Northern-most pitcher plant bog in Virginia

[meadowview]

Hi Folks:

Some important updates on our pitcher plant preservation efforts. Please consult our 2009 newsletter at www.pitcherplant.org, particularly the central Virginia preserve story and map, for background details.

The northern-most purple pitcher plant bog in Virginia occurs just several hundred meters from our headquarters on a globally rare gravel bog with a state threatened species, the New Jersey Rush Juncus caesariensis. We have a plan to protect this bog, outlined in our 2009 newsletter, and are working on this project. We have now raised $4000 to purchase the 3 acre tract and are working on a lease agreement with the pitcher plant landowner, Chuck Hall, to rent the bog so we can continue our work but also compensate a grateful and needy landowner. Chuck just escaped foreclosure on this property and our economic support is actually in our long term interest. He is interested in selling to Meadowview (ca. 170K for 10 acres) but we just have too many properties coming available at once to secure all of them.

All of this work is happening in the context of several parcels owned by different landowners. We hope to eventually join all these parcels into one preserve connected to Meadowview. A critical piece of property, the Gatewood tract, has been for sale and part of the tract now has a contract. Gatewood consisted of one 25 acre tract split into two parcels of 12 and 13 acres. The 12 acre parcel now has a contract on it. The 13 acre tract is the very head of the bog and our restoration/conservation plan absolutely depends on obtaining this parcel to protect the groundwater, prevent pollution from development, and stop all the attendant problems that come from rural property development which destroy pitcher plant bogs. We have never had a chance to protect/purchase a native pitcher plant bog in Virginia and are unlikely to get this kind of opportunity again. Our native pitcher plant sites are in an extinction vortex and there are fewer and fewer sites to acquire.

The asking price of the 13 acre Gatewood tract is $110,000. The Gatewoods would like to sell to us but they aren't going to turn down other offers. If you know anyone that can help please contact me by e-mail ([e-mail]) or phone [phone]. Perhaps one of you would be interested in purchasing the 13 acre Gatewood tract as a conservation buyer for eventual sale to Meadowview.

Additional details will be forthcoming on the expansion of the Joseph Pines Preserve in Sussex County, Virginia.

Sincerely,

Phil Sheridan
Director
Meadowview Biological
Research Station