Farmland Protection Boards
Since their inception in 2004, we have partnered with the Farmland Protection Boards in Jefferson and Berkeley Counties, with whom we co-hold the majority of our conservation easements. These important partnerships brought in other partners, such as the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service to assist land stewards in protecting their lands through conservation easements. We are proud to partner with these two boards in our shared mission of protecting and conserving land, open space, water and habitat in the eastern panhandle.
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Jefferson County Historic Landmarks Commission
The Jefferson County Historic Landmarks Commission (HLC) is charged with aiding the county government and its citizens in the protection and preservation of local historic resources. Consisting of five appointed members, it preserves historic sites, structures and rural landscapes in the unincorporated areas of the county. It also educates the public about the county’s heritage.
The HLC and the Land Trust have worked together to protect permanently key portions of the Shepherdstown Battlefield. This is where Union and Confederate forces clashed as the latter were retreating from the 1862 Battle of Antietam. The HLC has acquired the 18 acres along the Potomac River which were the heart of the battle with the assistance of the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program and the non-profit American Battlefield Trust. A condition of that funding was placement of a conservation easement on that key property. This easement is held by the Land Trust of the Eastern Panhandle. The HLC also owns another 24 acres in the battlefield, similarly covered by a conservation easement held by the Land Trust. The Land Trust holds conservation easements protecting yet another 59 acres in the battlefield.
In the future, the Land Trusts looks forward to collaborations with the HLC to protect even more of the battlefield as well as other historic properties in Jefferson County.
The HLC website: https://www.
Landowners
We have partnered with the landowners in all three counties of the Panhandle who trusted us to protect and defend their land by voluntarily placing it under conservation easement.
Potomac Conservancy
The Potomac Conservancy, with whom we continue to partner through a co-held easement, also enabled us to acquire one of our very first conservation easements that served to protect water, habitat and flight paths of migrating birds. By partnering with us, they lent their own institutional history and credibility in creating conservation easements.
Visit them here: https://potomac.org/
Potomac Valley Audubon Society
We promote cooperation with the Potomac Valley Audubon Society to use conservation easements as an opportunity to implement their many programs to protect and preserve natural habitat and provide “boots on the ground” guidance for stewardship best practices.
Visit their home page: https://www.potomacaudubon.org/
Safe Water Conservation Collaborative
The Land Trust of the Eastern Panhandle is a proud partner of the Safe Water Conservation Collaborative (SWCC). We work together with dedicated partners in the Eastern Panhandle “to protect drinking water through land conservation.”
Strong regional partnerships enhance, strengthen, and expand the LTEP mission. We benefit from the depth and breadth of expertise that the Collaborative partnership provides. Our collective voice enhances our capacity for outreach and education. We are also strengthened by the dynamism and renewal that are the results of working together in unity towards a common cause.
We are grateful to our partners for their dedicated efforts to protect and defend our environment and all its precious resources.
Please check out the partnership’s recent accomplishments and landowner legacy videos.
You can also sign up for the Collaborative’s monthly newsletter, The Intake, to learn more.
The SWCC website: https://www.