Historic Farmland + River Front Protection
Capital Region Land Conservancy recorded a conservation easement on 49 acres off Osborne Turnpike in Varina with original landowner Randy Welch in September 2020. The easement, held by CRLC, is particularly important because the entire property is identified in the state’s ConserveVirginia model as being amongst Virginia’s highest conservation-value lands. The easement which protects farmland helping to safeguard regional food security and helping the region prepare for climate change changed ownership to new stewards, Chris and Annie Malo in February of 2021.
“It’s significant to have a landowner voluntarily donate an easement on property that ranks in the top 10% of Virginia’s most important places to protect. And even more gratifying to have the second-generation owners of the easement be as dedicated to responsible stewardship of the land as Annie and Chris are.”
During the past four decades, Henrico County has lost 65% of all of its farmland with less than 10,000 acres of farmland remaining and an average farm size of just 99 acres. This easement ensures the protection of 20 acres of prime farmland and 12 acres of farmland of statewide importance. It also provides protection of the floodplain along the James River that buffer fast moving flood water, absorbs and stores excess runoff and filters pollutants from our water resources. The protected land falls within the core battlefield area of The Battle of Chaffin’s Farm and New Market Heights, fought in Virginia on September 29-30, 1864 during the Civil War.