They are Marlon Old and his father, Charles M. Old, of Craig County, and Dr. Karen and George Barnhart. The Arrowhead Club LLC has also put land club members use for hunting into an easement to protect it for the future.

Olds farm

Craig County residents Marlon Old, a former forester, and his father, veteran farmer Charles M. Old, have protected their family farm on Craigs Creek with a conservation easement.

“We’re happy that it won’t be subdivided,” said Marlon Old, who works in best management practices for the Mountain Castles Soil and Water Conservation District in Craig and Botetourt counties.

Craig County landowners Marlon Old, left, and his father Charles M. Old, center, talk with George Kegley about their decision to protect their family farm with a conservation easement along Craigs Creek. Submitted photo

Charles Old protected 136 acres and his son added 55 acres, although they consider it as one farm. The senior Old, a retired beef cattle and hog farmer and former hauler of pulpwood to the Westvaco plant in Covington, purchased the farm in 1959. When he started, he said he was a “pilot—pile it here and pile it (manure) there.”

A native of the Catawba Valley, Charles Old helped build roads with the Civilian Conservation Corps, worked as a mechanic for the old Norfolk & Western Railway, and served in the Marines in the Pacific in World War II and later in Korea. Now slowed by health problems at 86, he supervises from chairs in both ends of a family garden.

He said he signed the easement “to keep it from being broken up. I want to leave it in one piece…Developers are using good farm land.”

The Old farm, which is two miles east of New Castle, once was part of a larger parcel of 10 tracts. Forty years ago, Old fed as many as 150 hogs—“They rooted the mortgage off the farm”—and he once helped butcher 42 in one day. He built a herd of beef cattle to about 200 cows and calves.

Their farm, now leased for hay production and beef cattle pasture on meadowland and forest, is bisected by a mile of Craigs Creek. Encroachment is everywhere, said Marlon Old. Craig County has seen “remarkable growth” since he returned from a career with the Forest Service in the West.

A forestry graduate of Virginia Tech, Marlon Old was a forester in Craig County and then westward for a total of 13 years. He also attended law school and practiced law in Arkansas, later working on water rights for the Forest Service legal department.

When they completed the easements, the state tax credit was more than Charles Old paid for the farm 50 years ago.

Charles Old’s other children are Sam, who has a commercial garden across the road and works for the Craig-Botetourt Electric Co-operative; Patrick, who works for WDBJ Channel 7 TV in Roanoke; Dana, who lives in South Carolina, and daughter Luana Price, a retired teacher who lives in Blue Ridge.

– By George Kegley. Reprinted with permission from “Saving Land in Western Virginia,” Western Virginia Land Trust newsletter

Alan Lugar of the Sinking Creek area was the 2009 Conservation Farmer of the Year from Craig County.

Paxton Montgomery (right) is the 2009 Conservation Farmer of the Year for Botetourt County. With him is his son, Leonard Montgomery.

Montgomery’s farm is located on the banks of the James River near Narrow Passage and includes 65 acres of pasture and 151 acres of woodland, which supports 20 cow-calf pairs.

In addition to the James River, whose water eventually flows into the Chesapeake Bay, the farm has a native trout stream flowing through it. Montgomery installed water troughs and fencing, under a Grazing Land Protection Best Management Practice, to protect the water quality in both of these streams.

MCSWCD also awarded several scholarship recipients during the annual awards recognition program in December at the Fincastle Firehouse.

Those present included landowners and farmers in Botetourt and Craig Counties, Virginia Department of Forestry staff, Virginia Cooperative Extension Service personnel, Farm Service Agency staff, and the board of directors and staff of MCSWCD.

Jeff Henderson, MCSWCD board of directors chairman introduced several special guests at the dinner and  the MCSWCD staff:  Katherine Meadows, office coordinator; Marlon Old, Ag BMP technician; and Erica Moore, TMDL Tech/Education coordinator. Other members of the board include Preston Wickline, vice-chairman; Michael Beahm, treasurer and associate director; Andy Allen, VCE, appointed director; John Eakin, Bill MacIntosh and John Seibel, at-large appointee.

Youth Camp Scholarship winners were (from left) Jordan A. Saville, Jerod P. Myers and Kristyn L. Bandy.

The 2009 Youth Camp Scholarships were awarded to Kristyn L. Bandy, Jerod P. Myers and Jordan A. Saville Jr., all students at James River High School. Their scholarships allowed them to attend a week-long camp at Virginia Tech. They narrated a slide show of their activities at the camp.

The 2009 G. P. Todd Scholarship winner was Katherine E. Trainque of Craig County, who attends Averett University.

Two Harold Entsminger Scholarships were awarded in 2009 to Botetourt County residents.  Sarah C. Edwards and Kaitlyn R. Meadows both are enrolled in Animal and Poultry Sciences program at Virginia Tech.

The recipient of the 2009 Forestry Award was the Beaudoin property in Craig County. The property contains 141 acres and is located in the Red Brush area. Projects included the development of several five-acre wildlife food plots as well as two small ponds. Mike Beaudoin accepted the Outstanding Forest Steward sign to be displayed at the entrance to the property.

Alan Lugar’s farm in Craig County consists of 150 acres of cleared land and 50 acres of woodland. A Sub-Drive constant pressure water system was installed on this farm in 2009 as part of a Grazing Land Protection Best Management Practice, to provide water for Lugar’s cow/calf herd and to protect water quality in the nearby Sinking Creek.

Mountain Castles SWDC is a political subdivision of state government that uses local, state, federal and private resources to promote conservation. Mountain Castles SWCD works with local landowners in Botetourt and Craig Counties to implement a variety of conservation programs. Every farm is unique, and the staff at Mountain Castles is trained to work with landowners to develop a conservation plan that fits each property and farming operation.

Anyone interested in learning how conservation practices will benefit their farm should contact the Mountain Castles SWCD at 977-2698, Ext. 3. Those practices include stream exclusion fencing, cross fencing, woodland protection fencing, well drilling, spring development, pumping equipment, reservoirs, pipeline, watering facilities, stream crossings, winter feeding pads, waste control facilities, establishing riparian buffers (tree planting), stream bank stabilization, and sinkhole protection and cleanout.

Area landowners may also contact their local Virginia Cooperative Extension office for information. The phone number in Craig County is 864-5812, and the phone number for the Botetourt office is 473-8260.