Middlebrook-Brownsburg Special Project Area

Location: Augusta and Rockbridge counties

Description: Home to headwaters for both the James and Shenandoah rivers, the Middlebrook-Brownsburg corridor is a critically important area for protection of both water and agricultural resources. On the landscape scale, the corridor is one of the
more intact agricultural landscapes in Virginia, with many farms still the same size they were when originally laid off. The area is filled with properties boasting multiple conservation values, which were detailed by the Valley Conservation Council in 1997 in the book The Middlebrook-Brownsburg Corridor: A Survey of Cultural and Natural Resources.

The corridor already contains about 100 easements held by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, protecting more than 17,000 acres -- making this one of the most densely conserved regions west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The region is bordered on the west by the North Mountain Wildlife Management Area and Goshen Pass Natural Area Preserve. Easements on private land help to create a mosaic of green infrastructure resources for the area.

Augusta County's Middlebrook Agricultural/Forestal District covers approximately 3,850 acres in the corridor. The Special Project Area area includes the viewshed for VDOT's recognized Virginia Byway on Route 252 (originally known as the Staunton-Lexington Turnpike) and Route 39 in Rockbridge County. Brownsburg and Middlebrook, two small village centers along Route 252, contain National and State Registered Historic Districts. A total of 245 standing structures and 11 cemeteries are on record with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, and 52 properties are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and Virginia Landmarks Register.

The Maury River, which flows through the southern portion of the corridor area, has been proposed for Scenic River designation in the Virginia Outdoors Plan by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. The DCR Natural Heritage Program has rated the rare plant and animal species in this area as "extremely rare and critically imperiled" or "very rare and imperiled within Virginia." Species include: loggerhead shrike, sand grape, freshwater cordgrass, vetchling, buckbean, smooth loosestrife, queen of the prairie, pussy willow, prairie sedge, shinning ladies'-tresses, large-leaved grass-of-parnassas, knotted rush, small-headed rush, inland sedge, and marsh speedwell.

Designated by VOF: September 2, 2010

Nominated by: Valley Conservation Council

Nomination supported by: County of Augusta; County of Rockbridge; Jeanne Hoffman, owner of Meadowview Farm; Rockbridge Area Conservation Council; and Robert Whitescarver, NRCS District Conservationist.

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