Select A Project You Would Like To Donate To:

1. Make A General Donation
2. Visitor Center Projects
3. Belle Isle Spray Ground Initiative
4. Sailors Creek Interpretive Concept
5. Playground Equipment For Toddlers
6. The New River Trail Conservancy
7. Virginia State Parks Memorial and Honor Gift Program

Make A General Donation

Virginia's State Park System has regularly been among the most frugally funded in the nation and in some years has held last place in proportion of state budget dedicated to parks. In 2011, Virginia achieved its historical high ranking by this measure - 44th among all states.

Despite being severely under-funded and under-staffed, the park system continues to set historical records for visitation and economic impact. In 2012, the part system hosted more than 8.3 million visitors (1.1 million overnight visits) and provided the state and local economies an annual return of more than 11-fold ($198.8 million) on the state's appropriation investment of $17.7 million.

State monies are not presently available for many park system priorities and, given the present economy accompanied by the history of the perpetually under-funded and under-staffed park system budget, state monies will not be available in the foreseeable future.

Thus, VAFP is seeking other sources to provide the much needed funding for park system priorities. Please consider making a general donation or a targeted donation to one of VAFP's park system projects.

Donations are tax deductible.

To make a donation online using PayPal, click the button below:

To make a donation via postal mail, download the following form:

Donation Form

Visitor Center Projects

Within the Virginia State Park System, 35 parks are presently available for visitation. Some of the park visitor centers are relatively new and modern structures but are without exhibits. Other visitor centers are decades old and have exhibits that are badly outdated.

State funds are not presently available to provide new and/or updated exhibits. And, given the present economy accompanied by the history of the perpetually under-funded and under-staffed park system budget, it is doubtful that state funds will be available in the foreseeable future.

Thus, VAFP is seeking the needed funds from other sources. Donations are tax deductible.

The Department of Conservation and Recreation has determined that the following 10 parks (5 new visitor centers and 5 old ones) are most in need of new or more modern exhibits.

New Facilities	Old Facilities
Belle Isle State Park False Cape State Park Mason Neck State Park Staunton River State Park Westmoreland State Park	Caledon State Park Chippokes Plantation State Park Fairy Stone State Park Natural Tunnel State Park York River State Park

Please see the park by park information listed below and select one or more for your tax deductible donation.

Belle Isle State Park Visitor Center

Square Footage: 4,951
Exhibit Area Square Footage: 2,000 (approximately)
Cost Estimate: $800,000

Exhibit Theme(s):

• Native American Heritage of the area

Park Master Plan Mission Statement:

The purpose of Belle Isle State Park is to serve as a Gateway to the Rappahannock River and the transition from river to Chesapeake Bay by providing a range of family oriented outdoor recreation and educational experiences, which identify and interpret the historical connections of various ages with visual and phyiscal connections to the land and water, and provide for estuarine research opportunities.

Belle Isle State Park
1632 Belle Isle Road
Lancaster, VA 22503-9425
Timothy G. Shrader, III, Park Manager
804-462-6021
Timothy.Shrader@dcr.virginia.gov

If you would like to make a donation directly to the Belle Isle State Park Visitor Center using PayPal, please click the donate button below:

False Cape State Park Visitor Center

Square Footage: 2,500
Exhibit Area Square Footage: 900 (approximately)
Cost Estimate: $360,000

Exhibit Theme(s):

• Human Relationships with the Barrier Spit Island Environs

Sub-theme(s):

• Coast Guard lifesaving stations
• Wash Woods history/modern archaeological "middens"
• Paleo-Indian history and llifeways
• Birding and duck hunting
• Biological niches; different ecologies Back bay to Atlantic Ocean
• Reducing human environmental impacts

Park Master Plan Mission Statement:

The primary purpose of False Cape State Park is to preserve the unique natural environment of this historic site at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, while providing opportunities for low-impact outdoor recreation and strong programs of environmental education and historic presentation.

False Cape State Park
4001 Sandpiper Road
Virginia Beach, VA 23456-4347
Kyle R. Barbour, Park Manager
757-426-3657
Kyle.Barbour@dcr.virginia.gov

If you would like to make a donation directly to the False Cape State Park Visitor Center using PayPal, please click the donate button below:

Staunton River State Park Visitor Center (Photo of 1941 Visitor Center)

Square Footage: 3,548
Exhibit Area Square Footage: 1,200 (approximately)
Cost Estimate: $480,000

Exhibit Theme(s):

• Life along the Staunton River

Park Master Plan Mission Statement:

The purpose of Staunton River State Park, an original CCC park built at the confluence of the Staunton River and the Dan River, is to provide water access and traditional outdoor recreation experiences on Buggs Island Lake.

Staunton River State Park
1170 Staunton Trail
Scottsburg, VA 24589-9636
Joshua R. Ellington, Park Manager
434-572-3694
Joshua.Ellington@dcr.virginia.gov

If you would like to make a donation directly to the Staunton River State Park Visitor Center using PayPal, please click the donate button below:

Westmoreland State Park Visitor Center

Square Footage: 4,026
Exhibit Area Square Footage: 1,566
Cost Estimate: $626,400

Exhibit Theme(s):

• Influences of the Potomac River

Sub-theme(s):

• Geologic and Paleontologic History of the Horsehead Cliffs
• Area early inhabitants, i.e., Native Americans, Nathaniel Popes Plantation, Washington Plantation, Stratford Plantation, Lee Family

Park Master Plan Mission Statement:

The purpose of Westmoreland State Park, located in the historic Northern Neck of Virginia, is to conserve and interpret the park's natural and cultural resources, while providing opportunity for traditional recreational pursuits on and along the Potomac River in this CCC era park.

Westmoreland State Park
1650 State Park Road
Montross, VA 22520-9717
William L. Jacobs, Park Manager
804-493-0216
Bill.Jacobs@dcr.virginia.gov

If you would like to make a donation directly to the Westmoreland State Park Visitor Center using PayPal, please click the donate button below:

read more...

If you would like to make a donation directly to the Belle Isle Spray Ground Initiative using PayPal, please click the donate button below:

VAFP has funded a $30,000 hologram exhibit for the Sailors Creek Visitor Center. The exhibit is operational and $19,500 of the total cost has been recovered through donations to date.

VAFP has used the recovered cost to fund new projects in other parks. Please make a tax deductible donation to help recover the remaining $10,250 balance on the Sailors Creek hologram.

The Friends of Lake Anna State Park have taken the lead in developing a prototype. They have researched manufacturers, obtained cost estimates, and selected both a product (see above picture) and manufacturer of choice. The Lake Anna State Park Friends Group has raised the requisite funding and the toddler train has been installed in the park.

Between 1830 and 1850, Virginia was the third largest gold producing state in the Nation. Thus, in addition to the playground train providing an excellent platform for toddler recreation and physical exercise, the combination of the goldmine and the playground train will provide wonderful opportunities for educational and interpretive programming for all ages.

Estimated Project Cost

The estimated cost per playground is $30,526.85. Thus, the projected cost for the nine parks totals $274,741.65.

The estimated costs include shipping and manufacturer installation, after which the manufacturer will assume related liability.

Listing Of The Nine State Parks With Significant Railroad History

1. Caledon Natural Area - Donate to a playground train at this park using PayPal by clicking the button below:
   
2. High Bridge Trail State Park - Donate to a playground train at this park using PayPal by clicking the button below:
   
3. Leesylvania State Park - Donate to a playground train at this park using PayPal by clicking the button below:
   
4. Natural Tunnel State Park - Donate to a playground train at this park using PayPal by clicking the button below:
   
5. New River Trail State Park - Donate to a playground train at this park using PayPal by clicking the button below:
   
6. Pocahontas State Park - Donate to a playground train at this park using PayPal by clicking the button below:
   
7. Staunton River Battlefield Historic State Park - Donate to a playground train at this park using PayPal by clicking the button below:
   
8. Wilderness Road State Park - Donate to a playground train at this park using PayPal by clicking the button below:
   

Lake Anna Prototype Project Description

Manufacturer Specs and Cost Proposal

Toddler playground train funding request letter

• About The New River Trail
• Wanted By Tomorrow's Generation
• Taking Nature Back Home
• Your River Begins At Home

The New River Trail

Virginia's New River Trail stretches 57 scenic miles along a prehistoric, mountain-sided channel, traveled through the ages by a north-flowing river, countless wild species, Native Americans, early settlers, and the railroad whose bed composes this path

But Virginia's longest state park is also the narrowest, with a mere 80-foot-wide right-of-way in most locations.

While park staff work devotedly to maintain this corridor, its surrounding beauty is due to generations of adjacent landowners whose stewardship has retained the songbird habitat, soaring palisades, woodlands, pastures, riparian buffer, fresh breezes, and quiet, sweet solitudes that make the trail experience a rejuvenating step back in time

Such rural landscapes have vanished from much of the Eastern U.S. - a fate you can help our park avoid with a spirit of conservation.

*Please respect private property along the trail

*Please consider helping to protect this quiet, scenic legacy by donating to the New River Trail Conservancy Project. This nonprofit project exists solely to protect the scenic landscape surrounding the Trail, through the establishment of conservation easements. Every donated dollar protects another bit of habitat and beauty for generations to come - a vital step on the path between a living history and a sustainable future.

To help VAFP conserve and protect the pristine beauty of the New River Trail, click on the donate button below:

Wanted By Tomorrows Generation:

• Wildflowers, Trees, Woods
• Songbirds, Fireflies, Butterflies, Owls, Toads, Turtles, Salamanders, Trout
• Clean Air, Water
• Quiet places for reflection
• Nocturnal darkness, visibility of stars
• Scenic New River Trail Corridors
• And You!

You can still find these rare treasures along the New River Trail State Park, but they are vanishing from America's landscapes, and potentially from this one as well.

The scenic New River Trail, winding along the prehistoric, pastoral channels of Chestnut Creek and New River, is Virginia's longest State Park. But it's also the narrowest, with only an 80-foot-wide right-of-way for most of the length, and few protected scenic buffers.

What will the ancient corridors of the acclaimed trail look, sound and feel like in a few years? Will the trail become a noisy sidewalk through lit-up developments?

Or will children and adults still find the mystical beauty and songbird habitat that make this 57-mile long Virginia State Park a welcome refuge for people and wildlife?

It's Our Decision

The rural character of the New River Trail has depended on the generations of adjacent landowners who have retained the soaring palisades, woodlands, pastures, and quiet, sweet solitudes that make the trail experience a rejuvenating step back in time.

Today, as family farms are sold and development springs up, land-use experts predict that without incentive for protection, little greenspace will remain undeveloped. In fact, natural landscapes have already vanished from much of the Eastern U.S.

The New River Trail Conservancy Fund evolved to address that ongoing change.

This nonprofit fund exists solely to protect the scenic landscape surrounding the Trail, through the establishment of conservation easements. Every donated dollar protects a bit of shade, beauty and habitat for generations to come.

A Gift to Grandchildren

Protecting the New River Trail corridors is a time-limited offer. Within a decade, many land tracts will have become developed or unavailable for protection. This means the next generations will not have the choices we have today. Their landscapes, wildlife habitat, water quality and scenic beauty depend largely on our actions or inaction today.

Your donation works to save a bit of the natural world for your grandchildren. While other material gifts have a short lifespan, protected rural landscapes will continue giving and living for decades and generations, a needed sanctuary for body, mind and soul.

Taking Nature Back Home

A Silent Spring?

The songbirds, owls and spring peepers you may hear along the New River Trail are vanishing from landscapes in the U.S. and around the world.

One-third of our nation's 800 bird species are in steep decline, threatened or endangered, due to development, suburban sprawl and pesticides.

Fireflies, butterflies, newts and salamanders are likewise in decline.

You can help invite these creatures back home to America by restoring habitat on your property, or in a churchyard, schoolyard, hospital or office grounds. What habitat?

Songbirds, owls and overwintering birds need tree canopy and thickets, not merely a flat lawn. Planting hedgerows and islands of trees, shrubs and blooming plants offers nesting songbirds shelter from cats, raccoons and bluejays, while feeding pollinators and providing firefly perches.

Provide this kind of living shelter and watch your land come back to life a musical sound and light show!

Keep Those Autumn Leaves!

Trees, shrubs, wildflowers and future crops need topsoil restored by organic matter. Sending grass clippings and leaves off to a landfill means throwing away the valuable food of nature.

Songbirds and fireflies also need this humus. Fireflies begin life as glowworms, in damp, humus-like terrain, not lawn. (www.bayjournalnewsservice.com/Firefly.html).

Songbirds, meanwhile, scratch through mulch, humus and decaying organic matter and logs for grubs and worms.

For tips on National Wildlife Federation's "Backyard Habitat" program and certification, visit www.nwf.org

Your River Begins At Home

The care of rivers is not a matter of rivers, but of the human heart.
-Tenaka Shozo

Do you know your watershed address? Your home town, driveway, lawn and kitchen sink drain into a creek, a river, and eventually the ocean. The New River flows north to join the Ohio, then the south-flowing Mississippi, then the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, more easterly rivers in Virginia drain into the Chesapeake Bay.

All of these inland waters carry construction silt, lawn fertilizer, herbacides, motor oils from parking lots and roads, cigarette butts, trash, and household or carwash detergents into both Gulf and Bay. This toxic soup is great for harmful algae-growth but bad for fish, crabs and oysters, as algae depletes water oxygen and kills the aquatic life below, creating expanding "dead zones."

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is tackling this enormous problem in mid-Atlantic communities, but restoring the Gulf and the Bay requires a change in everyone's inland habits.

• Reduce the lawn. Less fossil-fuel waste, healthier local water table. Trees, shrubs, wildflowers and rain gardens absorb vast amounts of stormwater, keeping this priceless rain in your local, underground water table, instead of sending flash floods into street gutters, rivers and an ocean that doesn't need this stormwater. Meanwhile, lawn fertilizer runoff is the biggest, cumulative cause of algae-growth in both Gulf and Bay.
• Go non-toxic. Remember that car-washes, laundry detergents and household chemicals usually end up in our creeks, rivers and oceans. If you wouldn't want to swim in it, don't send that chemical down the drain or into the street. Downstream, someone will swim in it.
• For ways to protect the New River, in its ancient path from North Carolina north to West Virginia, visit National Committee for New River, www.ncnr.org.
• To help with the vital protection of the Chesapeake Bay, visit Chesapeake Bay Foundation at www.cbf.org.