Department of Conservation and Recreation
Conserve. Protect. Enjoy.
Department of Conservation and Recreation
There are many private organizations in Virginia that conserve land. Many serve a particular region of the state, though there are also statewide and national organizations. Organizations that acquire land or easements, assist other organizations in doing so, or steward protected lands are typically called a land trust or land conservancy.
There are at least eight statewide land trusts and dozens of regional land conservation organizations in Virginia. Learn more about land conservation organizations in Virginia.
Virginia's United Land Trusts, or VaULT, supports Virginia’s diverse conservation community to magnify and amplify land conservation efforts and achieve widespread protection of the commonwealth’s natural, cultural, and scenic resources, ensuring their long term benefits for all Virginians.
Federal, state and local governments play a role in land conservation. While many agencies are involved in land conservation in Virginia, the Virginia Outdoors Foundation holds the most conservation easements of any entity in the commonwealth.
The Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF), created by the Virginia General Assembly in 1966, promotes the preservation of open-space lands to preserve the natural, scenic, historic, scientific, open-space and recreational areas of the commonwealth. In addition to holding easements, VOF manages the Open-Space Land Preservation Trust Fund, which can help landowners with costs of conveying conservation easements and the purchase of all or part of the value of the easements.
Several other state agencies hold easements, including DCR, the Virginia Department of Forestry and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Learn more about how state agencies protect land.
