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By Robert T. Dennis
Special to the Rappahannock News
It is worth noting that the acres protected by conservation easements in Rappahannock County now total nearly half the Rappahannock acreage condemned in 1933 by Virginia’s State Commission on Conservation and Development for donation to the federal government for creation of Shenandoah National Park.
Whereas the 1933 action generated great controversy among residents and landowners, voluntary donation
Opinion
of conservation easements beginning in the 1970s has been generally welcomed by the local population.
An early notion that government must buy land in order to conserve it has more recently been replaced in Virginia by a philosophy of public/private cooperation, including public incentives for voluntary private action, to accomplish conservation objectives.
Objectives of today’s conservation easements range from preservation of the Rappahannock landscape to restoration of the Chesapeake Bay. The General Assembly has even provided for land conservation tax credits which can be sold by landowners—a far cry from the appropriation/condemnation strategies of 70 years ago.
Though events and public issues elsewhere seem to require that the public maintain and improve land use regulatory controls over activir-1
94.9%