The Virginia Natural Area Preserve System is a system of protected areas in the state of Virginia. It was established in the late 1980s to protect sites that were designated as among the most significant natural areas in the state. To become part of the system, a site must first be designated a Natural Area Preserve by the director of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. The dedication itself is similar to a conservation easement, as it places certain legal strictures on future development on a given portion of land. As of 2013 there are sixty-one dedicated preserves in Virginia, containing examples of some of the rarest natural communities to be found in the state; in addition, many serve as a home for locally, nationally, and globally rare species. Most properties are owned by the Department of Conservation and Recreation, but some are owned by local government, while others are held by universities and private citizens. Some are overseen by The Nature Conservancy.
Famous quotes containing the words natural, area, preserve and/or system:
“All the moral laws are readily translated into natural philosophy, for often we have only to restore the primitive meaning of the words by which they are expressed, or to attend to their literal instead of their metaphorical sense. They are already supernatural philosophy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I am aware of the damp souls of housemaids
Sprouting despondently at area gates.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“There are times when even the most potent governor must wink at transgression, in order to preserve the laws inviolate for the future.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Psychoanalysis is an attempt to examine a person’s self-justifications. Hence it can be undertaken only with the patient’s cooperation and can succeed only when the patient has something to gain by abandoning or modifying his system of self-justification.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)