Barnharts, hunt club donate land for preservation -
CRAIG COUNTY – Another 2-1/2 miles of Craig Creek have been permanently protected through conservation easements donated by two landowners to state and local land trusts. The easements bring the total acres protected by easements in Craig County to more than 4,000 acres.
The properties are a 355-acre farm east of New Castle donated by Dr. Karen and George Barnhart, and 1-1/2 miles on Craig Creek frontage on a tract of land used for hunting by the Arrowhead Club LLC.
George and Karen Barnhart. Photo by George Kegley, courtesy Western Virginia Land Trust
The Barnharts’ farm six miles east of New Castle lies on both sides of State Route 614 and shares a boundary with Jefferson National Forest for approximately half a mile. It includes 1 mile of Craig Creek. The easement was donated to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation. It protects the creek, which has a pair of bald eagle nests, with a 35-foot riparian buffer and cattle exclusion.
Dr. Barnhart is a family practitioner at Carilion’s Salem office and medical director of Richfield Retirement Community. She grew up driving a tractor on her father’s farm on Meadow Creek, west of New Castle. Her husband came from a dairy farm near Boones Mill and retired after 36 years as a bridge inspector for Virginia Department of Highways. Both have deep feelings about their land.
George Barnhart, who comes from a strong Church of the Brethren background, explained: “Stewardship of the land is my theology. I hope people will look at the land as more than a place to live.”
“We would like to keep it in a farm,” Dr. Barnhart added.
The other easement on land used for hunting by Arrowhead Hunt Club is held jointly by the Western Virginia Land Trust and the Mountain Castles Soil and Water Conservation District . The easement will make certain the bottomland along the creek is kept in trees and cannot be timbered or built on. The club can still hunt it, maintain trails, and possibly replace the stream ford with a bridge one day.
Lenden Eakin, a Roanoke attorney whose family has owned the land for 230 years, said that the 13-member hunt club obtained the easement to preserve the stream. Eakin serves as the club secretary.
“Our goal is to keep the land in everyone’s family,” he said. “We locked up creek frontage so they can’t do anything that will damage the James River and the Chesapeake Bay. Craig Creek is a popular stream for outdoors people.”
The Roanoke-based Western Virginia Land Trust has led efforts to educate Craig County landowners on the benefits of land conservation and donating easements, and holds two easements. VOF, the primary easement holder in the state, holds 16 easements in Craig County. Easement holders are responsible for making sure the properties remain protected in perpetuity.
Conservation easements are voluntary agreements with landowners that permanently protect the land’s natural, scenic, historic, open-space, and recreational values from development while keeping the property in private ownership. State tax incentives have increased the benefits of gifts of easement, especially for landowners of modest means. Virginia’s Land Preservation Tax Credit for a conservation easement is 40 percent of the appraised value of the easement.
To learn more about conservation easements and associated tax benefits, visit www.virginiaoutdoorsfoundation.org or contact Josh Gibson at (540) 951-0449 or jgibson@vofonline.org, or Roger Holnback at (540) 985-0000 or rholnback@westernvirginialandtrust.org.
– Information provided by Western Virginia Land Trust
