Land Conservation in Virginia

SB-1

Virginia's Open-Space Land Act, enacted in 1966 to promote land conservation, created the state's open-space easement program. Open-space easements provide permanent protection for land with agricultural, forestal, recreational, ecological, scenic, or historic value for future generations. In June 1968, James M. Ball Jr. granted the first open-space easement to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, a state agency. Ball then conveyed his ownership of the 104-acre property, including land here on both sides of the road, to the University of Richmond to be used as an outdoor classroom and laboratory.

Department of Historic Resources, 2019

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Deed of Easement, 27 Dec. 1967, between James M. Ball Jr. and Virginia Outdoors Foundation (recorded in the Clerk’s Office of the Circuit Court of Goochland County, 13 June 1968). Deed of Gift, 28 Dec. 1967, between James M. Ball Jr. and The University of Richmond (recorded in the Clerk’s Office of the Circuit Court of Goochland County on 13 June 1968). Virginia Open Space Land Act (1966). “Conservation Easements and Historic Preservation: A Primer on the Law” (Committee on Continuing Legal Education of the Virginia Law Foundation, 1990). Margaret T. Peters, Conserving the Commonwealth: The Early Years of the Environmental Movement in Virginia (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008). Calder Loth, “Forty Years of Preservation: Virginia’s Easement Program,” Notes on Virginia (2005): 49-54. Richmond Times-Dispatch, 28 Jan., 13 Feb., 27 Aug. 1964, 7 Nov. 1965, 8 Feb., 10 March, 3 July 1966, 25 July, 24 Nov. 1968, 12 March 1972, 8 Feb. 2011. Washington Post, 5 Jan., 27 May 1964.