Friends Annual meeting will be October 12^th

Friends of the Blue Ridge Mountains will host our annual meeting on Saturday October 12^th this year. 

Please make your calendar now to join us for what promises to be an entertaining and unique afternoon.

This year our meeting will be in a wonderful, picturesque and rustic setting. George Ohrstrom has invited Friends to have our meeting at Camden, his farm in Clarke County near Boyce Virginia.

George has been a major force in land conservation / environmental protection efforts throughout Clarke and Loudoun Counties for decades.  George is a member of the Executive Committee Piedmont Environmental Council, and Chair of the Clarke County Planning Commission. He is also Vice Chair of the Clarke County Easement Authority and past president of the Friends of the Shenandoah River.

An avid fly-fisherman, George’s concern for water quality led him to start The Downstream Project to promote natural resource conservation through visual arts and the Web. The Downstream project now helps small regional non-profits all over the Shenandoah Valley and Chesapeake Bay watersheds with their web needs.

George is also the 2023 recipient of our Friend of the Mountain Award.

Over the past several years George has hosted many events at Camden including annual meetings of the Clarke County Easement Authority.

For the first time, Friends will be hosting our annual event in Clarke County. It’s a chance for all our Loudoun members to see this special landscape in full autumn colors. Clarke has preserved a quarter of all its land through conservation easements.

We will provide updates soon, and let you know when event registration goes live on our website. We hope you can join us. Please plan now on joining us in October.

Sunday August 18-Young Birders Walk at Algonkian
Join Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy’s Young Birding Program for a walk exclusively for young birders (ages 13 to 20) at Algonkian Regional Park. A parent/guardian is welcome to join. Registration required.
Questions: Contact Patrick Lewis at plewis@loudounwildlife.org.

Wednesday August 21 – 2024 ATC Membership Meeting 
The 2024 Appalachian Trail Club (ATC) Membership Meeting will take place on Wednesday, August 21, at 7 p.m. EDT. The meeting will be online only. You can register to virtually attend the meeting at appalachiantrail.org/2024meeting.

Saturday August 24 — Nocturnal Insects at the Piedmont Memorial Overlook
Join The Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) and The Clifton Institute for an evening discovering the diversity of moths and other nocturnal insects at PEC’s Piedmont Memorial Overlook!

This first-ever nighttime program at the overlook will start with an introduction to the property, followed by a short hike through the native meadow before observing the interesting moths and other insects that have gathered on a backlit white sheet.
Registration required. October Greenfield at ogreenfield@pecva.org.

Every Wednesday in August — Buchanan Hall Farmer’s Market
Every Wednesday at The Hall on Route 50 in Upperville, shop a collection of local produce, meat, dairy, bread, bagels, artisan items and more. The third Wednesday of the month is the BIG BAZAAR Day, when the Market will host additional artisan and boutique vendors.

Buchanan Hall — 8549 John S. Mosby Hwy. Upperville, VA 20184

Friends Submits Comments — NIETC Designation in the Blue Ridge 

Friends of the Blue Ridge Mountains submitted a formal statement of concerns to the US Department of Energy regarding the designation of a National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor (NIETC) impacting the Blue Ridge Mountains.

On May 8, 2024, The Department of Energy (DOE) released a list of 10 potential NIETC corridors which included a 2-mile-wide corridor that would cross the Blue Ridge Mountains somewhere between the Potomac River and Snickers Gap (VA. 7)
DOE is inviting public comments on “the geographic boundaries and potential impacts of NIETC designation on environmental, community, and other resources.

According to the May 8th DOE press release “DOE will prioritize which potential NIETCs move from the preliminary list to Phase 3, during which DOE will draft NIETC designation reports, conduct environmental reviews, proceed with government-to-government consultation as appropriate, and engage in robust public engagement. DOE anticipates announcing the narrowed list of potential NIETCs and initiating Phase 3 in the fall of 2024.”

NIETC designation unlocks significant federal financing incentives and permitting tools to encourage the construction of transmission lines. Financing includes direct loans and public-private partnerships through the Transmission Facilitation Program, and Federal siting and permitting authority of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Because of the NIETC designation, the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) will have the authority to override Loudoun’s carefully developed zoning regulations, historic designations, and conservation easements restricting the placement of transmission lines. Furthermore, if the Virginia SCC were to deny a proposed transmission route through Western Loudoun, an applicant could still apply to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to override the SCC decision.

Friends prepared and submitted an extensive 15-page statement documenting the damage that the construction of power lines through the Blue Ridge will have on Water Use and Quality; Fish Wildlife and Vegetation; Air Quality; Land Use, Recreation and Esthetics.

Please go to our website to read the full statement.
FBRM’s statement was prepared by our MARL Woking Group chaired by Lowell Smith.

Friends Contributes to Transmission Line Impact Statement 

Friends of the Blue Ridge Mountains has joined numerous environmental / conservation organizations preparing statements outlining the negative impacts of the proposed 500 kV transmission line through Western Loudoun County and the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Our statement in full can be found here. Friends’ Statement was drafted by our MARL Working Group chaired by Lowell Smith.

In addition to Friends, statements have been prepared by Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy, Loudoun Wineries and Wine Growers Association, Save Rural Loudoun Foundation, the Loudoun County Bed and Breakfast Guild and eight other organizations.

Pulling from all of the statements, the Loudoun Transmission Line Alliance (LTLA) has prepared a single 137-page report documenting the vast and irreparable damage NextEra Energy’s proposed 500kV transmission line would have on Loudoun’s rural economy, agriculture, environment, heritage and home values. The statement includes a series of maps to illustrate the density of historical, economic and natural resources in Loudoun.

LTLA has submitted the Impact statement to the Virginia State Corporation Commission, NextEra Energy and to PJM Interconnection, the organization responsible for coordinating power across 13 states including Virginia.
Some of the findings in the LTLA report include:

¨     Over 332 homeowners proximate to the proposed line will see property value losses ranging from 14% to 44% — totaling more than $32 million in lost property values.
¨     Threats to the Blue Ridge Mountains include the loss of hundreds of acres of trees reducing the forest capacity to capture green house gases and increasing water runoff; damaging the natural habitat for animals and native plants; threatening the beauty of hundreds of miles of mountain trails.
¨     Hundreds of historic structures are threatened, and 75,000 acres of historic and conservation easements would be violated.
¨     Historic districts including Waterford, Lovettsville, and Paeonian Springs are in the direct path of the proposed transmission line.

The full LTLA impact statement, authored by Jim Hanna, Bob Pollard, and Sue Manch can be found here.

Loudoun Considering Program to Preserve Unpaved Roads

Many visitors and new residents of Loudoun County are surprised to learn that the wealthiest, fastest growing county in the Commonwealth has hundreds of miles of unpaved country roads In fact, there are more miles of unpaved roads in Loudoun County than any other county in the state.

The best current estimate is that there are approximately 250 miles of unpaved roads in Loudoun. While that is an impressive number, particularly for a wealthy county within an hour’s drive of the nation’s capital, it is down from an estimated 600 miles of unpaved roads in 1980.

Yes – within a few minutes’ drive of the most sophisticated data centers in the world one can ride a horse, bike, walk or even ride in a horse drawn carriage on a quiet farm lane that looks and sounds much as it did in 1800.

Many of Loudoun’s citizens and community groups like it that way and want to keep our network of unpaved rural roads.

Until recently, a significant hurdle to keeping our unpaved roads has been that funds from the state’s Highway Construction District Improvement Program could only be used for paving rural roads.The funds could not be used for other forms of maintenance. However, legislation was passed by the General Assembly earlier this year. Now, funding can be used to install new material, improve drainage, and enhance road design.

Each year, the county receives funds from the state program based on its milage of unpaved roads. On average, Loudoun receives $1.9 million annually. County supervisors meet each year to allocate that funding via a Secondary Road Six-Year Plan.

At the July 17^th meeting, the Loudoun County Transportation and Land Use Committee (TLUC) heard plans for an Unpaved Roads Program. If approved, the Unpaved Roads Program would result in recommendations on which of the county’s 250 miles of unpaved roads should be hard surfaced and which should remain as gravel. It would create an inventory of all public unpaved roads including crash information, traffic levels and public input to develop a maintenance and preservation strategy for each.

Development of the program, which would include community meetings in the Catoctin and Little River districts, is estimated to cost $401,000 and take 12 months to complete
Supervisor Caleba A. Kershner (Catoctin) successfully moved to delay a committee vote on recommending the program to the full Board of Supervisors until September while he and Supervisor Laura A. TeKrony (Little River) continue to work with the Rural Roads Committee to complete some of the program’s details.

We will continue to keep you informed on this program through Happenings Around the Blue Ridge.

People You Should Know

This one in a series of occasional articles highlighting the people whose decisions and activities directly impact the way in which we enjoy, use, celebrate and protect our wonderful Blue Ridge Mountains.

Chris Van Vlack — Urban/Agriculture Conservationist, Loudoun Soil and Water Conservation District
What does a self-proclaimed anglophile with a bachelor’s degree in government from American University do? Move to Loudoun County to become a farmer of course!

At least that is what Chris Van Vlack did.

Chris wears many hats, all of which involve developing Loudoun County public policy for the rural west. Chris is the Urban/Agriculture Conservationist for the Loudoun Soil and Conservation District (SWCD). He is a Loudoun County farmer. He is immediate past president of the Loudoun Farm Bureau. He is a member of the Rural Economic Development Council and most recently he has been appointed “Coordinating Lead – Agriculture/Conservation” for the Western Loudoun Zoning Ordinance Amendment (ZOAM- 2024-0002).

Chris has been with the Loudoun Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) since 2005. Currently his primary job is to help Loudoun County farmers prepare and implement Conservation Farm Plans. In Loudoun, a Conservation Farm Plan is required for certain uses, such as Farm Market or raising farm animals on parcels less than 5 acres. Chris’s work includes helping small acre farmers access state and locally funded cost share projects like fencing horses, cattle, and other livestock out of streams, and providing water systems for livestock.

Chris also works with Loudoun suburban communities through the Virginia Conservation Assistance Program (VCAP). VCAP is a cost-share program that provides financial incentives as well as technical and educational assistance to help homeowners and HOAs solve water management problems such as erosion and poor drainage. Solutions include conservation projects like rainwater harvesting, dry wells, conservation landscaping, and rain gardens. This is important because nonpoint source pollution is the leading cause of water quality problems in our region. Rainfall or snowmelt from suburban lawns, golf courses, and paved surfaces picks up and carries away natural and human-made pollutants depositing them into lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters and ground waters such as Goose Creek and the Chesapeake Bay.

Chris is a farmer. He farms about 40 acres of leased land in 8 parcels throughout Western Loudoun. He grows mostly hay but over the past 5 years he has been expanding into oats and wheat. Now about 30% of his land is in small grains. In addition, Chris also does custom harvesting for other farmers.

According to Chris, there are three factors that make Loudoun a great place to farm — proximity to a large, diverse, wealthy market; rich soils; and a strong community of farmers. Generally, Loudoun farmers do not think of themselves as in competition with each other. There is a lot of cooperation and mutual aid.

As immediate past president of the Loudoun Farm Bureau, Chris helped the organization become more directly involved in developing County policy to preserve and protect farming and farmland in the County. He also helped the organization become more diverse. Currently the Board of the Loudoun Farm Bureau has the youngest membership and the most women of any Farm Bureau in the Commonwealth. Of course, the Farm Bureau was exceedingly active in the Board of Supervisors (BOS) adoption of the so-called Prime Soils Initiative (ZOAM 2020-0002: Prime Agricultural Soils and Cluster Subdivision Regulations). Friends joined with the Farm Bureau and most other conservation/environmental organizations in Western Loudoun to support the initiative.

For readers of Happenings Around the Blue Ridge perhaps one of the most interesting roles that Chris plays in developing Loudoun County public policy is his most recent assignment.

The Transportation Land Use Committee of the Board of Supervisors has appointed Chris as the Agriculture/Conservation “Coordinating Lead” for the Western Loudoun ZOAM (Zoam2024-0002). This is one of two “Coordinating Lead” positions, the other being for Business/Tourism. Beth Erickson, President and CEO of Visit Loudoun has been appointed to this position.

The role of the “Coordinating Lead” will be to recommend the individual “stakeholders” who will be participating in the public input sessions associated with drafting the Western Loudoun Zoam.

This ZOAM is exceedingly important to FBRM because it specifically includes a review of, and possible changes to, zoning regulations in the Mountain Overlay District (MOD). In many ways the ZOAM is more important than the new zoning ordinance because of the specific focus on the MOD.