[Virginia] Last month Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced his intention to conserve more land than any governor before him, 400,000 acres by 2010 . The biggest tool, Kaine said, will not be outright state purchases of forests and farmland coveted by developers; Instead, the state will borrow a formula from an environmental group, The Nature Conservancy, by more aggressively offering tax incentives to private landowners in exchange for “conservation easement” agreements that they keep their properties pristine, the governor said. But his message is likely to run into stiff opposition in a state where government involvement in private-property decisions has never been politically popular and where money for land-conservation efforts has been scarce. Unlike many other states, Virginia does not have a permanent fund dedicated to buying and preserving ecologically sensitive lands.

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes, May 5, 2006
www.southernsustainableforests.org