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How Can You Help Preserve the Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area?

1. Go for a ride. Spend a weekend or evening with your friends and family and get to know what’s beyond your immediate area. Explore the scenic and historic treasures that grace the back road of Loudoun, Fauquier, western Prince William, Clarke, and Warren counties? Check out our Driving Tours and Scavenger Hunts.

2. Find out what happened close to your home. Start here with It Happened Near Me. Visit the local museums in your town or county seat. Talk with your local librarian, ask neighbors or friends, and look around for historical markers.

3. Join a local historical organization or one devoted to preserving the natural, historic, or architectural features of your county. This is a wonderful opportunity to get involved, meet new friends, involve your children in their community, and make a worthwhile contribution to your community.

4. Educate yourself on the economic and cultural advantages of historic preservation in our region. The Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area has produced the booklet Profiting from Preservation that examines the economic merits of preservation in our region. Historic preservation is more than just aesthetics. It is about our ability to economically sustain ourselves with a quality of life worth living.

5. Come to Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area programs! Programs such as Legends by Lanternlight, History on Tap, or one of our book talks or tours help you learn the stories of our region. For an up to date list of VPHA programs visit our Events Page.

6. Monitor the local media for efforts to save or threats to destroy the cultural resources of your county and community. It is crucial that citizens stay abreast of such opportunities and threats; a mobilized citizenry saves the “sense of place” of a community. Speak up when a threat comes! Sign up for our E-Newsletter for information on preservation issues.

7. Check out some of the area's “watchdog group” websites:

• Citizens for Fauquier County

• Campaign for Loudoun’s Future

• Piedmont Environmental Council

8. Speak up and be heard by your local officials, especially members of your county board of supervisors. Don’t be afraid to call, write, or email your supervisor or member of the town council. The five county websites for their board of supervisors are listed below. When key issues come before your board, attend the meeting, and consider speaking. An email a few days before the meeting will get you on the agenda. Contact your board of supervisors here:

• Clarke County

• Fauquier County

• Loudoun County

• Prince William County

• Warren County

9. Consider buying or restoring an existing house when moving here. Old Virginia houses are part of our built heritage and need someone to love and save them.

10. If you own unprotected property in the Heritage Area, please consider putting a conservation easement on your property to save it from inappropriate development and help protect the integrity of our beautiful historic landscape for future generations. There are significant federal and state tax incentives to do a conservation easement. We work with several local easement organizations, but two of our most active partners are the Land Trust of Virginia and the Virginia Outdoors Foundation. If you have any questions about the easement process or anything related to protecting your property, please contact them or reach out to us at info@piedmontheritage.org.

11. CARE! Take responsibility! When you live in an area as special as the Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area, you are a steward of a key piece of our nation’s heritage. It becomes your responsibility to act, to vote, and to be vigilant so that your children and the nation’s children inherit the historic and natural resources left to you.