RD509 - Virginia Outdoors Foundation Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2015


Executive Summary:
There are 25,273,657 acres in Virginia. They form the landscape where we build homes, roads, schools and shopping centers, and where we plant food, grow trees and raise families. The land supports all of these things and more. The key is balance, between the outdoors we love and the amenities we need.

The Virginia Outdoors Foundation helps to maintain that balance by conserving farmland, forestland, and other open spaces that sustain our communities and our lives.

Since 1966 VOF has protected land at a rate of nearly two acres every hour. In fact, VOF manages one of the largest portfolios of conserved land in the nation.

Fiscal Year 2015 was another great year for land conservation for Virginia. VOF protected more than 28,000 new acres of farmland, forestland, and other open space. We surpassed 750,000 acres in our total portfolio, which is almost as large as the state of Rhode Island. We protected our first easement in the City of Norfolk, bringing the total number of localities where VOF protects land to 107. The Commonwealth reached 1 million total acres under easement among all partners. And Governor McAuliffe announced the Virginia Treasures Initiative, seeking to complete 1,000 new recreational, cultural and land conservation projects before the end of his term. VOF is proud of our achievements, and we thank all of the landowners, partners, policymakers and other supporters who have worked to make Virginia’s land conservation program a national leader.

In 2016, VOF will celebrate its 50th anniversary. It’s an opportunity to reflect on our many accomplishments and to shape and present a vision for the future. The challenges are daunting. Demands on the land are increasing, and funding for our work has not kept pace—jeopardizing the momentum we’ve built.

People often ask us what the future holds for VOF. Can we do more work in Virginia’s growing metropolitan areas? Can we do more to protect land that is accessible to the public, to ensure that all families have opportunities to connect with the outdoors?

These are questions we grapple with every day. We look forward to discussing them with our partners, policymakers, and the public as we define VOF’s role for the next 50 years.

Rest assured, we will not take our eye off our mission as spelled out in the Code of Virginia: “To promote the preservation of openspace lands, and to encourage private gifts of money, securities, land or other property to preserve the natural, scenic, historic, scientific, open-space and recreational areas of the Commonwealth.” We are committed to protecting Virginia’s outdoors. We are also committed to the transparency, accountability, and flexibility that are the bedrock of our relationships with landowners and the public.

As long as there is development there is a need for conservation, a need for balance. The last 50 years have been an amazing success.

With your support and partnership, we are certain some of our best years and biggest achievements lie ahead.

/s/ Brett Glymph
Executive Director