Safe Panhandle water, land conservation collaboration announced

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — About 750 property owners in the Eastern Panhandle have likely received a postcard encouraging them to consider protecting their land with a conservation easement as part of an effort to protect drinking water sources in the region.

Mailed Tuesday, the postcards are part of a public outreach effort by the Safe Water Conservation Collaborative, a network of more than 25 area water utilities, land conservation organizations and community partners collaborating on land conservation and stewardship practices to protect safe, clean drinking water.

Landowners in Jefferson and Berkeley counties with 20 or more acres of land in drinking water protection areas, also known as zones of “critical and peripheral concern,” were specifically targeted, according to Tanner Haid, Eastern Panhandle field coordinator for the West Virginia Rivers Coalition.

The properties with the highest values for protection were identified, at least in part, through geographic information system analysis, Haid said.

The postcards direct landowners to the collaborative’s website, which contains videos of landowners who already have placed their properties under easement, as well as interactive maps of where land conservation is believed to be crucial in the Eastern Panhandle.

The Berkeley County Farmland Protection Board announced last month that it closed its 10 conservation easements of the year, increasing protected acreage to 6,080 acres on 65 farms in the county.

The amount of protected farmland in Jefferson County increased to 5,455 acres on 48 farms with the addition of three easements in May and June.

A conservation easement refers to voluntary, legal agreements in which landowners protect their land in perpetuity from future real estate or commercial development.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 21 of the 30 water systems in the two counties use groundwater. Five of the remaining nine systems use “groundwater under influence of surface water.” The EPA indicates more than 112,000 people are served by the water systems.

The number of private wells being used as drinking-water sources in the two counties is not clear, but the census estimated that more than 175,000 people lived in the two counties as of July 1, 2019.

“One of the most recognized, successful and effective means nationwide for protecting drinking water supplies is through placing property under a voluntary conservation easement”, said Mark Schiavone, executive director of the Berkeley County Farmland Protection Board. “Landowners can protect their land and natural resources forever, and it all starts with an easy phone call.”

Haid said in a news release that the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, as the host partner for the Safe Water Conservation Collaborative, is excited to bring together land conservation organizations, along with water utilities and others in the community.

“Each of our partners has a proven track record in leading efforts to protect the farms, fields and critical natural resources, such as our forests and streams, that define our landscapes in the Eastern Panhandle,” Haid said in the release.

“By working together with a partnership-based approach, we are not only able to protect safe, clean drinking water, but in doing so also enhance and sharpen focus on each of our member group’s individual missions.”

For more information about the collaborative, go to https://www.safe watercollaborative.org.