Joseph Pines Preserve Paid Off!!!

[meadowview]

Hi Folks:

I just want to let you know that we got a final donation in January that allowed us to pay off the note on the Joseph Pines Preserve. Thank you to all our donors!

We managed to pay off a $100,000.00 note on 100 acres in six years. Not a bad feat for a small non-profit. The main point is that we have prevented the extinction of many Virginia pitcher plant genotypes by establishing this ecosystem level preserve.

We are still waiting to hear on our loan from the state of Virginia to acquire an additional 134 acres. Keep the donations coming because we need to build up a war chest to pay that note when we settle PLUS we are now fund raising for our central Virginia pitcher plant preserve.

We have already received $1500.00 in donation to purchase the 3 acres in central Virginia. The purchase price is $20,000.00. The central Virginia preserve will protect the northern most purple pitcher plant population in Virginia.

You can read more about these stories in our 2009 Holiday Newsletter at www.pitcherplant.org. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Phil Sheridan
Director
Meadowview Biological
Research Station

[Carnivorous Ken]

Great Job, Phil!

I work for an environmental land trust in California, so I know how much work is involved in land acquisition, let alone stewardship costs. I hope your property has a decent fence and strong gate. People riding ATV's on our protected lands is one of our biggest problems.

Thanks for keeping us up to date.

Ken

[Michael]

Phil--well done!

It looks like it's time to upgrade my acrobat reader--I can't read the holiday newsletter. It's late and my brain is foggy... are the three acres in central VA part of the Central Virgina Pitcher Plant Reserve plan?

Curiously, Mike

[meadowview]

Hi Michael and Ken:

Thanks for the kind comments. We do have our main gates locked at the preserve but our main defense is a hunt club directly across from us. They keep an eye on the place, daily, which has been a big help.

The 3 acres that we are trying to purchase is part of the Central Virginia Pitcher Plant Preserve Plan. We ultimately want to acquire about 124 contiguous acres here to pull the whole thing off. The 3 acres has a sphagnum bog where we will be able to establish the northern most purple pitcher plant population in Virginia. The natural site is on a close-by adjoining parcel and we are down to 2 plants. We bagged and hand pollinated the flower in 2009 and now have a nice seed capsule to work with. There are several different properties we need to acquire to truly protect the native site but we have to start by buying what is available for sale and working our way to the natural site. A critical 13 acre tract, Gatewood, is now available for sale too which is just feet from the native pitcher plant population and contains the very headwater gravel spring bog. The headwater bog has old ditch lines which we will be able to fill in, some exciting restoration work. Gatewood tract is available for sale at $110,000. We have to finalize our loan with DEQ for the Joseph Pines expansion before we can be sure we can try to borrow money for Gatewood tract. I'm working on a variety of grant applications to try and pull this off.

If anyone is interested in coming out and seeing first hand our plans for the Central Virginia Preserve please contact me.

Sincerely,

Phil Sheridan
Director
Meadowview Biological
Research Station