Easement protects Appomattox forest land

APPOMATTOX — Hugh Radcliffe and Joan Rockwell led parallel childhoods about 2,000 miles apart, each sharing a love for the outdoors.

Radcliffe lived in San Diego on a family farm with milk cows, during the early 1960s. Over time, he said, the area developed to the point where houses are seldom any more than 15 feet apart.

Rockwell grew up in a Chicago. She played near wetlands and enjoyed reading books in trees. Later, she said, “McMansions” were built over the swamp.

Eventually their lives, and names, converged into Rockcliffe Farm Retreat and Lodge, a 275-acre forest in northwest Appomattox County that borders the James River.

“Both of us saw what happens when development keeps moving out and moving out, and slowly swallows up the countryside,” Radcliffe said.

That’s why the couple decided to turn their 275 acres of dense forestry into a conservation easement, the first of its kind in Appomattox County.

The easement ensures the forest’s preservation.

“Long after we’re gone,” said Radcliffe. “Basically, it’s protected forever.”

The Virginia Department of Forestry conservation easement program is the only one in the state that focuses solely on protecting working forests. To be considered, a property must be at least 50 acres in size; 75 percent forested, and the landowner must be willing to follow a forest stewardship management plan.

A conservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and a government agency or a non-profit conservation organization that protects the conservation values of a property by placing permanent limits on future development, according to the state department of forestry.

Even though the easement limits what the couple can do with the property — they’re only allowed one percent, or 2.7 acres, of building, which includes their home and a lodge on the property — they say that’s more than enough.

“We haven’t even exceeded or come close to that one percent,” Radcliffe said, noting that the limits leave plenty of room for a planned pavilion and extra cabin near the James River.

In addition to the retreat, which opened in 2006, the couple also runs a small sawmill business on the land, carefully selecting trees that animals have not taken up residence in, and turning those trees into furniture or boards for a barn. Radcliffe made most of the rustic furniture in the lodge, where guests stay.

Rockwell said her husband’s handiwork keeps the retreat running.

“He can fix just about anything and make just about anything,” she said.

With 275 acres of forest, there’s plenty of work to be done, and a lot to admire and discover, too.

A wetland exists near the river, where five streams on the property converge. Rockwell said the wetland serves as an important filter for the water before it reaches the river and, eventually, the Chesapeake Bay.

Radcliffe said he often sees bears early in the morning when he’s driving the back route home from his night shift at Areva, where he works as a machinist.

They also have seen a nesting pair of bald eagles swooping over the river.

Deep within the forest, about five miles of trails run through the property. Some of those trails were created during a World War II-era manganese surface mining operation. A few of the machines used were left behind by the miners, Radcliffe said.

Rockwell has dozens of arrowheads that she found in the forest and other stone artifacts with smooth edges worked by human hands.

“This isn’t virgin territory,” she said. “A lot of people have been here over the millennia.”