22nd Annual Bluebell Walk: In Tribute to Mike Stevens
April 13 @ 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Join The Piedmont Environmental Council’s Julian W. Scheer Fauquier Land Conservation Fund for the 22nd Annual Bluebell Walk in Catlett, Virginia. This year’s event will be in tribute to Mike Stevens.
Each year in April, a spectacular display of thousands of bluebells appear on the banks of Cedar Run at Bonny Brook Farm. To celebrate this Rite of Spring, Piedmont Environmental Council staff, together with representatives from several partner organizations will be participating to talk about the restoration work that has taken place at Bonny Brook Farm to enhance wildlife habitat.
This event is free and open to the public but space is limited. Registration is required on Eventbrite.
Outdoor clothing and boots are recommended. Please, no pets. Note: the round trip walk to Cedar Run will be approximately one mile in length through fields. The event will take place rain or shine!
Donations are welcome for the Julian W. Scheer Fauquier Land Conservation Fund for continued land and water conservation efforts in Fauquier County.
The event is hosted by Margrete Stevens.
Mike Stevens
Mike Stevens worked as a development economist for close to 50 years. Born in England, Mike lived in several parts of Africa and the Far East before joining the World Bank in Washington, D.C. in 1985.
Mike and his wife, Margrete, bought Bonny Brook Farm in 1992. In addition to conserving the land in a permanent conservation easement, land management has included the planing of 155 native trees along Cedar Run; the extraction of miles of old barbed wire nestled in the cedar tree lines; the establishment of a wildflower meadow; and the beginning of a battle against invasive plants, including callery pears; multiflora rose, and honeysuckle.
These efforts have been possible thanks to help from PEC; the Clifton Institute; and PRISM. The restoration of Bonny Brook became Mike’s passion and his work lives on in our continued enjoyment of the land. Mike died in February, of ALS, at home on his farm.
PEC’s Julian W. Scheer Fauquier Land Conservation Fund
PEC’s Julian W. Scheer Fauquier Land Conservation Fund has been successful in assisting with the protection of more than 12,000 acres of privately-owned land in the Cedar Run watershed. It was established in 2003. The Fund is named in honor of Julian Scheer of Elmwood who, with his wife Sue, led many important conservation efforts in Fauquier County for four decades. Their work is today carried forward by Rick and Hilary Gerhardt, Julian and Sue’s son-in-law and daughter.
The Fauquier Fund provides valuable outreach, education, and financial resources for landowners to explore land conservation options as well as ways to improve sound environmental stewardship of land and waterways. Such efforts may take the form of estate planning and the donation of conservation easements; land management supported by the Fund may include the planting of native trees and the protection of streams and ponds.
In recognizing that working farms form an important and traditional part of the way of life in Fauquier county, the Fund collaborates with farmers and Fauquier County staff under the recently enhanced Purchase of Development Rights program to ensure that farms may be protected from future development through conservation easements. The Fund’s work in this area is especially geared towards assisting with initial expenses in the form of valuation and attorney’s fees.
Bonny Brook Farm’s almost 200 acres were placed in a Virginia Outdoors Foundation conservation easement in 2010. Together with neighboring Elmwood, some 650 acres are protected. Several other nearby large working farms have been placed in Fauquier County conservation easements totaling more than 2,500 acres, and are now permanently protected for productive farming. Hay is cut on both Bonny Brook and Elmwood by neighboring farmers in support of their milking operations.
Under PEC auspices, and with PEC staff assistance, the Fauquier Fund hosts a number of community activities throughout the year, including not only the Bluebell Walk but also conservation workshops and fundraising events.
Donations make the Fund’s conservation work possible. If you are interested in preserving the landscape that we enjoy today, please consider a contribution to the Fund when you register for this event.
Questions? Contact Montana Lanier Ruffner at mlanier@pecva.org or 703-459-3358.