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Land Conservation

Virginia’s identity is its land.  From the shores of Chincoteague to the hills and valleys of Cumberland Gap, Virginia’s beauty is unmatched.  But as quickly as our population is growing, our rate of development is growing even faster.  Without foresight, without a plan to focus and manage that growth in a balanced way, we will be failing ourselves and future generations.  As we partner to protect Virginia’s outdoors, we must put balance at the center of land use decisions.  We must create an effective model that encourages redevelopment in cities and suburbs and discourages the wasteful and unnecessary consumption of land farther out from our population centers.  And we must reward communities that adopt and use balanced growth policies with economic development assistance and other incentives.

In April 2006 Governor Kaine stated that it will be the goal of his administration to permanently protect 400,000 acres of land.  Among the many benefits of this goal are preserving water quality, providing additional opportunities for recreation, and preserving wildlife habitat and historic landscapes. 

The result will be more conservation easements; more public lands, such as state parks; wildlife management areas, state forests and natural-area preserves, protecting opportunities to hunt and fish, and greater local preservation efforts that will help family farmers stay on their land instead of selling out to development.

“With every passing day, land is becoming more expensive and scarcer.  I will set and meet this preservation goal during my term – not just because it’s the right thing to do – I will do it because if I don’t, the opportunity to do it will not be there for future governors and future Virginians.

In the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement, Virginia has pledged to permanently protect 20% of the Chesapeake Bay watershed by 2010.  The other states that made the same promise – Pennsylvania and Maryland – have already met that goal.  Virginia still has 358,000 acres to go.
 
Getting there won’t be easy.  In the last 5 years, we’ve protected an average of 54,000 acres per year statewide, counting both private and public efforts.  We need to protect about 72,000 acres per year, just in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, in order to meet the goal.

It will be the goal of my administration to meet that obligation and surpass it. Since 1968, the Virginia Outdoors Foundation has preserved 330,000 acres of land. Most of that has been preserved in the past five years. The goal of my administration is to preserve an additional 400,000 acres throughout Virginia by the end of the decade.”

Governor Tim Kaine

April 20, 2006

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Visit the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s website to learn more about the Commonwealth’s Land Conservation efforts.  www.dcr.virginia.gov