Keeping Stafford land from getting 'chopped up and developed'
Back in the 1980s, when people had CB radios and names that went with them, Joyce Arndt's handle was "The Tree Hugger."
In those days, she and other residents fought to keep commercial development out of the Widewater peninsula, where the Potomac River and Aquia Creek meet in northeastern Stafford County.
Neighbors railed against proposals to put in a nuclear plant or a golf course and airstrip, as well as what Arndt called the most "cockamamie" idea of all. New York lawyers lobbied to bring sludge from Washington to Widewater on a barge, then use giant turbines to turn it into mulch.
Residents eventually succeeded in having 1,100 acres on the peninsula preserved for Widewater State Park, not far from Arndt's home. And though it's been a while since anyone used her radio name, it still fits.
As Arndt has gotten older — she'll be 88 in March — she's worked to get her assets into a trust for her family. One 20-acre parcel, next to the south end of Marine Corps Base Quantico, has stands of mature hardwoods where Arndt and her children liked to roam and listen to the birds sing.
Arndt is working with the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust to preserve the land. She's prepared to sell it the property for $159,000, the assessed value, even though she's gotten offers from developers for twice the amount.
"It's very generous for Joyce to accept that," said Laura Hassell, land conservation specialist with the NVCT.
"It's fair to me," Arndt responded. "And it's a load off my mind because I did not want to sell it to developers."
Arndt likes the idea that others would enjoy the property, which the trust calls the Tank Creek Preserve . The NVCT is trying to raise $205,000 by year's end to cover the land purchase and stewardship costs. More information is online at nvct.org/tank-creek .
While talking recently with Hassell, Arndt suggested a place for a treehouse where visitors could look down at the creek and into the canopy of American beach and holly trees, tulip poplars and chestnut oaks.
"She has just loved this property for the trees so, for her, it's just that peace of mind of knowing that it's not going to be chopped up and developed," Hassell said.
Picturesque property
From the breakfast nook next to the kitchen, Arndt daily looks out the picture window on a picturesque scene of the Potomac River. An array of feathered creatures visits her shores, from the eagles whose chirps she recognizes to the osprey who "are the crankiest birds," she said. She loves hummingbirds.
She sees an equal assortment of deer and turkey, foxes and raccoons in the wooded areas of her property.
"It's just like a traveling animal show," she said.
Arndt and her late husband, Ray, had two sons and two daughters, but lost one son in an automobile accident as a teen and the other to cancer.
The Arndts first moved to this section of Stafford in 1970. He owned an auto body shop in Vienna, she handled the books, and on weekends, the family got out a map and followed winding roads to rivers.
Ray Arndt had a boat and longed for waterfront property. They found such a place in Widewater, where he eventually realized he also enjoyed building and working with wood. He built side-by-side homes on the Potomac as well as others on nearby Widewater Trail.
"Every one of them is different," she said about the houses. "He really was talented, he only had a grade school education but he learned to do anything he wanted to."
Likewise, she's been a good steward of her time and talents. She continued to work until she was 80, and even with back problems, she's out and about on the property every day. If she can't walk to where she wants to go, she takes her John Deere gator.
"I've seen her driving it," Hassell said. "She's fast."
A rare place
The land on Tank Creek Preserve is a natural area that's been "quietly preserved for years," according to the NVCT, dating back to its first owner, Gen. George Mason Cooke, who died a year after the Civil War ended.
As far as Arndt knows, it's never been farmed or timbered because of the steep slopes and the natural spring that feeds into the creek.
"It's just a really great stand of mature trees that have been allowed to live here for many, many years," Hassell said.
To prove her point, she and Celena Romero, a communications specialist with NVCT, got on each side of a massive poplar tree and stretched out their arms. The trunk has a greater diameter than their combined wingspans can cover.
George Molnar with The Friends of Widewater State Park has spent many hours in the forests around and on the Marine Corps base, and he's never seen such a tree there. The poplar base is well over 144 inches, and the tree is growing "in a perfect environment next to the creek."
Molnar initially contacted Hassell about Arndt's land. He talks regularly with those in Widewater, especially along Brent Road, and currently has several discussions with landowners of parcels the size of the Tank Creek Preserve, and smaller, about putting their land into a conservancy.
He thanked Arndt for the choice she made.
"She prefers trees rather than open space, loves wildlife and obviously the Potomac River," he said.
The property ranks highly in the ConserveVirginia Natural Habitat & Ecosystem Diversity category, both for the diverse tree species that prevent erosion and filter pollutants before rainwater enters the creek and for the varied habitat it provides.
The NVCT, which helped acquire land for the nearby Crow's Nest Natural Area Preserve, hopes to open the Tank Creek property to the public several times a year for guided hikes in partnership with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Kathy Baker, Stafford's assistant director of planning and zoning, said the county is prepared to "actively support NVCT in pursuing the property as the Comprehensive Plan supports conservation of open space and natural resource lands in the Potomac River corridor, she stated on the NVCT website .
The Tank Creek Preserve property fits the bill, the NVCT stated. "Places like this are rare and becoming rarer."
Cathy Dyson: 540/374-5425
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