Frederick County supervisors and conservation easement authority discuss tools, water science and funding to preserve rural land

At a work session with the Frederick County Board of Supervisors and the Conservation Easement Authority (CEA), county officials, board members and CEA representatives reviewed the county’s current conservation toolbox and said clearer priorities, funding and updated water science are needed to preserve farmland and rural resources.

CEA Chair Diane Curran urged the board to adopt “a better vision for what we want Frederick County to be,” saying the authority will focus first on soil, water and air as it develops a strategy and metrics to “figure out, are we getting anywhere?”

The discussion centered on the mix of existing programs the county already uses to steer development: conservation easements (held by local authorities and outside groups), transfer of development rights (TDR) that move development into urban development areas (UDA), newly authorized purchase of development rights (PDR) policy, and agricultural and forestal districts that require periodic renewal. Planning staff outlined acreage figures and the scale of the remaining unprotected land to show the scope of the challenge.

Planning staff said Frederick County has nearly 10,000 acres in conservation easements, with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation holding just under 6,000 acres and Potomac Conservancy nearly 2,000. The George Washington National Forest covers about 7,600 acres in the county, parks roughly 700 acres and battlefield easements about 400 acres. Staff also reported about 6,000 rural…