The Tye River Easement was a collaboration between Blue Ridge Land Conservancy and Central Virginia Land Conservancy
By David Perry
Mergers, expansion, new hires—oh my!
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ince 1996, the Blue Ridge Land Conservancy (originally the Western Virginia Land Trust) has focused on the greater Roanoke region. That began to change a few years ago, when we started being asked to hold conservation easements outside the greater Roanoke region, specifically in central and southside Virginia. We knew our forays beyond the Roanoke area wouldn’t be successful in the long run unless we went about them the right way. We knew we needed community input, and that our land conservation needed to be grounded in the local people, local interests and local needs. CENTRAL VIRGINIA Our first step was to begin working
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Winter 2019–2020
with the Central Virginia Land Conservancy in Lynchburg, an all-volunteer land trust that’s been in existence since 2003. Rather than hold conservation easements themselves, the Central Virginia folks had done fine work for years “digging up” conservation projects and referring them to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, Virginia Dept. of Forestry, or, more recently, the Blue Ridge Land Conservancy. Members from our boards met early in 2019 on a conserved farm in Bedford County to have a meet-andgreet, and once we realized we were all of like mind with common goals, the merger process was underway. Today, the Blue Ridge Land Conservancy operates as the Central
Virginia Land Conservancy in Amherst, Appomattox, Buckingham, Campbell and Nelson counties and the City of Lynchburg. We’ve integrated the Central Virginia Land Conservancy’s board into ours, and thanks to funding from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, hope to hire our first Lynchburgbased employee soon. “CVaLC is thrilled to be part of the Blue Ridge Land Conservancy,” says Wendy Kendrick of Amherst, former board president of the Central Virginia Land Conservancy. “This merger will give landowners more options for easement holders and ultimately we will be protecting more land in this beautiful part of Virginia.”
