Photo of the Appomattox River West of the City of Petersburg. Primary conservation values protected: 9.76 acres of forested land, including a forested buffer on 0.38 miles of riverfront to protect water quality and habitat. Identified scenic resources to be protected: State Designated Scenic River. Photo by John Rooney.
PETERSBURG, VA – FOLAR announces that in collaboration with Capital Region Land Conservancy (CRLC), Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF), and the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation–Virginia Land Conservation Foundation (DCR–VCLF), it has achieved the permanent protection of 9.76 acres of Appomattox Riverfront, completing a cooperative and yearslong effort to secure and conserve a critical gap in the developing 25-mile Appomattox River greenway-blueway trail & park system that spans six jurisdictions, connecting a rich diversity of neighborhoods, areas of commerce, and scenic wooded greenspace. The completed Appomattox River Trail will intersect with the 43-mile Fall Line Trail from Petersburg to Ashland.
The land is a combination of property located in the City of Petersburg that was purchased in 2023 by FOLAR from CSX and property recently gifted to FOLAR by CRLC that was part of its successful 2023 acquisition of more than 42 acres of privately-owned land and islands at the falls of the river. The combined land is protected under a conservation easement held by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation and will be ultimately transferred to the City of Petersburg once improvements are achieved. Funding for acquisition and easement was provided by VOF and VLCF.
“We’re grateful that the Virginia Outdoors Foundation and the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation are available to help protect the clean water and open space that we all enjoy,” said Sam Hayes, FOLAR Chairman of the Board. ”By conserving these properties, FOLAR ensures that they remain in their natural state in perpetuity.”
The protection of this property will expand outdoor recreation opportunities, safeguard wildlife habitat, and enhance water quality for residents and visitors to the Appomattox River blueway-greenway corridor. These benefits are achieved by forever protecting the natural riparian buffer area along with planned improvements to the site which are part of the effort to build the bicycle-pedestrian Appomattox River Trail, that will help filter runoff to the river.
“We are proud to continue partnering with FOLAR by transferring this acreage under a conservation easement held by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation. This transaction protects important riparian areas along the Appomattox River and ensures future public access along the trail. It also reunites under one ownership the headgate of the historic Battersea Mills Canal (ca. 1840) which was severed into the CSX parcel and CRLC’s gift parcel more than a century ago.” said Parker C. Agelasto, Executive Director of CRLC.
Land protection here and all along the Appomattox River is vitally important since the river is a source of drinking water for tens of thousands of people in surrounding communities and the river corridor falls within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The property is also within the priority area of the Governor of Virginia’s Conserve Virginia strategy which identifies land having the highest conservation value for the state.
These protections represent the long-term strategic vision of FOLAR to create a welcoming Blueway-Greenway of extraordinary beauty and cultural richness that forever connects nature, people, and vibrant communities by increasing the number of acres protected from future development to protect the viewshed, improve water quality, and restore a resilient ecosystem.
Conservation easements are voluntary legal agreements that permanently limit future land use in order to protect the land’s conservation value. Lands subject to conservation easements remain in private ownership, on local tax rolls, and available for traditional uses such as farming and hunting.
