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The Crow's Nest peninsula lies between Potomac and Accokeek creeks in eastern Stafford County. The largest undeveloped tract left in the fast-growing county, it is home to rare plants and animals.
This marsh on the Crow's Nest peninsula in eastern Stafford County includes equisetum plants. |
By RUSTY DENNEN
The video opens with a shot of a great blue heron standing contentedly on the shore of Crow's Nest, Stafford County's environmental jewel.
Archer DiPeppe, writer and director of the new 12-minute documentary on the development-threatened peninsula, hopes that image and many others will help turn the tide in favor of preservation. For the longtime local preservationist--some would say gadfly--producing a documentary that could be used to help nudge the process along was a logical next step.
"I've always believed that we have such abundant natural and historic beauty that's taken for granted. As citizens, we have to take part" in saving important sites such as Crow's Nest, DiPeppe said.
With the relentless pace of development here, he added, "If we do nothing, it goes away."
DiPeppe said he wanted to do something powerful to get the word out and give people an up-close glimpse at the privately owned land without having to paddle out or walk under the towering canopy of hardwoods.
The former drama teacher, who has no experience in video production, contacted former student Ken Jordan, now an accomplished videographer, to help. Jordan and his wife, Julie, a writer and producer, went way beyond the call, DiPeppe said, donating their services.
"They gave an incredible amount of time and hard work--untold hours--to make it look the way it does," DiPeppe said.
About 25 hours of video were shot at Crow's Nest and other locations to come up with the 12 minutes in the final cut.
DiPeppe, who lives in Stafford, said he approached several well-known local advocates to be interviewed. "Without exception, every single person said, 'What can I do to help?'"
He said the project, which would normally cost about $12,000, cost only about $500 due to donations of time and resources.
Appearing in the video are: Kandy Hilliard, Aquia District supervisor; Barbara Kirby, who represents the Rock Hill District on the Stafford Planning Commission; Hal Wiggins, a biologist in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Fredericksburg field office; Robert Two Eagles Green, chief of the Patawomack tribe; D.P. Newton of the Stafford Civil War Museum and Research Center; Patricia Kurpiel, a Crow's Nest activist; and Cecelia Kirkman, co-founder of savecrowsnest.org.
Music is provided by George Washington District Supervisor Pete Fields. John Moss narrates.
"Crow's Nest: Stafford County's Last Refuge" will make its public debut Aug. 30 at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library headquarters. Admission is free.
Hilliard, a longtime supporter of protecting the land, handed out fliers about the video at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting. She recalled that she had no idea what was at Crow's Nest until she had a chance to visit a heron rookery there with Wiggins several years ago.
"To stand among those trees with those massive nests and almost prehistoric birds, I became aware of how important that area was. And I realized that so many people in Stafford have no sense of its beauty," she said.
"Stafford is not just congestion on [State Route] 610 or sitting in traffic on [U.S.] 1 or I-95. We truly have this amazing resource, and once it's allowed to be developed, no one will have the opportunity I had."
Situated between Potomac and Accokeek creeks, Crow's Nest is the largest undeveloped swath of land in the county. In addition to the rookery, it is home to rare plants and animals and has connections to the Civil War. Its name comes from the Crow, a black three-masted schooner moored off the property in the mid-19th century.
The documentary comes at a time when the county's window of opportunity to preserve the more than 4,000-acre tract intact may be closing. There have been several initiatives over the past decade, but all have been unsuccessful.
First, it appeared that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could acquire the land, which is owned by K&M Properties, a Northern Virginia investment partnership.
The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation then headed up an effort to buy the tract, but the negotiations fell through.
Last year, it looked as though the county might be able to pull it off when a $30 million state low-interest loan became available to supplement several million dollars already set aside. But the asking price is said to be considerably higher.
The Board of Supervisors continues to explore options. Hilliard said there's an "active offer" on the table to K&M. Details have not been made public.
In a Tuesday op-ed piece in The Free Lance-Star, Stafford land-use attorney Clark Leming, who represents K&M Properties, said 680 one-acre lots could be developed by right on the land, but that the county could also consider clustering development in less environmentally sensitive areas. Another option, he said, is a "density swap" to move permitted housing on Crow's Nest to another less environmentally valuable parcel.
Leming noted that, all the while, Crow's Nest continues to appreciate and that K&M has a responsibility to its shareholders to get the best return possible.
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