The Virginia Outdoors Foundation is a quasi-state agency formed by the

Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 161 ...

in 1966 "to promote the preservation of open space lands and to encourage private gifts of money, securities, land or other property to preserve the natural, scenic, historic, open-space and recreational areas of the Commonwealth." , it owns of public land and holds and manages

conservation easement In the United States, a conservation easement (also called conservation covenant, conservation restriction or conservation servitude) is a power invested in a qualified private land conservation organization (often called a "land trust") or gove ...

s on approximately of private land. Members of the Virginia Outdoors Foundation's Board of Trustees are appointed by the Virginia governor for four-year staggered terms. The sitting governor appoints a chairman from among the seven trustees. Among the properties that the Virginia Outdoors Foundation currently protects through conservation easements are

Carvins Cove Natural Reserve Carvins Cove Natural Reserve is a city park in Botetourt and Roanoke counties, Virginia. Managed by the Western Virginia Water Authority and the City of Roanoke, it is the fifth-largest city park in the United States, and the second-largest cit ...

and Mill Mountain owned by the City of Roanoke, Wildwood Park in the City of Radford,

Shirley Plantation Shirley Plantation is an estate located on the north bank of the James River in Charles City County, Virginia, USA. It is located on scenic byway State Route 5, between Richmond and Williamsburg. It is the oldest active plantation in Virgi ...

Shirley Plantation
, Governor Kaine Announces Shirley Plantation Easement Donation. in Charles City County, James Madison's Montpelier in Orange County, the Hermitage Museum and Gardens in the City of Norfolk, and more than of land along the

Rappahannock River The Rappahannock River is a river in eastern Virginia, in the United States, approximately in length.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 It traverses the entir ...

owned by the City of Fredericksburg.City of Fredericksburg
, City Manager's office. In cooperation with the

Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Virginia that regulates wildlife conservation. History The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries was created on June 17, 1916, under the ...

, the Virginia Outdoors Foundation also helps manage the

Smith Mountain Cooperative Wildlife Management Area Smith Mountain Cooperative Wildlife Management Area is a Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in Bedford and Pittsylvania counties, Virginia. Located on the shores of Smith Mountain Lake, the WMA is owned by Appalachian Power and cooperatively managed ...

, established via easement on land owned by

Appalachian Power American Electric Power (AEP), (railcar reporting mark: AEPX) is a major investor-owned electric utility in the United States, delivering electricity to more than five million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation's largest gen ...

along

Smith Mountain Lake Smith Mountain Lake is a large reservoir in the Roanoke Region of Virginia, United States, located southeast of the City of Roanoke and southwest of Lynchburg. The lake was created in 1963 by the Smith Mountain Dam impounding the Roanoke River. ...

. As of 2008, twenty percent of the land in

Clarke County, Virginia Clarke County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,783. Its county seat is Berryville. Clarke County is included in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistic ...

was covered by conservation easements.

References

External links

Virginia Outdoors Foundation
Government of Virginia Environment of Virginia {{Virginia-stub