Treasured Views

Background

Scenic Virginia has developed a first-of-its-kind Virginia Treasured Views Program to identify our Commonwealth’s most scenic areas and recognize them in the Scenic Virginia Register. This project is an outgrowth of years invested in identifying and preserving special scenic places, for the equitable benefit of rural and urban citizens. We created a repeatable, scientifically based format for proving viewsheds are scenic. This process and evaluation criteria include both science-based criteria and informed  community values to identify, establish significance and ultimately to map the important scenic views so these can be inventoried and the information used to inform planning and protection.

A distinguished panel of viewshed experts provided the program’s approval, and we are now working on our plan to roll out the locally inspired program based on Virginia Tech research done at Scenic Virginia’s request. The program has been vetted by Virginia two universities and visual resource experts. We have employed the procedure with partner organizations at varied sites.

Since the origination of the Viewshed Program, Scenic Virginia presented the Virginia Treasured Views Inventory at the following state, national, and international conferences:

  • Environment Virginia Symposium at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia (2019)

  • Virginia Land Conservation & Greenways Conference in Richmond, Virginia (2019)

  • Views Matter! Symposium at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew in London, England (2019)

  • Visual Resource Stewardship Conference at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Illinois (2019, 2021, 2023)

  • Virginia Recreation and Parks Society

  •   River Management Society Symposium Visual Resources Tract (virtually 2022)

The Treasured Views project has been well received and many are looking forward to implementing viewsheds identification in their communities.

If you are interested in having Scenic Virginia come to your community to help identify your Treasured Views, contact Lynn Crump, PLA at lynn.crump@scenicvirginia.org .