The Northern Neck Land Conservancy sought and won a $75,000 Chesapeake WILD (Watershed Investments in Landscape Defense) grant to accelerate the protection of open land along the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, while increasing regional and organizational capacity to sustain land protection and stewardship in the future.
A program of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), Chesapeake WILD supports wildlife habitat, climate resilience, community conservation partnerships and equitable access to nature in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
The Land Conservancy will use the funding over the next year to advance land protection on Virginia’s Northern Neck Peninsula and Essex County by increasing outreach staff capacity, providing one-on-one technical support to regional landowners, planning targeted outreach events and upgrading its prioritization mapping capacity to identify opportunities to work with willing landowners on habitat conservation.
As a result, the Northern Neck Land Conservancy will be positioned to increase the number of permanent conservation easements private landowners record each year.
The Northern Neck and Essex County contain large stretches of highest priority wildlife biodiversity resilience corridors according to the new Virginia Wildlife Corridor Action Plan. Additional conservation easements will help protect critical habitat and reduce land fragmentation in priority Virginia biodiversity resilience corridors. Increased private land conservation is essential to the protection of the diverse and important habitats in this region.
“The Land Conservancy’s new strategic plan prioritizes growing a conservation community,” said Drew Gladwell, Northern Neck Land Conservancy’s Stewardship Director. “We are fortunate in this region – the people who live here recognize the close relationship between the land and water. It allows for collaboration between farmers, watermen, and landowners to ensure that our unique region is preserved for future generations to enjoy.”
The Chesapeake WILD program was established to support collaborative conservation and provide grant funding for community-driven projects that align with five interrelated focal areas for sustaining the health of the watershed and its inhabitants into the future: Conserving and restoring imperiled fish and wildlife habitats, enhancing climate resilience and readiness, building community partnerships and conservation capacity, including in vulnerable communities, increasing equitable public access for recreation and human connections with nature, and improving water quality.
The Staff and Board of Directors at the Northern Neck Land Conservancy are thrilled to begin work on the projects that will now be possible thanks to the Chesapeake WILD grant program.
A full list of 2024 Chesapeake WILD grant projects is available here.
About the Northern Neck Land Conservancy
The Northern Neck Land Conservancy is a community supported 501 c 3 nonprofit land trust that was founded in 2004. The Land Conservancy assists private landowners who volunteer to protect their property by establishing a conservation easement – a permanent legal restriction on land development. For more information, visit www.nnconserve.org.
About the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) works with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. For more information, visit www.fws.gov.
About the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
Chartered by Congress in 1984, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) protects and restores the nation’s fish, wildlife, plants, and habitats. Working with federal, corporate, foundation and individual partners, NFWF has funded more than 6,800 organizations and generated a total conservation impact of $10 billion. NFWF is an equal opportunity provider. Learn more at nfwf.org.
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