“This is my childhood home, I love it dearly. It’s where I first explored nature,” commented Brucie Moulton, as she spoke at the ceremony to mark the transfer of “Riverside,” her family’s farm to the Jefferson County Parks and Recreation Commission (JCPRC). Brucie’s daughter Emma Huvos, who also lived on the farm as a child, followed with her own comments outlining the history of her great-grandparents who purchased 500 acres in Jefferson County to start a dairy farm and her grandparents who donated 3 acres along the Shenandoah River in 1976 to create the present-day Moulton Park. Emma remarked that she was “thrilled to know that this property will remain undeveloped and enjoyed by the community for generations.”
The ceremony on August 22 marked the family’s transfer of the remaining 82 acres of the farm, creating an 85-acre park along the Shenandoah River. The transfer process, which involved a sale of the property at below market value, a grant from the West Virginia Outdoor Heritage Conservation Fund, and support from the Chesapeake Conservancy, took several years to implement and includes a conservation easement that stipulates that the land be managed for watershed protection, education, native species protection, and soil and forest regeneration, in addition to the family’s legacy of creating recreation opportunities and public access.
The Moulton family members gathered on the family farm for the recognition and ribbon-cutting ceremony on August 22 (from left to right): Christopher Huvos, Brucie Moulton, Emma Huvos, Greg Faxon, Barbara Moulton, Tom Helm, David Moulton, and Mark Moulton.
JCPRC will be developing a formal plan for the property over the next several months and anticipates opening the expanded park to the public by mid-2024. In addition to an existing outdoor pavilion designed and built by a family member in 2015, the proposed features of the park include hiking trails, camping facilities, and parking infrastructure to alleviate congestion for people accessing the Shenandoah River.
Chesapeake Conservancy President and CEO Joel Dunn highlighted the significance of this gift: “The generosity of the Moulton family is truly a model example of how we, as a society, can achieve success in this era of conservation. Governments and nonprofits can’t do it alone. Our society needs the support of private philanthropists, such as the extraordinary Moulton family, as we race against time to adapt to climate change and [meet our goal to] protect 30 percent of the Chesapeake Bay watershed by 2030.”
By Steve Pearson