Reader praises work of New River Land Trust

Betty Hahn and her husband Doug Chancey show their farm recently. Courtesy of Lily Terango

This article was provided by Lily Terango:

Waking up and looking over the rolling hills of your Southwest Virginia farm, reassured that it will never be bulldozed or torn apart is an irreplaceable feeling. Working with the New River Land Trust, landowners in the New River region can conserve their forests and family farms forever by placing a protective easement on their land.

Last spring I applied for an internship with the New River Land Trust (NRLT) at its office in Blacksburg. As an environmental policy and planning major at Virginia Tech, I’m interested in land conservation and wanted to get my feet wet in the field as soon as I could. This internship offered a great opportunity to become part of the effort to preserve our landscape, our woods and rivers for future generations to experience and enjoy.

Experiencing the breathtaking mountain views in the New River Valley cannot be replicated by seeing a photograph or television show. The serenity that enfolds people when they are in nature is irreplaceable. That is why it is essential to conserve forests, open land, historical heritage, and farms that are left.

The New River Land Trust is a local non-profit that helps landowners obtain easements to conserve their land. A conservation easement limits or completely eliminates future development and other destructive land uses, while permitting the owner to continue farming their land and even timbering their forests. Easements are voluntary legal agreements between a landowner and a conservation agency. These agreements allow the owner to continue owning and managing their land while receiving significant tax benefits, some of which can be converted to cash.

The Hahn family’s farm nestles in the mountainside that defines the aesthetic beauty of part of Blacksburg’s landscape. The farm has pastureland for beef and sheep farming as well as wildlife habitat on its mountain slopes. Holding on to that amount of land and keeping it as a farm can be difficult. In a recent visit to the Hahn farm, Betty Hahn and her husband Doug Chancey gladly showed me around and talked about the vital importance of keeping the land unharmed from increasing development in this once rural valley.

The farm came into their family in 1976, and the Hahn family has been dedicated to it ever since. The Hahns decided to go through the New River Land Trust to place a conservation easement on their land. Heirloom pear and apple trees still grow on the land. The North Fork of the Roanoke River stretches through the farm. The Hahns plan to grow plants alongside the river to prevent erosion and undercutting of banks as a form of riparian restoration. The farm’s mountainsides support an Old Growth forest. Such a forest provides a good environment for fungi and other organisms that supply nutrients to the ecosystem. Through their conservation easement, the Hahns gain the comfort of knowing that their undeveloped farmland and mountain forests will be preserved for all of time.

Environmental education for children

McDonald's Mill is protected with a conservation easement. Courtesy of Lily Terango.

There is more to land trusts than easement, though. Educating the public is a great way to help promote environmentalism. The New River Land Trust organized a youth education trip to historic McDonald’s Mill in Catawba Valley. The children of Harding Elementary School’s Green Club had a chance to experience the outdoors while learning to appreciate its abundance of stream life and plants. McDonald’s Mill is also protected with a conservation easement, so only traditional practices can be used on it such as farming, forestry, and fishing.

At the mill, the children learned conservation can be fun by playing and looking for aquatic life in the creek and hiking around the property. These experiences allowed the children to understand and appreciate nature for all it is worth. When it comes time for them to decide on where their futures will lead them, they can look back with memories of time spent in the outdoors.

By supporting fund raisers such as the annual LandJam, the Land and River Revel and a yard sale, local citizens have a chance to raise money to support and learn about land conservation. As a nonprofit, NRLT depends on donations. These events allow the New River Land Trust to educate people on the urgency and importance of land conservation to sustain the world for future generations. They also provide the local community with outstanding concerts, such as this year’s Mountain Heart performance, and engaging gatherings. The Land and River Revel comprises great music, a beautiful site for friends to reconnect and celebrate, and both silent and live auctions, including works of top local artists. The event creates a chance to bring the community to get together in a relaxing, entertaining way.

Easements offer a great way to conserve important local lands and farms into the future. Even if the owner or heirs sell the land, it will stay under a protective easement. Preserving land helps maintain natural habitats, which protects the health of the air, water, and soil. The interconnection of all parts of an ecosystem requires that each element of the ecosystem stays healthy. By keeping the soil healthy, people are in turn protecting water quality and vice versa. The water, land, and wildlife depend upon people to keep their habitat safe.

Preserving land for local farmers to keep their livelihoods, for wildlife to inhabit healthy forests and wetlands, and for members of the community to have a chance to embrace nature is the basis for land conservation. Nature provides people with so many outlets that cannot be appreciated through any other means. People need healthy environments, so it is the responsibility of the community to do all that is in its power to help the movement to conserve these scenic views and valued farmland for the future generations to benefit from as well.

Contact Information for the New River Land Trust:

Phone Number: (540) 951-1704

E-mail: nrlt@newriverlandtrust.org

Website: http://newriverlandtrust.org/

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