Land conservancy efforts pay off in Amherst

Visiting Wendy Kendrick’s farm in western Amherst County is like stepping into the kind of postcard we would send to our cousins in less panoramically beautiful areas of the country in an attempt to inspire envy.

Not too far in the distance are Mount Pleasant and the rest of the Blue Ridge. Up close are precious farmhouses and rolling hills. Through them wind the kind of country roads where one slows down to 10 mph or so under the speed limit and rolls down the window to suck in the fresh air. And Wendy Kendrick is doing something about keeping it that way.

Kendrick was a founding member of the Central Virginia Land Conservancy, a group created in late 2003 to help landowners place their property in conservation easements. Under a conservation easement, a landowner generally signs away into perpetuity the right to subdivide and develop property. In exchange, governments usually give the landowner tax credits.

She recently stepped down from the board of directors after a six-year term limit. She remains the group’s landowner liaison.

“She’s truly the backbone of the group,” said Duncan Augustine, Amherst veterinarian and conservancy president. “As a founder member, she has really truly been an inspiration to everybody. She is always willing, always ready and a great spokesman for the cause.”

Conservancy Secretary Shannon Brennan credited Kendrick with almost single-handedly working with landowners to place more than 5,500 acres in conservancy.

Kendrick said her experience growing up in Maryland in the Washington, D.C., suburbs and watching sprawl overtake the undeveloped areas she enjoyed as a child shaped her desire to work in conservancy. Her family purchased a 40-acre farm on Sandidges Road in the early 1990s. They didn’t know how, but they knew they wanted to keep their property from becoming a housing subdivision one day, she said.

By 2003, they had placed their land in a conservation easement.

“The process was not an easy process,” she said. “It was something I didn’t feel like I had as much hands-on support as I wanted from the organization we worked with. It’s nothing against them, they just don’t have the manpower.”

When she told them that, she said, they suggested she start a group to do exactly that. By December, the Central Virginia Land Conservancy was incorporated. Now she works directly with landowners in helping them through the process.

Some landowners just want to preserve the current character of their property. Others have that desire, but also want to take advantage of tax credits that in some instances, she said, allow family farms to stay together.

“That means something to me, to know that what I’m doing is not only good for future generations, but to know it’s good for the current generation, too,” she said.

She is most proud of a group of conservation easements on Indian Creek Road in Amherst County, about five miles west of Lowesville. In her first effort, landowners used tax credits from a 100-acre easement to buy an adjacent parcel, doubling the size of their property, also putting it in conservation. Neighbors caught on, she said, and now nearly 2,000 contiguous acres of land have been preserved.

“I have also met some wonderful people,” she said. “You go into someone’s home and they start talking about their property and you see how important it is to them. I’ve met some very good friends.”

For your information
A benefit event for the Central Virginia Land Conservancy will be held on Sunday Sept. 19.

- What: Central Virginia Land Conservancy Land Jam
- When: Sept. 19; 3 to 7 p.m.
- Where: Lazy Days Winery (U.S. 29 in Amherst, just south of Route 151)
- Details: Local, gourmet meal by Dave and Mel Ellis of Mangia and Dish restaurants; music by John Sines Jr. and Molimo
- Tickets: $25 at gate; $20 in advance; children 12 and younger free
Givens Bookstore, Amherst Recreation & Parks Dept., www.lynchburgtickets.com
- Info: cvalc.org; (434) 942-4320