When a developer, Mojax LLC, bought the Howards’ ancestral land in 2017 and proposed a development of 27 homes with individual wells, the community was understandably concerned. “As a widow and a senior citizen on a budget, the development could drive up the taxes and force me to dig a new well, which I can’t afford,” said Peterson. Besides the water issues and property values, residents worried about losing the historic cemetery, undiscovered graves of enslaved people, and the cultural history of the place.
Maps & Resources
President’s Letter – Winter 2020
Over the past year, I have re-learned the value of health, access to clean air, clean water, local food, and to the outdoors, but also the importance of understanding how decisions are made in our communities—decisions that affect all of these important elements of life. This, I think, is the work of conservation and the work of the PEC.
Winter 2020 Newsletter
The winter edition of The Piedmont View quarterly newsletter.
Farm to Food Pantry Initiatives During the Pandemic
Since March, with the help of partners and supporters, The Piedmont Environmental Council has provided 25,000 pounds of vegetables, 25,000 gallons of milk, and more than 11,000 pounds of local beef and pork to the food-insecure in our nine-county region of the northern Piedmont. That’s more than 50,000 pounds of locally-sourced products for local food banks, which has a very different impact on the local economy than shipping in 50,000 pounds of food from somewhere else.
Piedmont Environmental Council announces staff changes for Charlottesville and Albemarle, Culpeper, Greene and Madison counties
Piedmont Environmental Council President Chris Miller is pleased to announce the appointment of Chris Hawk as its Land Use Field Representative in Albemarle and Orange counties and of Adam Gillenwater as Senior Policy Manager & Land Use Field Representative in Culpeper, Madison and Green counties. Both began their new positions on October 30 and work out of PEC’s Charlottesville office.
Ovoka Farm joins Piedmont Environmental Council’s Farm to Food Bank initiative with 10,000 pound meat donation
Ovoka Farm owner Karen Way, of Paris, is donating 10,000 pounds of locally-raised ground beef and ground pork toward The Piedmont Environmental Council’s Farm to Food Bank initiative, which is supporting food banks throughout the northern Piedmont.
Webinar: Keeping Land in the Family
Learn more about the new Heirs’ Property Act in Virginia and what it means for families who share ownership of land or have inherited land without a will.
Return of brook trout signals promise for trout stream restoration efforts
Find out about recent fish counts.
Historic Rappahannock County Property Records Related to Shenandoah National Park Creation are now Available to the Public
In partnership with James Madison University, and with funding from supporters including William Dietel and Jennifer Manly, The Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) has completed the digitization of thousands of legal documents related to the Commonwealth’s 1930s-era condemnation of private lands in Rappahannock County for the creation of Shenandoah National Park (SNP).
George Mason University students to survey Roundabout Meadows vegetation
George Mason University plant ecology students are helping The Piedmont Environmental Council measure the success of our wetlands restoration effort at Roundabout Meadows. With a grant from the Virginia Native Plant Society, the students are establishing a baseline dataset by collecting and identifying all plant species there.