THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 7, 1996 TAG: 9601070086
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
A new plan for replacing wetlands destroyed by development in Virginia has its first success story: a 130-acre forested swamp, believed to host rare plants, black bear and the endangered Dismal Swamp shrew.
The lush property, adjacent to Northwest River Park in remote southern Chesapeake, was acquired by the Nature Conservancy, an environmental group, with money paid by developers penalized for building atop wetlands elsewhere in the region, it was announced last week.
To comply with federal environmental law, developers usually must find or create replacement wetlands on their own, which has proven to be expensive, cumbersome and ecologically ineffective, most scientists and builders agree.
But under an agreement reached in August between the Nature Conservancy and the Army Corps of Engineers, developers who disturb fewer than 10 acres of wetlands can simply give money to the Virginia Wetlands Restoration Trust Fund.
The trust fund is controlled by the conservancy, which to date has netted $65,000, said Linda Lundquist, director of protection for the conservancy's Virginia chapter. Contributions are then used to buy larger, more ecologically important wetlands that conservancy experts can manage and help keep pristine.
The old system often resulted in a patchwork of smaller, manmade wetlands that are not as efficient at providing habitat for wildlife, filtering pollutants and enhancing water quality, scientists say.
The 130 acres in Chesapeake, on the north bank of the Northwest River, is the first land bought through the fund. Actually, the conservancy only had to pay for half the property; an anonymous landowner donated the other half. Conservancy officials declined to say how much they paid.
``Keeping these wetlands wild and beautiful is a very farsighted legacy to the next generation of Virginians,'' said Michael Lipford, director of the conservancy's Virginia chapter in Charlottesville.
The land includes freshwater marshes and forested swamps, which, combined with other wild areas along the Northwest River, provide a key natural link between the Great Dismal Swamp and Albemarle Sound in North Carolina, according to the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Black bear are known to live and breed in the area.
And dense, wet forests provide an ideal habitat for the federally protected Dismal Swamp shrew, a shy mouselike critter whose existence is believed to be restricted to Southeast Virginia and Northeast North Carolina.
The newly acquired swamp expands to more than 3,100 acres a collection of preserved lands along the Northwest River owned by the conservancy, the state and the city of Chesapeake.
While the swamp is managed currently by the conservancy, Lundquist said Chesapeake has expressed an interest in acquiring the land to add to its Northwest River Park.
When announced last summer, the trust fund stirred some concern among environmental purists who questioned if developers would be encouraged to destroy more wetlands because they could more easily replace them.
There also were questions about whether a private conservation group should join hands with a federal regulatory agency, such as the Army Corps of Engineers, in establishing a wetlands protection program.
But there are checks and balances.
For example, only the corps is responsible for determining which developers can qualify for a contribution and how big that contribution should be.
The conservancy, meanwhile, is a blind recipient of money; its officials do not know who is giving or how much is being given to the fund.
``We can do more for wetlands and water quality by combining mitigation funds from smaller projects to accomplish larger wetland protection projects,'' said Greg Culpepper, a corps administrator in Norfolk who helped design the trust fund. ILLUSTRATION: Map
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PROPERTY PURCHASE
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