Powhatan farm protected from development

A 513-acre Powhatan County timber farm with 1.3 miles of frontage along the James River has been protected from any future development through an easement donated to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation.

The property, called Gobbler Knob, is one of the largest riverfront tracts remaining in a rapidly developing county. It now is protected from commercial development by a conservation easement facilitated by the Capital Region Land Conservancy.

Gobbler Knob’s owners, Reed and Gail Schweickert, said they donated the easement to ensure that the land would be available as wildlife habitat and for timber and farming in the future.

The most traditional tool for conserving private land, a “conservation easement” is a legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust or government agency that permanently limits industrial and residential development of the land in order to protect its conservation values.

In this case, the Capital Region Land Conservancy helped facilitate completion of the easement for which the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, a state agency, is the easement holder. As the holder, Virginia Outdoors Foundation will ensure that the conservation goals stated in the easement are perpetually upheld.