UPCOMING: - Thursday, June 9th - BOARD OF SUPERVISORS' ZONING WORK SESSION 6:00pm at the Courthouse - Tuesday, June 14th - BOARD OF SUPERVISORS 2:00/7:30pm Courthouse - Wednesday, June 22nd - PLANNING COMMISSION - 7:30pm Courthouse ------------------------------------------------------------------------- VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: - Saturday, June 25th and Sunday, June 26th to work the gate for Rural Nelson at the Summer Festival. Workers needed 10am-1pm Sunday; 11:30am-2:30pm both days and 2pm-4pm Sunday. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- RURAL NELSON MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, June 1, 2005 Connie Roussos introduced Ridge Schuyler, the Nature Conservancy's Director of the Piedmont Program. Mr. Schuyler was accompanied by two of his colleagues, Linda Crowe and Jean Lorber. Mr. Schuyler began his power point presentation with some illustrations of the rate of development in the U.S. and in Virginia. In the United States the amount of land that will be developed in the next 25 years will exceed the amount of land that has been developed since colonial times! In Virginia from 1997 to 2002, the rate of farmland loss has increased by 76%. Five hundred thousand acres of farmland has been lost in the last 10 years. The rate of forest land lost in Virginia is even higher with 4000 acres of forest being lost in the Commonwealth each day. This equals 500,000 acres being lost in the last 8 years. The mission of the Nature Conservancy is to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities representing life on earth by protecting the land and water environments that sustain them. The Nature Conservancy does this work by looking at areas that have shared characteristics of climate, geology and biology. These areas are called eco-regions. The key to preserving the natural diversity of life in the Virginia Piedmont Eco-region is to protect large forest blocks. The Nature Conservancy has determined that the smallest contiguous forest block that can sustain a reasonable amount of representative species is 15,000 acres. The biggest threat to these forest blocks in the piedmont is incompatible development and invasive non-native species. Strategies to deal with development pressures include government regulation such as zoning ordinances and government incentives such as purchasing development rights, land use taxation and agricultural and forestal districts. Nongovernmental ways to control development, which the Nature Conservancy uses, include; buying land, purchased or donated conservation easements and conservation buyers wherein the Nature Conservancy purchases a critical piece of land, does restoration work as needed, places an easement on the land, controlling the amount of development that can take place and then selling the land to a buyer. This scenario allows the initial investment to be recaptured and conserves land in the process. The Nature Conservancy's Piedmont Program has done some initial research into the location of large forest blocks that are still remaining in Virginia's Piedmont. Nelson County has an area with some potential. The Nature Conservancy's Fortune's Cove Preserve, encompassing about 740 acres forms the western boundary of this forest block. It extends east into the western part of Buckingham County with Route 6 and Route 56, east of Route 29 forming the north and south boundaries, respectively. For more information on The Nature Conservancy and their programs, visit http://www.nature.org/ Minutes submitted by Tom Eick ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Volunteers needed June 10th to pour beer for Fridays After Five in Charlottesville for Voices for Animals. Contact wildwood56@hotmail.com for info or to volunteer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This report, sent to over 600 Nelson County citizens, was made possible by the generous donations of Rural Nelson members and supporters. We need your help to continue this service. Please consider donating. Kim T. Cash Field Officer Rural Nelson, Inc. P. O. Box 401 (622 Front Street) Lovingston, VA 22949 434.263.5000 Email: info@ruralnelson.org www.ruralnelson.org