Bandy Field Nature Park (Photo by Jay Paul)
Bandy Field Nature Park in Henrico County has been protected with a conservation easement since 2014. Soon the park will receive another layer of protection to ensure it remains an undeveloped green space, as the Friends of Bandy Field Inc., the nonprofit that has maintained the conservation easement, partners with the Capital Region Land Conservancy (CRLC).
“We’re a land trust with 2,500 acres under easement,” explains CRLC Executive Director Parker Angelasto. “We follow nationwide guidelines for best practices in conservation. We have strong financials and good governance.”
An easement permanently protects a property from development. The owner of an easement is usually an entity other than the property owner and holds the property owner accountable for protecting the land. Bandy Field is currently co-owned by the city of Richmond and the Friends of Bandy Field.
The Friends of Bandy Field board, CRLC board and Richmond City Council have all agreed to add CRLC to the park’s deed, with hopes it can be amended by the end of 2021.
Bandy Field is home to Civil War earthworks and was once the site of an African American neighborhood. The homes were bulldozed to make space for a school in the 1950s, and the earthworks were damaged. But the school was never built, and the property sat vacant for 30 years, during which time nearby residents began to use it as a park. In the 1980s, it received its official designation.
Locating the site of the old homes and the Confederate earthworks was a challenge until one of the Friends of Bandy Park found a 1921 topographical map and presented it to Agelasto; both the homes and the earthworks were clearly labeled, and the foundations have been uncovered.
“Nothing was formally mapped when we agreed to co-hold the easement,” Agelasto says. “We set out early on to make sure that when we updated it, we could be more specific. … This kind of collaboration with the community is very important.”
