Nature Conservancy to make 340 acres public

By Barney Breen-Portnoy

Published: May 7, 2008

The Nature Conservancy is committed to making available to the public approximately 340 acres south of Interstate 64 and west of U.S. 29, said Ridge Schuyler, the director of the Nature Conservancy’s Piedmont Program.

The parcel is the highest elevated land between the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west and the Southwest Mountains to the east, making for some spectacular views, according to Schuyler.

“It is a great piece of property,” he said Wednesday.

A sunken roadbed — believed to be the old road to Lynchburg — traverses the forested property and there are foundations of a crossroads store and a house that existed there in the past.

The property, donated to the conservancy in 2006 by the Hedgerow Corp., borders the 980-acre Ragged Mountain Natural Area, owned by the city of Charlottesville.

Of the city’s 980 acres at Ragged Mountain, about 300 lie south of I-64, inaccessible to the public. That land could be made accessible, Schuyler said, if it is seamlessly integrated by trails with the 340-acre parcel, which can be accessed from U.S. 29.

Schuyler also envisions a pedestrian and wildlife bridge being built over I-64 to connect the northern and southern portions of the Ragged Mountain Natural Area.

“My hope is that all 1,200 acres can be treated as one area,” he said.

Schuyler added that an architecturally significant bridge over the highway could become a “spectacular” landmark for drivers entering Charlottesville from the west.

The addition of trails south of the interstate may help assuage concerns about the loss of trails north of the highway when the area’s $142 million long-term water supply plan is implemented. Under the plan, a new and larger dam would be built at Ragged Mountain Reservoir, submerging more than 140 acres.

That plan has drawn fire from critics who say such a move is unnecessary, and that local officials should reconsider dredging the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir.

“We know there are concerns in the public about the trails, so it is important that there be more trails at that site and beyond,” Schuyler said.