Please send a message to members of the House Agriculture Committee via this Email Petition and ask them to support HB 1488. 

To be most effective, please follow up any message with a phone call. See contact info below for phone numbers.

Please show your support for HB 1488, and attend the hearing if you are able.

• $100 million dollars each year of Virginia tax dollars pays for the Virginia Conservation Program; however, non-government organizations, like The Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC), have no oversight, accountability, transparency or standards.
• Many farmers innocently place their properties in agricultural easements or purchase farms with pre-existing agricultural easements only later to find out they can't even have a dog house. Virginia's most famous farmer, Joel Salatin, wrote a very good article "Beware of those sincere sounding conservation easements" discussing the horrors of having a conservation easement.
• These easements are intended for the public good and are a government created program that uses tax dollars and "tax credits". Virginia is one of the few states that can "sell" tax credits. Yet despite this public program, there is no transparency or standards. 
• With one of these easements that are "forever" (and forever is a long time), anything can happen and change and terms can be interpreted differently. 
• Currently if a dispute arises, the only option for a land owner is full blown litigation that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take years. There is also NO TRANSPARENCY.
• HB 1488 provides a land owner with a forum to have a dispute heard or a question asked for clarification. Makes sense, right? Not only is it good public policy but it provides for protections and accountability that currently do not exist.

Chairman: Del. Edward T. Scott   (R) - District 30

(804) 698-1030

[email protected]

Del. R. Lee Ware, Jr.   (R) - District 65

(804) 698-1065

[email protected]

Del. Thomas C. Wright, Jr.   (R) - District 61

(804) 698-1061

[email protected]

Del. Robert D. Orrock, Sr.   (R) - District 54

(804) 698-1054

[email protected]

Del. Daniel W. Marshall, III   (R) - District 14

(804) 698-1014

[email protected]

Del. Charles D. Poindexter   (R) - District 9

(804) 698-1009

[email protected]

Del. Barry D. Knight   (R) - District 81

(804) 698-1081

[email protected]

Del. James E. Edmunds, II   (R) - District 60

(804) 698-1060

[email protected]

Del. Tony O. Wilt   (R) - District 26

(804) 698-1026

[email protected]

Del. James W. Morefield   (R) - District 3

(804) 698-1003

[email protected]

Del. Michael J. Webert   (R) - District 18

(804) 698-1018

[email protected]

Del. Margaret B. Ransone   (R) - District 99

(804) 698-1099

[email protected]

Del. C. Matthew Fariss   (R) - District 59

(804) 698-1059

[email protected]

Del. Jackson H. Miller   (R) - District 50

(804) 698-1050

[email protected]

Del. Robert S. Bloxom, Jr.   (R) - District 100

(804) 698-1000

[email protected]

Del. Kenneth R. Plum   (D) - District 36

(804) 698-1036

[email protected]

Del. David L. Bulova   (D) - District 37

(804) 698-1037

[email protected]

Del. Matthew James   (D) - District 80

(804) 698-1080

[email protected]

Del. Luke E. Torian   (D) - District 52

(804) 698-1052

[email protected]

Del. Mark L. Keam   (D) - District 35

(804) 698-1035

[email protected]

Del. Alfonso H. Lopez   (D) - District 49

(804) 698-1049

[email protected]

Del. Richard C. "Rip" Sullivan, Jr.   (D) - District 48

(804) 698-1048