To top this off, I just recieved the following in an e-mail from Malcolm.

Hello Joe,

After I saw you drive by this morning, my student Kaylie and I went out painting in the new area to the south where some new homes are going in.  I had not driven in this area (that far out) and was amazed at the views!    The forested areas, as well as the “windows” into the pastures, along with the meandering roads are really fine subjects.  I (we) will aim to not be in anyone’s way as we set up our easels.  I’m so delighted with the opportunity to work in these places.  I hope to eventually get a series of paintings together of the area.

 Malcolm

If you want to take a look at some of Malcolm’s painting, I encourage you to drop by the Baldwin Center at 5005 Edge Valley Road or visit his website — www.mhughesart.com

The Baldwin Center for Preservation Development hosted their inaugural symposium, Residential Development and the Working Landscape on October 15^th and 16^th at their new facilities located on Bundoran Farm.  Over fifty participants with a variety of backgrounds, including farmers, developers, non-profit land conservation organizations, government officials, and leading academics came from across the country to gather at the Center and share their experiences, perspectives and expertise related to the preservation of our working agrarian landscapes.  During the two-day session, participants discussed and analyzed how the private sector can foster rural land preservation with market driven solutions and limited residential development.  In addition, the group explored how these solutions compare with, compliment and/or conflict with other preservation tools.  

While delivering his opening remarks, Baldwin Center Board Member, Bob Baldwin, Jr. underscored the symposium’s intent when he said,  “When it comes to the mixing of residential development and farms, historic exurban settlement patterns seem to have reflected either a collision of the two uses, resulting in an unhappy outcome, or containment of uses, a subtly hostile approach.  We believe that if planned right, the uses could, at the least, peacefully coexist and very possibly coalesce into a mutually beneficial arrangement.   The Symposium’s goal is to explore that hypothesis.”

During stimulating and lively discussions, the participants were challenged to interpret the value of farmland in new ways and assess the critical components and issues that emerge when integrating rural land preservation and residential growth.   While it was widely acknowledged that very significant gains in farmland protection have been achieved throughout Virginia and the country, all agreed that more needed to be done and could be done, particularly in light of the strengthening Local Food Movement.  The Baldwin Center was encouraged to take a leadership role in exploring and presenting rural development models that could benefit farmers, new residents, and rural communities as a whole. A highlight of the symposium occurred when Todd Haymore, Virginia’s Commissioner of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services addressed the attendees and spoke about the importance of agriculture to Virginia’s economy and Governor Tim Kaine’s goals to foster the preservation and success of farms within the Commonwealth.

About the Baldwin Center

The Baldwin Center houses a non-profit foundation with the mission to showcase innovative practices in rural land use planning and development, agricultural preservation, and environmental stewardship.  The facility is located at Bundoran Farm on Edge Valley Road and provides a gathering place for local and farm related concerns, educational workshops and field trips.  The surrounding acreage will be dedicated to agricultural research, demonstrations, and living laboratories supporting preservation, education and outreach.  The Baldwin Center is named for the founder of Qroe Farm Preservation Development and original partner of Bundoran Farm, the late Robert Baldwin, Sr.

About Bundoran Farm

Located just 15 minutes from Charlottesville and the renowned University of Virginia, the 2,300 acres of Bundoran Farm are nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Two ponds provide a place for quiet reflection or fishing, farm buildings and cottages dot the landscape, framing views that typify the slower pace and natural beauty of the Albemarle County lifestyle. This land remains intact today because of a legacy of family stewardship, a tradition of care that will continue for generations to come.  Bundoran Farm is not just a place of rare visual beauty. It is a thriving landscape of cattle and orchards – a place where deer, fish and birds find

quiet refuge. A place where a network of over fifteen miles of walking and riding trails winds amongst mature Piedmont forest species. And where, most importantly, all of this will remain intact for future generations. In fact, 90 percent of Bundoran Farm will remain untouched by residential development thanks to the careful process of Preservation Development.

About Preservation Development

Bundoran Farm is the location of a new kind of rural community. At the heart of this community is a new economic, environmental and social way of life called Preservation Development. This innovative concept of land preservation, combined with extremely limited residential development, has been practiced and refined over thirty years. In the case of Bundoran Farm, these principles will result in a low-density community of approximately one hundred homesites, with the great majority of the farm’s acreage put under a proven system of easements and deed restrictions to ensure the beauty, character and vitality of this land in perpetuity.  With the purchase of their individual homesites, owners enjoy the expansive acreage and beauty of the entire working farm and forest. They can experience the benefits of living on a large farm without the investment of time and management such a parcel would typically require.

Partial List of Symposium Participants and Speakers

Prof. Bruce Dotson

Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Academics

Senior Associate, Institute for Environmental Negotiation

University of Virginia School of Architecture

Charlottesville VA

Professor Dotson has written extensively on exurban growth patterns and land planning issues. He is consulting to the Baldwin Center for Preservation Development at Bundoran Farm.

Dr. Leah Matthews

GSK Faculty Fellow, Institute for Emerging Issues

Associate Professor, Department of Economics

Director, Farmland Values Project

The University of North Carolina, Asheville

Asheville, NC

Dr. Mathews’ research focuses on the valuation of those things that you can’t buy on supermarket shelves, like environmental quality and agricultural heritage, and the links between economics and policy.

Dr. Jill Clark

Director, Center for Farmland Policy Innovation

The Ohio State University

Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics.  

The Center for Farmland Policy Innovation is designed to match local farmland protection goals with needed resources.    Through these local-state partnerships, the Center provides model farmland protection strategies. Dr. Clark is also former Ohio Director of the American Farmland Trust.

Prof. Elizabeth Brabec

Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning

The University of Massachusetts

Prior to her teaching career, Prof. Brabec founded and managed the landscape planning firm, Land Ethics, Inc. Her research interests are focused on land conservation and the design and planning of sustainable open space, complemented with a strong interest in culture and the historical basis of landscape form.

Mr. Ed McMahon

Senior Resident Fellow

Charles Fraser Chair on Sustainable Development

Urban Land Institute

Washington, DC

Mr. McMahon is a nationally renowned authority and author on sustainable development, land conservation and urban design. Mr. McMahon previously served as director of The Conservation Fund’s “American Greenways Program” and as president of Scenic America, a national non-profit organization devoted to protecting America’s scenic landscapes.

Mr. Michael Heller

Manager, Clagett Farm

Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Upper Marlboro, MD

Mr. Heller has been managing CBF’s Clagett Farm, a 285-acre livestock/vegetable/CSA operation in Upper Marlboro, MD, for the last 20 years. He also assists CBF in evaluating agricultural/environmental policy opportunities and needs and serves on the Operations Committee for USDA’s National SARE Program (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education), the Board for Johns Hopkins Spira-Grace Project on Animal Agriculture, and the Board of Future Harvest – Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture.

Mr. Rex Linville

Land Conservation Officer

Piedmont Environmental Council

Charlottesville, VA

Mr. Linville is the Land Conservation Officer for Albemarle and Greene Counties in Virginia. Prior to joining the Piedmont Environmental Council, he worked at the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy in Maryland as the Land Protection Specialist for Talbot, Caroline and Dorchester Counties.

Mr. Joseph H. Maroon

Director

Virginia Dept. of Conservation and Recreation

Richmond, VA

Mr. Maroon has directed the DCR since 2002. His previous experience includes providing leadership for important private conservation and legislative organizations, including serving for more than 16 years as the Virginia executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Mr. Dan Slone

McGuire Woods LLP

Richmond, VA

Mr. Slone is General Council to the Congress for New Urbanism and the U.S. Green Building Council.  He also represents developers and communities in overcoming land use and environmental entitlement challenges.

Ms. Kate Collier

Feast! and The Local Food Hub

Charlottesville, VA 22903

Ms. Collier is a long-term supporter and advocate for small farms and local food producers in Central Virginia. Her innovative perspective on the food industry, life-long experience in marketing, food sales, and distribution has helped bring success and profitability to her business, Feast!.

Mr. Bill Kittrell

Director of Conservation Programs

The Nature Conservancy – Virginia Program

Charlottesville, VA

Prior to becoming director of conservation programs for the Virginia Chapter in 2002, Bill served for nearly 12 years as director of the Clinch Valley program in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee. There, he managed the land protection, science, stewardship, fundraising, and community development programs. While working in the Clinch Valley, Bill directed the permanent conservation of over 10,000 acres of important habitat through more than 30 land deals. He also directed the creation of other incentive-based land conservation programs related to forestry and coal mining.

Mr. Brian Wheeler

Executive Director

Charlottesville Tomorrow

Charlottesville, VA

Mr. Wheeler initiated the formation of Charlottesville Tomorrow in February 2005 and he was hired as its first Executive Director in July of that year.  Mr. Wheeler has lived in the Charlottesville-Albemarle region since 1984 and currently represents the community as an elected member of the Albemarle County School Board.

Mr. Bill Edgerton

President, The Oak Hill Fund

Charlottesville, VA

Prior to starting The Oak Hill Fund, Mr. Edgerton practiced as an architect in Charlottesville for over twenty years.  His professional focus has always been on Sustainable Design. He has carried his passion for sustainable design into his work at The Oak Hill Fund.  Additionally, he continues to be engaged in the Albemarle Community as a founding member of the County’s “ACE” (Acquired Conservation Easement) Committee, and as a member of the Albemarle County Planning Commission.

Mr. Tayloe Murphy

Former Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources

Former Member of the Virginia House of Delegates 

Mr. Murphy has been a leading Virginia voice for environmental interests for decades, playing an instrumental role in the development of key legislation, regulations and policies.  Throughout his tenure in the General Assembly, Delegate Murphy was noted for his commitment to environmental conservation and stewardship and protection of Virginia’s natural resources. He was an instrumental leader behind the General Assembly’s passage of both the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act and the Virginia Water Quality Improvement Act.

Professor Richard B. Peiser

Michael D. Spear Professor of Real Estate Development

Harvard Graduate School of Design

Cambridge, MA

Professor Peiser has taught numerous undergraduate, graduate and executive level real estate development, planning and finance courses to at Harvard since his appointment in 1998.  Prior to Harvard, Professor Peiser directed the activities of the Lusk Center for Real Estate Development at the University of Southern California.  His research interests include land development economics and the impacts of suburban sprawl.

Mr. Kevin Schmidt

Coordinator, Office of Farmland Preservation

Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

Richmond, VA

Mr. Schmidt was hired in January 2007 to serve as the first Coordinator for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Office of Farmland Preservation.   Among other duties, Schmidt is responsible for supporting the establishment and expansion of local Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) programs, overseeing and allocating state matching funds for these local programs, and reinvigorating the Virginia Farm Link program.  Prior to 2007, Mr. Schmidt worked for more than nine years at American Farmland Trust, most recently as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Director

Professor Jonathan Cannon

Blaine T. Phillips Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law

Director, Environmental and Land Use Law Program

University of Virginia Law School

Professor Cannon joined the Law School faculty in 1998 from the Environmental Protection Agency, where he served as general counsel (1995-98) and assistant administrator for adinistration and resources management (1992-95). Prior to his work with the EPA, he was in the private practice of environmental law; served as an adjunct professor at Washington and Lee Law School, where he taught environmental law; and was a lecturer at the Law School.  Professor Cannon has also served on the Albemarle County Planning Commission.

David Bearinger

Director, Grants and Public Programs

Virginia Foundation for the Humanities

Chesville, VA

The VFH goal is to assist individuals and communities in their efforts to understand the past, confront important issues in the present, and shape a promising future.  From his position leading the grant programs at VFH, Mr. Bearinger has a unique perspective on the issues and challenges currently facing rural communities.   Mr. Bearinger has also written on the need for a public conversation on the future of rural Virginia. 

Yellow Bellied Sapsucker

The sapsucker nests predominantly in  Canada, but also south of the Great Lakes and in New England south along the Appalachians to West Virginia.  In the winter it is common in Virginia and the Southeast where it drills its characteristic ring of holes around the trunks and larger branches of trees.  These holes do not ordinarily damage the tree but I have seen non-native trees such as the Japanese Snowbell and Japanese Black Pine damaged.  The sapsucker has a substance in its saliva that keeps the sap of the tree from coagulating so that it (and other birds) can return again and again for a meal.  The sapsucker has a very distinctive call.  Once you learn it, you will hear it in our woods in the fall, winter and spring. 

Click here (Yellow Bellied Sapsucker Song) to  hear the call of the sapsucker.

For more information about the Yellow Bellied Sapsucker and other birds a great place to visit is The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology which has a wonderful on-line information about birds.  Their site “All About Birds” is the easiest to use.

Dorothy Tompkins - Master Naturalist and Bundoran Farm Steward

Yellow Bellied Sapsucker

The birds on Bundoran Farm in winter are quite entertaining. Not only do we have the year round resident red tails, field sparrows, pheobes….woodpeckers..,.. etc but we have some water fowl that visit Lake Scogo and we have the wintering birds. Just this week the kinglets and yellow bellied sapsuckers returned. The sapsuckers have a very distinctive call (almost like a meow) that is easy for people to learn to identity. In winter I have seen hermit thrushes, which have been called “America’s foremost songbird”. The flickers are here year round but do a lot of calling/talking this time of year and are easy to learn. They are also quite beautiful.

Dorothy Tompkins

Master Naturalist and Bundoran Farm Steward

Huso also point out why it is such a great deal — “With substantial acreage, a beautiful home site, as well as an existing cottage – all with access to the benefits of the Bundoran Farm community – this property is an excellent value, especially in the steeply priced real estate environment of Virginia’s Albemarle County.”

For more information about homesites at Bundoran Farm that can accomodate horses, go to Bundoran Farm Individual Use Equestrian Homesites.

 Panelist included, Todd Haymore, Virginia’s Commissioner of Agriculture, Chad Zakaib, the General Manager of Jefferson Vineyards and Frank Levering, author of the book, Welcome to the County, that speaks to the the divide between rural and urban Virginia.  During the discussion, Todd Haymore commented how crucial agricultural development and farmland preservation are to the future of the family farm and allowing agriculture to continue to be a key industry in Virginia.  Currently, agriculture, with its annual impact of $55 billion, is the number one industry in the Commonwealth.

 More information regarding this meeting and a podcast of the panel discussion can be found be visit Charlottesville Tomorrow’s website. 

Matt’s crew completed the upper vaulted ceiling–which literally takes your breath away walking up the now almost completed stairway to get there….it is beyond gorgeous and far beyond what we envisioned in the design phase almost a year ago. Everyone who stops by is in awe–it just seems to fit together–and these pictures only capture a modicum of its impact.

I am so grateful to everyone who has poured their blood sweat and tears into this project…it is right up there as one of the truly remarkable buildings–and totally a testament to the collaborative effort of all involved.

My beloved friend and partner in Geobarns–Bob Baldwin–would have been overjoyed to see the developing fruit of his vision for the Sustainability Center–now appropriately named in his honor.

The ceiling-cupola combinations really does send me right over the edge… =-O

George Abetti – Geobarns

Mike Ball of Artisan Construction gives a big Thumbs Up.

On August 27^th, we held the pre-construction meeting for house John and Diane Foraste are having built on Homesite I-06.  In attendance at the meeting were Mike Ball with Artisan Construction, Alex Foraste, the Foraste’s son who also happened to be civil engineer working with McKee Carson on the design of the overall infrastructure for Bundoran Farm, and Leif Riddervold, David Hamilton and Joe Barnes with Bundoran Farm.

 The Foraste’s home, wonderfully designed by Jeff Sties of Sunbiosis, a Charlottesville based architectural firm, will be around 1,600 square feet and when complete with be living proof that “good things come in small packages”.  Nestled in the woods and up a bit from Hightop Drive, the Foraste’s home, aptly named Woodhill, will sit lightly on the land and, due to its skillful placement and design, will have commanding seasonal views across Bundoran Farm and beyond.

 On August 31^st, we held pre-construction meeting with the design and construction teams for the Tompkins Residence being constructed on Homesite H-13.  Joining Bill and Dorothy Tompkins were Ted Marrs and Joey Reed from Abrahamse & Company, the Tompkins builder, architect Bob Gray of Shank & Gray Architects and Leif Riddervold and Joe Barnes from Bundoran Farm.

The Tompkins with their design and construction team and, of course, Sam the Beagle.

Based on all the thought and care which has gone into every aspect of the design of this three bedroom cottage, we know it will be wonderful addition to the overall fabric of the Bundoran Farm community in addition to being a great place for the Tompkins to live.  As exciting as the house construction is, many of us are equally, if not more, excited by what will be happening as the Tompkins continue to craft the landscape environment immediately around the home.  Already, it is possible to get a glimpse of what is to come by taking in the some of the flowering plants and herbs the Tompkins have been transplanted to their homesite over the past year.

Malcolm is exhibiting new work in a two-man show at L’etoile (my favorite Cville restaurant). Painter Barry Gordon will show downstairs, and Malcolm upstairs, and Malcolm’s invited the Bundoran Farm community to the show’s opening.

Friday, September 11, from 5-7pm, enjoy wine and cheese at L’etoile (817 W. Main Street, C’ville, just off the bridge), and see recent work by two accomplished (and very different) local painters.

Edge Valley Barn, by Malcolm Hughes (yes, it's painted here)