How
would you like to walk across the depth and
breadth of the Commonwealth of Virginia
surrounded by ancient, old growth trees? ...
to hike from The Bay to West Virginia and
from the Occoquan River to North Carolina
and never leave the leaf canopy of a natural
cathedral?
You
can’t do it now, but your descendants can.
Create contiguous trails across Virginia and
let the plants grow for 300 years. Voila,
Old Growth all the way across Virginia!
Sound
outlandish? Benton MacKaye thought his
visionary idea for an Appalachian Trail
would take 60 years. Then, during the
Depression the public works projects made it
happen fast. Today, localities and the
Commonwealth work together to create walking
and biking trails from Jamestown to Richmond
and across NoVa. Why not extend the vision
to go across the state and expand the idea
to produce Old Growth?
Old
Growth in Virginia can be achieved in 300
years. There are very few trees older than
three centuries. If you put in native plants
and don’t disturb them, the old growth
will come. It will be well on its way in a
hundred years. Just imagine.
Take
a decade to obtain land for, say, six great
trails. Build three bands from East to West
– from the Northern Neck, Middle Peninsula
and Dismal Swamp west. Build one band east
of I-95, one band west of I-95 and one along
the Piedmont or west of The Valley.
Get
the General Assembly to pass a law that
keeps the land free of local or state taxes
for perpetuity. The trails will generate
more eco-dollars taxing tourists, taxing the
salaries of guide, wardens and others than
as subdivisions of sprawl. Let a non-profit
corporation or state agency manage the
project, but don’t use imminent domain to
take the land. A non-profit can do fund
raising. Sooner or later Virginians along
the path will want to help, especially if
there is tax incentive for donations. The
trail may be crooked indeed.
Share
the vision. In 10 years enough land can be
purchased and granted to make the trails
distinguishable. In another 10 years
light-weight bridges can vault every highway
and be wide enough and strong enough to hold
trees – like Natural Bridge , Virginia ,
but with man-made arches. In another 10
years bridge the waters.
Build
a walking and horse trail, perhaps for bikes
in stretches, the length of the trail. Make
the trail at least a square acre wide. In
some places the trail of Old Growth could be
a hundred or more acres wide. But make it
contiguous – eventually.
Think
of how schools for years and years can use
the trails for field trips to teach ecology
and natural sciences. Think what the Old
Growth trails would do for native animal
migrations, how they could serve as
sanctuaries for migratory birds.
Imagine
how years after we are gone from God’s
Country on earth, after our children are
gone, there will be a living legacy. Grand
green belts will span our state as
immutable, walled barriers to urban sprawl.
Places of beauty will illustrate what can be
done to live as good stewards of nature.
Who
will stop this idea from maturing like a
gentle Virginia springtime? Maybe some
short-sighted builders will balk. The local
officials who fear losing acres from their
tax base will fight it. They may not
understand, or believe, the math of future
tax fruits. Their small minds can be
overcome by large votes. My hope is that
Republicans, at least, will pick up this
idea as a campaign issue. Maybe it could be
a bipartisan issue. That would be a nice
change to create a public good project for
The Good People of Virginia.
I’m
ready to start now. I’ve thought about
this for over a decade and pored over maps
to trace the trails in my imagination. What
say you to your elected officials? Start Old
Growth Across Virginia now or never?
