The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

News

September 23, 2009

Farmland Protection Board preserves acres in Greenbrier

By Tina Alvey

As undeveloped land continues to dwindle across the country, victim of the press of civilization, a handful of Greenbrier countians have joined with the local Farmland Protection Board to preserve more than 2,000 agricultural acres in perpetuity.

According to Diana Everett, chairman of the Greenbrier County Farmland Protection Board, since 2002 the county has lost 15,604 acres, or about 8 percent, of its farmland to development.

The board was formed to helped stem that tide, giving landowners the option of selling an easement to the undeveloped land rather than subdividing it for profit.

“Some farmland protection boards purchase easements for a limited amount of time, but all of ours are in perpetuity — forever,” Everett says. “The land simply won’t be developed.”

The covenant not to develop the land, usually a farm, is contained in the deed, should the landowner ever sell the property, prohibiting future owners from subdividing it.

While the owner is not required to farm the property, uses are limited. “Non-commercial timbering is allowed, for example,” Everett points out.

While the board usually purchases these easements, Dr. Jann Holwick recently donated a conservation easement to protect 934 acres covered in forest and pasture and perforated with cave openings, sinkholes, springs and hidden underground streams. She will continue to own and manage her property under the terms of the agreement.

The Nature Conservancy, which has partnered with Holwick for several years in the preservation of her land, explains, “Conservation easements are voluntary legal agreements that allow landowners to protect specific natural values of the property while keeping their property in private hands.”

Everett says, “This project is a model of public/private cooperation and will protect both prime agricultural land and Greenbrier Valley karst.”

Karst refers to a landscape in which the bedrock, usually limestone, reacts with natural chemicals and weathering to form underground caves, sinkholes and streams. The Holwick property has all of these, and the underground waterways are linked to similar geology in other parts of the Greenbrier Valley, according to Rodney Bartgis, state director for the conservancy.

“By protecting this property, we protect groundwater that is important for human uses and the quality of our surface streams,” Bartgis says. “In addition, there is a wealth of creatures, often blind and without pigment, that spend their entire lives underground and are found only in the cave systems of the Greenbrier Valley and nowhere else on earth.”

On Sept. 22, the board received permission from the Greenbrier County Commission to complete the purchase of conservation easements on another 400 acres. Selling the easements are Dr. and Mrs. Philip Light (155 acres) and the owners of the Sarver Heritage Farm (245 acres) at Organ Cave.

Everett advised the commission that half the purchase price will eventually be provided by the federal government, with the other half — $446,250 — coming from board coffers.

Following the commission meeting, Leslee McCarty, who chairs the Pocahontas County Farmland Protection Board, asked Everett how the Greenbrier board handles the delay in receiving federal funds.

“We front the money,” Everett answered, noting it typically takes eight to nine months to receive federal reimbursement.

To determine the amount that is paid for the easements, the board obtains an independent appraisal, which puts a dollar figure on the difference between the land’s value as it currently is used and the projected value if it were developed. That dollar figure is the price of the easement.

The Greenbrier board receives its funding from a tax on property transfers.

“In a way, development is paying for preservation,” McCarty notes.

— E-mail: talvey@

register-herald.com

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