Anyone driving down Interstate 81 near Roanoke has passed Tinker Mountain, one of the more imposing peaks to line the highway. The mountain also happens to be visible from the campus of Hollins University, and part of the college lore — once a year for more than a century, classes are canceled and students, faculty and staff hike Tinker Mountain attired in zany costumes.
I remember well the view of Tinker Mountain from my days as a part-time student in the graduate creative writing program there. So, I’m delighted to read in the Roanoke Times that a consortium led by Hollins has raised $352,000 to purchase 235 acres of land and preserve the mountain’s wooded vistas.
That’s the ideal kind of conservation — laying out hard cash to acquire land that, because of its vistas or wildlife habitat, are worth protecting. Nobody’s property rights are getting trampled. Nobody’s getting any tax breaks. And they’re targeted. I’m not opposed to conservation easements, but I share Ed Risse’s reservations that, as currently structured, Virginia’s conservation easement program may do as much to promote scattered, hop-scotch development as to conserve lands worth saving.