Youth Education
New River Land Trust plays an important role in connecting local youth with the beautiful land around them.
Our educational outreach is rooted in a place–based approach and focuses on four important areas: Conservation Connections in Cultural Heritage, Local Food and Farm to Table Initiatives, Water Quality and Habitat Diversity, and Nature Play and Environmental Appreciation. Our youth education outreach is designed to inspire students to value their natural surroundings and to foster responsibility and stewardship of farmland, forests, and watersheds.
Our education projects provide area youth with opportunities like:
- Engaging in nature play and outdoor exploration – The Nature Play Space at Heritage Park
- Learning about local watersheds and how to protect them through our Stream Field Trips with 4th Graders
- Local food system engagement with farm and garden education
- Learning about wildlife habitat and how to protect it
- Connecting with birds through bird watching with our Early Birders Program
For more information about our youth programs please contact Melissa Henry.
Adult Education
The New River Land Trust partners with the Lifelong Learning Institute to offer field trips and seminars related to the outdoors and conservation topics.
LLI members have visited the Ingles Ferry Farm and Tavern, the historic McDonalds Mill in Catawba Valley, went to a farm where habitat is being restored for the Northern Bobwhite, and visited the Hahn Easement to explore the research and restoration projects going on there.
Upcoming Adult Education trips and activities can be found in our events calendar.
Landowners
The New River Land Trust (NRLT) provides outreach, education, facilitation and implementation services to landowners with an interest in conserving rural land and its associated natural and/or cultural resources. We have a particular focus on the New River region, although over the years we have worked with people out of state and in many Virginia counties.
Historically the NRLT’s primary conservation tool has been donated conservation easements and providing information about how these easements work. However, every piece of land and every landowner’s needs are unique. The NRLT works hard to find conservation options that fit each situation. Options include the following:
- Conservation easements, both donations and easement purchase projects
- Donations of land for conservation
- Fee simple purchase of land for conservation purposes
- Federal, state and local government conservation incentives with a few examples below
- Federal grant funding through Land & Water Conservation Fund
- USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service programs through Farm Bill
- Virginia cost share programs for water resources through Soil & Water Conservation Districts and Department of Game & Inland Fisheries
- Land Use Taxation and Ag Forestal Districts through local governments
- Programs offered by other nonprofit groups such as Trout Unlimited, American Farmland Trust and others
- Helping connect landowners with people seeking to lease agricultural and forest land
- Helping to connect retiring farmers with young farmers to aid in farm transition
These are just a few examples. Please do not hesitate to contact us even if the above list does not appear to fit your circumstances. We will try our best to find something that does fit.