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Conservation groups and volunteers urge restoration of Northern Virginia Conservation Trust funding
Summary
Representatives from the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust and partner organizations told the board that cutting the county's $86,900 support would jeopardize easement stewardship, community gardens and recent conservation investments.
Speakers representing Northern Virginia Conservation Trust (NVCT) and partner organizations urged the County Board to maintain funding for NVCT, which the manager's recommended budget had proposed cutting or reducing.
Eleanor Schwartz and Alan Roussom, both with long ties to regional land conservation, described NVCT's work in Arlington: monitoring 33 conservation easements annually, stewarding five nature preserves, assisting with stormwater control, protecting tree canopy and enabling community gardens. Schwartz said NVCT raised nearly $50,000 in outside grants recently and that its work has generated significant leveraged value relative to the county's modest investment.
Alan Roussom, NVCT's executive director, said curtailing the partnership would be shortsighted and could increase county costs for flood mitigation and other natural‑resource work. Emily Lansman, representing Arlington Friends of Urban Agriculture, explained that the Terborg Terrace Garden — a protected site managed by NVCT — is a unique contributor to the county's Plot Against Hunger program and that work there would stall without NVCT staff time and support.
Speakers asked the board to preserve the $86,900 line item to sustain ongoing stewardship and to allow NVCT to implement a GIS‑based pipeline of conservation priorities developed with county staff.
