J Lee Farm 3.98

Another 239 acres of Loudoun farmland is under permanent protection, thanks to the efforts of the owners and the Land Trust of Virginia with help from the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy and the Piedmont Environmental Council.

The farm, located on Rt. 15 in the Lucketts area north of Leesburg, has been in the family’s ownership for more than a century. In making the donation of the conservation easement on the third generation family farm, the Lees gave up their development rights for an approved 47-lot residential subdivision located less than a mile from Lucketts. Not only does the conservation easement protect the land, it also protects significant historic structures that contribute to the Catoctin Rural Historic District. It contains one of the county’s oldest-known cemeteries, the Oxley family cemetery, that has been cared for by the family since Isaac Dyer and Gertrude Yeager Gum purchased the farm more than a century ago.

In addition to the historic resources, the property also contains significant agricultural and natural features, including prime farmland, almost a mile of perennial stream channels that flow into Limestone Branch and then to the Potomac River, and a rare wetland community known as the Piedmont Upland Depression Swamp. It is the latter feature that has conservationists and environmentalists excited. As residential development continues to impact groundwater north of Leesburg in the Limestone Overlay District, protection of the land takes on added significance, according to LTV Easement Coordinator John Magistro, who has been working with the family on the easement.

The easement came about through close cooperation with Joe Coleman and Nicole Hamilton of the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy and Michael Kane at the Piedmont Environmental Council, all of whom strongly supported the easement donation and worked for the preservation of the property and its resources. Kane noted the extent of local support to preserve the wetlands and the farm. “We received such enthusiastic support from almost every corner of the Lucketts community, from local civic organizations to elementary school groups,” he said, adding the support showed area residents clearly valued and understood the Lee family’s place in the history of the area and its stewardship of the property over the years.

Included in the easement is a provision giving the landowners an additional incentive, if they wish to convey 40 acres of the protected rare wetland habitat to a conservation organization in the future. The land is part of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership and its president, Cate Magennis Wyatt, applauded the donors for protecting such a key stretch of Rt. 15 in the heart of the National Heritage Area.

The announcement came on the heels of the land trust’s annual meeting, held Nov. 10 at Buchanan Hall in Upperville. Virginia Outdoors Foundation Executive Director Bob Lee was both the featured speaker and recipient of the trust’s Conservationist of the Year Award for Lifetime Achievement. Lee is a big name in the world of land conservation and has steered the VOF for the past eight years, leading an organization that has protected more land than any other in the state’s history of land conservation. The Land Trust of Virginia is a Middleburg-based private nonprofit organization. Currently, LTV holds and stewards 119 easements on more than 12,000 acres in Loudoun, Fauquier and surrounding counties.