An important piece of land in Nelson County has been preserved for future generations, thanks to Wintergreen Resort.
The 1,422 acres are more than just a wilderness area, although that is sufficient enough reason to preserve the land. According to Doug Coleman, executive director of the Wintergreen Nature Foundation, the property known as Crawford’s Knob is important not only because of its natural beauty and wildlife, but also because of the area’s history.
Native Americans used the area as a crossroads, of sorts, because it is an especially narrow part of the Blue Ridge Mountains that was easier to cross.
“This is not, to me, environmental whitewash or greenwash,” Coleman said. “This is a very important property.”
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Thomas L. Smith, national heritage director of Virginia’s Department of Conservation & Recreation, confirmed the importance of the preservation area when he described it as “a critical north-south corridor for (wildlife) migration.” Further, the preserved area serves as a habitat for nesting wood warblers and hawks.
Wintergreen Resort dedicated the natural area last week, permanently protecting the wilderness from development.
“We’re looking today at a part of Wintergreen that will never be developed, said John Coy, chairman of Wintergreen Partners Inc. “Green is a part of our name. We are Wintergreen,” he said, adding “that was part of the founding vision of our community.”
At an elevation of 3,000 feet, Crawford’s Knob is located along the Nelson County resort’s northwest boundary.
Wintergreen donated the property to the nonprofit Wintergreen Nature Foundation in exchange for roughly $3 million in state tax credits. Officials first began discussing the deal in 2005.
The permanent conservation easement brings Virginia closer to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s goal of preserving 400,000 acres during his term as governor. As of the end of June, slightly more than 339,000 acres of undeveloped land had been preserved during Kaine’s administration.
Preston Bryant Jr., Virginia’s secretary of natural resources, said it appears the state is on track to achieve Kaine’s land preservation goal by early 2010. “It was an ambitious, ambitious goal,” Bryant said. “Virginia is blessed with many beautiful places, just like here at Wintergreen, that need to be preserved for generations to come.”
As Virginia’s population continues to increase, he said, it becomes increasingly important to preserve the state’s most beautiful and sensitive pieces of undeveloped land.
Bryant is right about that. Once a piece of pristine land is lost to development, it’s lost for good.
Future generations will be grateful to the Kaine administration and to those officials who preceded him for setting aside the state’s most important pieces of land for permanent protection. Crawford’s Knob in Nelson County surely is one of those important parts of the past that will be preserved for the future.
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