 | Land Conservation: 339,000 Acres Protected in Virginia |
 Governor Kaine is hurrying to accomplish his goal of preserving 400,000 acres of land by 2010, when he finishes his term. He made the pledge in April 2006, and the 400,000 number is in part to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. Kaine was also worried about growth trends in the state and the toll growth was taking on natural and historic resources. To date, the Kaine administration has permanently protected more than 339,000 acres of farms, forests, historic grounds and buildings, marshes, caves, and bluffs. It has about $10 million left to spend, and officials predict they will make their goal by the time the governor leaves office in January. Kaine said that they have “some big parcels coming up.” Most of the conservation during Kaine’s term has occurred in Northern Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. Of the 339,000 acres preserved, about 80 percent are protected under a conservation easement.
Norfolk Virginian-Pilot: Article
The administration created a new accounting system to track land-protection trends, and the Department of Conservation and Recreation adds up all land purchases and protected easements by local, state, and federal governments, and by conservation groups and private land trusts, to come up with a monthly status report. Despite all of the land conservation in the state, Virginia will likely fall short of meeting a separate goal of protecting 20 percent of all lands within the Chesapeake Bay watershed by 2010, which was agreed to in 2000. Maryland, Pennsylvania, and DC have all met their Bay targets, but Virginia currently falls 225,273 acres short. Virginia doesn’t have a permanent, dedicated funding source to purchase lands outright, as Maryland, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina have.
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