As part of a regional conservation collaborative, Potomac Conservancy will use the grant to protect local farms and keep the Potomac River clean

a family-owned farm in the shenandoah valley. photo copyright of william macfarland, macfarlandphoto.net

Healthy farms and forests are critical for a clean and safe Potomac River. After all, the Potomac is only as healthy as the lands that surround it. But why are the lands of the Shenandoah Valley of special importance?

The Shenandoah Valley lies between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Allegheny Mountains. This patchwork of bucolic farms, forests, and streams is home to diverse animal species from brook trout to wood turtles to black bears. Beyond just the plethora of human and nonhuman life, the Valley contains the headwaters of the Potomac River. But for its tight-knit communities, poorly planned encroaching development is an increasing worry to both the region’s ecological health and its long tradition of agricultural and forest economy.

Community efforts to conserve the Shenandoah Valley’s farms and freshwater streams will help mitigate pollution and protect our upstream waters forever.

This fall, the Shenandoah Valley Conservation Collaborative was awarded a $4.5 million grant by the US Department of Agriculture to permanently protect at least 3,000 additional acres in the Shenandoah Valley over the next three years.

With this grant, Potomac Conservancy, the Alliance for the Shenandoah Valley, the Black Family Land Trust, Valley Conservation Council, and other partners will help protect working lands in the Shenandoah Valley. Nearly all of the $4.5 million will be used to purchase conservation easements from conservation-minded landowners.

the fall colors of the shenandoah valley. photo courtesy of jeffry n. curtis via flickr (used under CC BY-SA 2.0)

Local landowners can make a huge difference for the course of the entire river and its communities lying downstream by protecting land through conservation easements. Conservation easements are an effective tool in protecting water quality, mitigating flooding risk, sequestering carbon, preventing the fragmentation of wildlife habitat, and preserving local scenery. What’s more, conservation easements are permanent, meaning their protections govern the land forever, no matter who the current owner is.

As a nationally accredited land trust, Potomac Conservancy works with local landowners to help place conservation easements on their lands, making them both productive and river-friendly for generations to come.

But legal, administrative, and financial requirements related to the completion of a conservation easement can make the whole process quite time intensive, making land and water protection a marathon rather than a quick and easy run.

The strategic coordination of the Shenandoah Valley Conservation Collaborative is key to increasing the scale and pace of land protection and restoration in the Potomac River region.

By building relationships with local community partners, Potomac Conservancy is able to protect more priority acres, faster. As members of two regional conservation collaboratives—the Safe Water Conservation Collaborative and the Shenandoah Valley Conservation Collaborative—we share resources and expertise with our conservation partners and can more effectively protect the Potomac River’s lands and waters.

We believe that a healthy local environment and clean, safe water are a basic human right, and we are excited for this grant to provide a much-needed push for land protection work in the Shenandoah Valley—a key region for both its residents and all of the Potomac River’s downstream communities.

Learn more about our land conservation work here:

protecting the potomac river's lands