Department of Conservation and Recreation
Conserve. Protect. Enjoy.
Department of Conservation and Recreation
Virginia’s working farms and forests, battlefields and other historic sites, natural areas, parks and rivers are critical to its economy, culture and quality of life. In 1999, the assembly and governor established the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation (VLCF) to fund protection of these resources. The interactive map below depicts VLCF-grant projects funded since 2000.
| Name: | Highlands-Lonesome Pine |
|---|---|
| Category: | Open Spaces and Parks |
| Grant Round: | FY24 |
| Acres: | 44327 |
| Locality: | Dickenson County |
| Management Agency: | Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources |
| Owner: | Private |
| ConserveVirginia: | Natural Habitat & Ecosystem Diversity, Floodplains & Flooding Resilience, Protected Landscapes Resilience, Water Quality Improvement |
| Amount Awarded: | $1,000,000.00 |
| Applicant: | Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources |
| Latitude: | -76.932912 |
| Longitude: | 36.70617 |
| Description: | DWR received grant funds to acquire potentially the largest recorded public access easement in Virginia, on property currently owned by the Cumberland Forest Highland LLC (The Nature Conservancy), in Wise, Buchanan, and Dickenson counties. This 44,327-acre easement acquisition project in the heart of Appalachia presents an extraordinary and rare opportunity to provide new public access for recreational boating, fishing, wildlife viewing, hiking, nature-based photography, and hunting, as well as improve restored mined lands to support elk and a myriad of other wildlife species that use a matrix of forested and open grassland habitats. This property would provide an important foothold from which to secure public access on an additional 106,000 acres in this historically economically depressed and socially vulnerable region of the Commonwealth. Project partners include the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, and Southwest Virginia Sportsmen. |
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