Conservation and Beautification

January 3, 2022

Chairman Hylah Boyd, The Tuckahoe Garden Club of Westhampton

The 1996 Conservation Workshop was held September 18 at APVA headquarters, the Cole Diggs House in Richmond with guest speaker Patti Jackson, Executive Director of the James River Association and current President of the Board of Directors of Virginia Conservation Network. Her comments focused primarily on water issues. Attendees were invited to participate in a rafting trip the day before on the James River or in a walk on one of the islands.

The 1996 Conservation Forum was held on October 29 in Williamsburg for the second time and drew 250 attendees. (The Forum was open to the public in 1995 for the first time.) Featured speakers were Larry Schweiger with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and Mary Marra with National Wildlife Federation — each addressed the topic of water quality. Retired Executive Director of Nature Camp Colonel John H. Reeves, Jr. was presented with a resolution and appreciation from the Garden Club of Virginia. The 1996 Elizabeth Cabell Dugdale Award was presented to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, nominated by the Williamsburg Garden Club.

A canoe trip through wetlands was offered the day prior to the Forum.

Hylah traveled to Baltimore in May 1997 to receive a citation on behalf of the Garden Club of Virginia from Scenic America for its success in leading the way toward defeating House Bill 2601, which would have destroyed thousands of trees along Virginia highways. (billboards).

The 1997 Conservation Workshop was held September 23 at Wilton with representatives from Scenic America and VDOT who discussed billboards.

The Board of Directors approved a Conservation and Beautification plan at its 1997 fall meeting in Petersburg to initiate a bill to be introduced into the upcoming session of the General Assembly that would (1) Eliminate all new construction of billboards in the State of Virginia (2) Raise the permit fee to 100% of the cost to the state to monitor billboards, and (3) Eliminate all tree cutting on public property in front of billboards.

The 1997 Conservation Forum, “Fighting Sprawl – The Battle to Preserve Our Land, Our Community Character and Our National Heritage,” was held October 29 at Mary Washington College and focused on urban sprawl and featured two speakers: Richard Moe, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Gary Gallagher, a history professor at Penn State who is moving to Charlottesville to take a post at the University of Virginia.

The GCV’s position statement on Land Use in Virginia was formally introduced at the Forum.

Two recipients were awarded the 1997 Elizabeth Cabell Dugdale Award. The first, Patricia A. Jackson, Executive Director of the James River Association, was nominated by the James River Garden Club. Patti is “extremely effective in the General Assembly because of her knowledge of environmental concerns in Virginia.” The second recipient, the Kenmore Association, nominated by the Rappahannock Valley Garden Club, for its role in preserving Ferry Farm, George Washington’s childhood home on the Rappahannock River in Stafford County.

Attendees were invited the day prior to the Forum to tour Fredericksburg battlefield sites — those preserved, those under siege of development and those under pavement. Dinner was held that night at Kenmore.