Mapping the Past While Preserving the Future

Gene and Annette Scheel have placed their 48-acre Waterford farm, Orchardcroft, in a conservation easement with the Land Trust of Virginia.

Mapping the Past While Preserving the Future

“When folks ask my wife, Annette, what her husband does for a living,” Eugene (Gene) M. Scheel said recently, “she comments, ‘he does odd jobs in the field of history.’”

That job description suits him just fine. Gene, in fact, is the author of nine books on Virginia history, and the cartographer of over 50 meticulously detailed, hand-drawn historical maps covering parts of Virginia, other states, and even other countries.

Gene and Annette also fell in love with Virginia’s countryside, rural people, atmosphere, and wellpreserved history. It was not a difficult nor lengthy courtship for the Scheels when they bought their property in Waterford. Just 45-miles northwest of Washington near the foot of the Blue Ridge, the village of Waterford has been designated a Historic District, is listed in the Virginia Landmarks Register, the National Register of Historic Places, and is designated as a National Historic Landmark by the Secretary of the Interior.

Gene and Annette purchased their 48-acre farm, named “Orchardcroft,” in 1968. The farm is located just 1.5 miles west of Waterford and has frontage on Old Wheatland Road. “The road has remained much the same,” Gene said. “You can still see depressions in the dirt from wheels and wagons, horses, and cattle. Not so unlike other gravel roads in our rural area, they tell a story.”

Working with the Land Trust of Virginia (LTV),

Gene and Annette Scheel have placed their 48-acre Waterford farm, Orchardcroft, in a conservation easement with the Land Trust of Virginia.

the couple placed their property in a voluntary conservation agreement (known as a “conservation easement”). LTV is a nonprofit organization that partners with private landowners who voluntarily protect and preserve properties with significant historic, scenic, or ecological value. LTV now holds 200 easements protecting a total of 22,878 acres in 18 counties in Virginia.

The agreement with the Scheels permanently protects the property’s historic landscape, a significant thoroughfare in the French and Indian War and the Civil War. Additional public benefits of the agreement will be the permanent protection of the scenic open space and agricultural lands of the property. Were it not for the easement, the land could have been divided into nine separate lots.

Gene said that he and Annette “realized shortly after moving to Waterford how important it was to protect and honor the history of their land and those that passed before us. To have been able to purchase this piece of history, to be its steward, and then to preserve it for the future has given us great peace of mind. So, it’s for all these reasons that we sought protection.”

In addition, farming the rolling land was always important to Gene and he wanted to make sure that future generations have the same opportunity.

“This land has significant conservation values, both historically and ecologically,” LTV Executive Director Sally Price said. “We’re honored that the Scheel family has chosen the Land Trust of Virginia to hold the conservation easement on this property. We’re also honored to share that LTV’s Malcolm Forbes Baldwin Fund assisted with the transaction costs of protecting the Scheel’s farm.”

The fund was established in honor of LTV board member Malcolm Baldwin, and is specifically intended to support the conservation of working farms in Loudoun County with permanent conservation easements.

The costs associated with the donation of this easement were also partially covered by Loudoun County’s newly created Conservation Easement Assistance Program, which can help landowners with the upfront costs of placing land under conservation easement.

Gene and Annette Scheel have placed their 48-acre Waterford farm, Orchardcroft, in a conservation easement with the Land Trust of Virginia.