Land Trust of Virginia Awarded New Grant

Land Trust of Virginia Awarded New Grant

The Middleburg-based Land Trust of Virginia (LTV) has been awarded a one-year grant funded by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF) and administered by Virginia’s United Land Trust (VaULT). LTV will receive $18,000 for their project titled Building the Capacity of the Land Trust of Virginia’s Easement Program.

This grant program was created in recognition of the critical importance of accelerating land conservation throughout the Commonwealth and to highlight the power of partnership between state agencies and nonprofit land trusts.

Historically state agencies have taken the majority of conservation easements, but over the last decade, Virginia’s nonprofit land trust community and specifically VaULT members have significantly increased the number of properties they are conserving each year.

The percentage of the total number of easements completed by nonprofit land trusts has increased from 17% in 2015 to 49% in 2020. Of that 49%, VaULT members competed 47%. LTV, an accredited land trust and VaULT member, currently holds more easements than any other nonprofit land trust in Virginia.

“It is long overdue that we increase our staff dedicated to easement intake, which prompted us to apply for this funding,” said LTV Executive Director Sally Price. “Over the past five years, we have expanded our organization’s stewardship, development and education programs resulting in far more interest in our easement work. With this grant, we plan to work with a consultant and hire an additional director of conservation to double our easement program in the next two years.”

Last year, LTV completed 16 easements for a total of 3,040 acres, compared to 1,765 acres in 2020. These new easements expanded LTV’s footprint into six new counties, resulting in LTV easements in 24 counties across Virginia.

The interest from the public in LTV programs, and the total recorded easements in 2021, is far more than in previous years.

LTV is a nonprofit organization that partners with private landowners who voluntarily protect and preserve properties with significant historic, scenic, or ecological value.

The organization has worked with 219 families, conserving a total of 26,109 acres in 24 counties in Virginia. While LTV charges landowners for its services, those fees only cover about 28% of LTV’s actual costs. Fundraising is essential to its mission.

For more information about LTV’s work, visit http:// www.landtrustva.org.