property, it’s something the family would never have done.
“We reserved one or two building envelopes where the kids could build a house in the future, but that’s it,” he said. “We want the land to stay natural, as it is now.”
Jen said there’s one group of inhabitants on the property whose actions range from funny to annoying: beavers who have created three ponds, extending the water features beyond one that was man-made.
Kyle has waged a battle of sorts with the beavers, saying his main concern is preventing the overflow from the beaver dams causing damage to the well-maintained trails.
In going up against the beaver dams, you’d have to say that Kyle has developed some respect for the sharp-toothed, determined creatures.
“It takes me an hour to tear down a dam, but they’ll rebuild overnight,” he said. “My cousin and I rolled a big, heavy stump off the top of one dam, down six feet to the bottom. I went back six weeks later, and it was sitting up on the top again.”
Other tries at preventing problems: inserting a pipe into one dam to direct runoff to a less problematic flow and even installing a flashing light.
“The pipe worked for a week, and then I found it stacked up at the dam’s top. The light worked for a while, then they got used to it and dams were rebuilt,” he said. “They rebuild every time.”
Conservation easements like this one can help families thrive on the land they protect. Northern Neck Land Conservancy is available to provide technical support and perpetual easement stewardship to families like the Pierson’s who want to ensure open space land is available for future generations.
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