Clinch Valley Conservation Forestry

Working Forests

Our on-the-ground operations are designed to enhance a wide range of forest resources, including soil and water quality, high-value timber, carbon storage, and sensitive wildlife habitat. All management, including our timber harvesting, is guided by principles set forth in an Operations Plan prepared in consultation with many forestry and wildlife professionals.

Our Conservation Forestry Program involves a unique arrangement with private landowners in southwestern Virginia. While retaining ownership of their properties, they transfer timber and ecosystem service rights to TNC through permanent forest management easements. In return, forest owners receive annual payments based on the value of their timber.

TNC makes all forest management and harvest decisions, and the generated revenues help sustain the program. The partnership ensures that the properties remain as working forests rather than succumbing to development or other land-use changes.

The program launched in 2002 when America’s oldest cattle ranch, Stuart Land & Cattle Company, committed 5,750 acres. Today, our Conservation Forestry Program manages 22,052 acres across the Clinch Valley.

Forest Carbon Offsets

Forests help fight climate change by storing carbon in the roots, trunk, branches, and leaves of trees. Since healthy forests absorb more atmospheric carbon than degraded ones, protecting and restoring healthy forests is a key strategy in solving the challenges presented by climate change.

A Deal for the Centuries

In July 2019, TNC announced the acquisition of 253,000 acres in the Central Appalachians. The Cumberland Forest Project is TNC’s largest-ever conservation effort in the eastern United States, protecting sweeping forest landscapes across two parcels, one in Southwest Virginia and one along the Kentucky and Tennessee border.

The project has its roots in the Clinch Valley, building on the program's successes and lessons learned in community based conservation, sustainable forestry, and carbon markets.

Safeguarding this vast stretch of forest tackles climate change on two fronts: by storing millions of tons of carbon dioxide and by connecting a migratory corridor that scientists believe could be one of North America’s most important “escape routes” as plant and animal species shift their ranges to cooler climates.

In August, 2019 TNC took another historic step with the announcement of the largest open space easement ever recorded in the Commonwealth. The partnership between TNC, the Virginia Department of Forestry (VDOF), and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) permanently protects 22,856 acres of forest land in Russell County in southwest Virginia.

The Clinch Highlands working forestry easement is unique not only for its size, but more importantly because of the many ways it supports the resiliency of the surrounding communities.

The 22,856 acres now protected in perpetuity through the easement were identified early on as a critical piece of the Cumberland Forest Project’s footprint. This particular section of the property’s vast forests also provides water-quality benefits to the Clinch River, one of the most biodiverse river systems in North America.

This easement and partnership with the Commonwealth of Virginia marks the first example of how The Nature Conservancy aims to work with partners to protect critical pieces of the Cumberland Forest property for the long term.