From “‘A total loss’: Hanover landowners fearful of proposed natural gas pipeline” article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, by Holly Prestidge.
“Catharine W. Tucker’s nearly 77 wooded acres off U.S. 301 teems with life: birds and animals, tiny seedlings and blooming native plants and enormous trees, all beings she often talks to on her daily walks around her property. The land several miles south of Hanover Courthouse has been in her family since her parents bought it in the early 1960s and it was left to her when they died. She lives here now, in this place her mother used to call her “green cathedral,” parts of which likely haven’t been touched since the Civil War.
Her heart breaks at the thought of an unknown entity cutting down wide swaths of her beloved forests for a pipeline that feeds corporate pockets elsewhere.
Using her cellphone on a recent morning, Tucker pulled up a map of the proposed pipeline, which would cut diagonally through her property and across parts of her land where steep ravines dip more than 100 feet. Her research into pipeline construction in other states revealed that 24-inch pipeline construction, like the one Chickahominy wants to build, can require a cleared right of way as wide as 80 or 90 feet.
Not only would it take trees, it would completely ruin the habitat. Tucker said of a cleared right of way. She’s hoping a conservation easement she recorded in 2011 on her property offers some protection. The easement is held jointly by the Capital Region Land Conservancy and the Land Trust of Virginia. In short, the trusts will see that restrictions Tucker has placed on the property, including no development, will be upheld.”
CRLC sent a letter to Chickahominy Pipeline LLC outlining the restrictions of the conservation easement on Tucker’s land and stated CRLC’s stake in protecting the land.
Watch a video interview with Catharine Tucker or read the full story at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.