WARSAW—The Northern Neck Land Conservancy (NNLC) recently reached a major landmark, recording its 50th conservation easement to protect open land and the nature of the Northern Neck and Essex County.
It comes in the same year the organization hit another key mark, a 20th anniversary in which the NNLC pushed its total of land protected from development to 7,828 acres.
“We are proud to have completed our 50th easement,” said president James Russell. “Reaching this milestone is recognition of our efforts to rally landowners to protect and preserve the agriculture, aquaculture and historical life of our wonderful Northern Neck and Essex County. Now we will move on to the next 50!”
The 50th easement was recorded by Michael and Christine Downing to protect just over 350 acres of farm and timber land at Watts Point Farm near Hyacinth. This easement is co-held with the U.S. Navy as part of the Department of Defense’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration program, which seeks to prevent development on land within the flight path and noise protection zones of military facilities.
Michael Downing said his ancestors established themselves in the Northern Neck in 1651, with both sides of the family harvesting a bounty from the land or waters there.
“The land where I farm and have lived all my life was protected by my ancestors, and I want it to be here for generations to come,” he said. “That’s why land conservation is important to me. It protects water quality and improves flood resilience.”
Conservation “can help keep farmland in farm use and it can help protect woodlands and wetlands. I feel like we owe it to our kids—and their kids—to pay it forward,” added Downing.
The Downings previously recorded an easement on another farm, the 165-acre Yeocomico View Farm, and have used funds obtained through land conservation tax credits to invest in their family farming business.
The NNLC board of directors welcomes that practice, because it both conserves open land used specifically as farmland and adds additional land being farmed, said executive director Lisa Biever. The latter is a key goal of the conservancy in a region where that farming footprint is shrinking all too fast.
In addition to celebrating its 20th anniversary and
the 50-easement mark, the NNLC board is moving forward with other initiatives, which include:
• Expanding the staff over the past several years to three with the addition of Alicen Hackney as a part-time community engagement officer.
• Developing a new strategic plan, setting the goal of continuing its increased pace of recording conservation easements, going from seven in the first 10 years to more than 40 in the past 10.
• Renewing its national accreditation from the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, which conducts an extensive review of each applicant’s policies and programs. The NNLC was first accredited in 2014 and reaccredited in 2019. This external validation is important to donors who contribute financially to the Conservancy’s mission, as well as those placing beloved lands into permanent conservation easements.
The NNLC helps landowners when they volunteer to protect their land by placing a permanent legal restriction on development using a conservation easement.
A conservation easement allows the landowner to decide how the land is to be used, now and in the future. The NNLC provides interested landowners with information and guidance as the landowners work with various advisors through the easement donation process.
The NNLC, which serves King George, Westmoreland, Richmond, Northumberland, Lancaster and Essex counties, has one simple goal: to conserve the region’s “lands, waters, economies and culture for future generations.”
Many landowners who’ve placed land in conservation easements are happy and sometimes determined to share why they have taken steps to limit development on their land.
Robby and Gunn Robison, a father and son, are committed to preserving the history and pristine nature of Lawson Bay Farm in Lancaster County. R. Robison was a boy in 1947 when his family moved to the pastoral, 75-acre tract on the Rappahannock River between White Stone Beach and Mosquito Point. His son, G. Robison, is now responsible for the property.
“I want it to stay like it is,” said G. Robison. “And my kids have enough sense of history and their own enjoyment here that they want to be able to come back as well. They are now adults and will start having families. I want them and their children to be able to come back here and have
it be exactly as it is now, a very special place.”
Some who preserve the land are determined to keep it undeveloped to honor historic connections to their ancestors and the nation’s history. Among them are different members of the Latané family in Westmoreland County, who count the Washington family at the nearby Wakefield Plantation as their ancestors.
Paul and Rosemary Trible had both history and the natural beauty of their property called Gascony in mind when they put more than 900 acres of the waterfront land into conservation easements, much of that with the NNLC.
The Tribles are reclaiming history by uniting the parcels of the historic property at Balls Neck back together as it was in the early 1700s. The bounty of nature they wanted to protect was something the family has come to treasure over time. He tried to include these values in the document that created a trust connected to the property, said P. Trible, a former U.S. congressman and senator and 27-year president of Christopher Newport University.
“Such a large parcel of land captures the wonder and beauty of God, the land provides a measure of security for family and makes us freer to chase our dreams,” he wrote. “[It] should remind us how blessed and privileged we are, and thereby admonishes us to remember that to whom much is given, much is required.”
The NNLC knows that reaching a milestone like recording a 50th conservation easement would not be possible without the community, the donors, the backers, the volunteers and the people who place their land into conservation easement, said Biever.
To become a supporting member, visit nnconserv.org or call 804-250-2334.
Michael and Christine Downing place 350 acres in conservation easement at Watts Point Farm near Hyacinth.