2025 Land Wrap-Up
- NVCT
- 54 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Every year brings new critical lands and waters to protect, new partners to work with, and new challenges to face! Here’s our end-of-the-year wrap-up of the newly conserved places that stood out most this year because they represent the diversity in partners we work with, how our work contributes to enhancing public access to nature in Northern Virginia, and, of course, the stories of the wonderful people and organizations who make conservation possible.
Lubar
The Lubar property in Fairfax County is an excellent example of how conservation can happen in our own backyards and how small parcels of land can help protect essential natural resources. Located within the Rocky Run sub-watershed of the Difficult Run watershed, the six-acre, forested parcel lies behind the landowner’s home. A perennial tributary to Rocky Run flows directly through the site to the Potomac River. Preserving this land helps protect both the Potomac River and the broader Difficult Run watershed, safeguarding water quality, maintaining habitat connectivity, and supporting overall watershed health. The protection of this property advances local, state, and federal goals for open space conservation, forest canopy protection, and watershed restoration, providing benefits that extend throughout the region.
Senecca Ridge Memorial Park
Cheryl and Steve Honard transformed a small corner lot in Loudoun County—once the site of a devastating natural gas explosion—into a memorial park that honors fallen firefighter Trevor Brown, who tragically lost his life responding to the incident. Motivated by Cheryl’s family history in the fire department and the community’s need for a healing space, the Honards purchased the property to prevent redevelopment. Instead, they created a welcoming green space with benches, plantings, and a natural stone memorial beneath a resilient old oak tree that survived the blast. With support from neighbors, local volunteers, and NVCT, the park has become a place for reflection, play, and gathering, ensuring Trevor’s legacy and the community’s recovery are preserved for generations.
Expanding the Bull Run Mountains
NVCT secured a new 62-acre conservation easement on the rugged ridge of the Bull Run Mountains at the edge of Prince William and Fauquier Counties with the Currier family, extending long-term protections for this unique, regional landscape. The property features mixed hardwood forests, rocky crags, mountain laurel, and lichen-covered boulders. It provides vital habitat for species such as black bears, eastern timber rattlesnakes, northern long-eared bats, and saw-whet owls. This new addition builds on existing protections by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF) and Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC), strengthening a wildlife corridor and ensuring this ecologically rich ridge remains undeveloped and connected for generations to come.
Rare Mafic Barren Protected
In a powerful example of conservation by collaboration, NVCT worked with Compass Datacenters to permanently protect 14 acres of rare ecological land along Goose Creek in Loudoun County. This tract features a globally rare Northern Piedmont Mafic Barren—a distinctive community of lichens, mosses, and herbs growing on exposed mafic rock, identified by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. Compass Datacenters contributed a total of 71 acres of open space on site and agreed to long-term stewardship under a perpetual conservation easement. The protected land lies within a reservoir protection zone, serves as a natural floodplain, and enhances connectivity for wildlife, making it not only ecologically significant but also important for the water quality of residents in the area. This project underscores how thoughtful development and land conservation can coexist—and how corporate partners can play a meaningful role in preserving Northern Virginia’s most unique natural resources.
Preserve at Long Branch
In a major milestone for NVCT, 169 acres in Prince William County were placed under permanent conservation protection, transforming what had been proffered, proposed land from a new housing development into a future public preserve. The project emerged from an agreement with Stanley Martin Homes and the county. As development plans were finalized, the land was set aside for conservation and will now be managed by the county in tandem with the neighboring Doves Landing Park. The process required lengthy negotiations, environmental review, and legal work to ensure that future uses support long-term ecological goals — and once the deed was recorded, NVCT assumed permanent stewardship responsibility. This effort not only protects critical open space in a rapidly growing region but also safeguards an important section of the Occoquan River. This project is another great example of utilizing strategic partnerships to turn development goals into a win-win with lasting conservation outcomes.
Crow’s Nest Expansion
Our continued work to expand Crow’s Nest Natural Area Preserve in Stafford has resulted in the acquisition of two more protected Harbour Lots. These lots are essentially undevelopable but important pieces of a complex puzzle; NVCT purchases them and places them under a conservation easement so they may be protected and prepared for addition to Crow’s Nest Preserve. This brings the number of NVCT-acquired parcels to 25, totaling 58 acres. The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) will purchase 19 of these lots in 2026 and has already started construction of a new parking lot and trail that will pass through NVCT-protected land.
The year’s not over yet, and land conservation stops for no one! We definitely will have a few more project success stories to end the year. Among the projects we’re working to finalize include 1.4 acres in Fairfax County that will help preserve the scenic character of key routes leading to the George Washington Memorial Parkway and the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail; NVCT’s first protected lands in King George County; 85 new acres of protected woodlands; an 89-acre future park in Prince William County; and 56 acres in Fauquier County featuring a 0.7-mile stretch of Broad Run and 25 acres of critical wetlands. We’re excited about what’s ahead and all of the opportunities to protect even more special places in 2026!