RD96 - 2004 Biennial Report of the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation


Executive Summary:
The Virginia Land Conservation Foundation (Foundation) has seen significant changes since its inception in 1992. Since that time, the Foundation has experienced a name change from the Virginia Conservation and Recreation Foundation to the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation, it has seen significant expansion and improvement to its Code authority, and it has launched a successful grants program. In 2000, the Foundation saw its Board of Trustees grow from 9 members to 18 members.

In FY1999-2000, the General Assembly and the Governor provided the Foundation $1.75 million and in FY2000-2001, $6.2 million. In FY2000-2001, a separate $3.4 million was also provided specifically for battlefield protection. From the FY1999-2000 monies received, the Foundation expended $1,323,969 on competitive grant funds to 8 projects conserving 1136.87 acres. In addition to the 8 grant projects that were completed, $29,430 from the FY1999-2000 monies was paid to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to reimburse them for a portion of their administrative costs associated with acquiring the Big Survey. Three projects originally awarded funds from the FY1999-2000 monies were withdrawn. In FY2000-2001, competitive grants were awarded in the amount of $3,919,695 to 19 projects conserving an estimated 3,377 acres. Also from the $6.2 million, $1,550,000 went to the Virginia Outdoor Foundation for conservation activities. This investment conserved an additional 3,313 acres of farm and forest land in conservation easements. The $3,382,004 expended for Civil War battlefields helped to protect an additional 1257 acres within four historic battlefields. In total, the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation has awarded grants for $10,175,668 and protected an estimated 9,084 acres. (Note: As projects close, final revenue paid and acreages protected may be revised. These changes will be reflected in subsequent reports.) This amount has been significantly leveraged through matches and other partnerships.

The Foundation met its charge to develop a strategic plan for the expenditure of unrestricted moneys received from the Fund. The strategic plan governing fiscal expenditures for FY1999-2000 was the grant program guidelines entitled “1999 Virginia Land Conservation Fund Grant Program, September 1999” and, the strategic plan for FY2000-2001 was the grant program guidelines entitled “2000 Virginia Land Conservation Fund Grant Program, October 2000”. In 2004, the General Assembly called for a refinement of these guidance criteria. The existing criteria of the Foundation were revised to incorporate those items identified in Item 383 H3 of Chapter 4 of the 2004 Virginia Acts of Assembly, Special Session 1. This item directed the Foundation to develop new review criteria that additionally address the relative water quality merits of each prospective grant parcel. The new criteria were printed in 2005 in HD3 entitled “Criteria for Evaluation of 2005 Virginia Land Conservation Foundation Grant Applications”. The resulting criteria were also referenced in the updated FY2005-2006 grant program guidelines entitled “2005 Virginia Land Conservation Fund Grant Program, November 15, 2004”.

The Foundation is and, if properly funded, will continue to be one of the primary tools through which Virginia will achieve its conservation goals. The Foundation is one of the key elements in assisting the Chesapeake Bay states in achieving the Chesapeake 2000 commitment to permanently preserve from development 20 percent of the land in the watershed by 2010. The Foundation will also play an important role in achieving the draft statewide land conservation goal under discussion with the Council on Virginia’s Future.

The Virginia Land Conservation Foundation also serves as a coordinating mechanism for bringing together a number of state agencies’ land conservation efforts and priorities. A coordinating agency task force made up of the Director of the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the State Forester, the Director of the Department of Historic Resources, the Director of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Executive Director of the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, or their designees, provide the VLCF Board with assistance on such matters as grant criteria, grant priorities, and grant selection.

To help foster the goals of the Foundation, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Office of Land Conservation was established to serve as a statewide, central contact, repository, and clearinghouse for land conservation in Virginia. In January 2003, the Office released its land conservation website ( http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/olc/). This site includes a wide variety of land conservation materials and contact information that provides land conservationists and managers with an important land conservation planning tool. In December of 2003, the Department of Conservation and Recreation added to its Office of Land Conservation website the state’s first comprehensive statewide public lands resource mapping tool. This important land conservation planning tool, which is regularly updated, can be accessed by going to the DCR website at www.dcr.virginia.gov and clicking on “land conservation.” or by accessing it directly at www.dcr.virginia.gov/dnh/conslandindex.htm. In future grant rounds, the Office will also serve as an important source of information for potential Foundation grant applicants.

DCR has also developed the “Conservation Sites Database” based upon eighteen years of developing the Natural Heritage Information System, Virginia’s most comprehensive information management system on endangered plants and animals and natural habitats. Conservation sites are mapped boundaries that enclose one or more rare plant or animal locations, or a natural community, and the surrounding habitat or buffer necessary to protect the resource(s). DCR has also produced the Virginia Conservation Lands Needs Assessment (VCLNA) Natural Landscape Assessment for Virginia’s Coastal Zone. The VLCNA identifies which are the most important natural, unfragmented lands, based on considerations of biological and ecological value and integrity. Both of these tools will be utilized to assess grant projects submitted to the Foundation for funding consideration.

In summary, the Foundation will continue to be a critical element in meeting the Commonwealth’s conservation commitments, coordinating land conservation efforts, developing important website tools, and preserving the important lands across the Commonwealth as a whole.