Fitts Battlefield Stewardship Fund

Land Trust of Virginia is proud to present the Deborah Whittier Fitts Battlefield Stewardship Fund (The Fitts Fund) for your donation consideration. This fund represents a testament to our collective commitment to the conservation and preservation of Virginia's Civil War history. Since its inception, the Fitts Fund has been pivotal in safeguarding 27 unique properties spanning over thousands of acres across a dozen Virginia counties, helping permanently protect threatened historic landscapes. The fund is used to help reduce the easement donation costs that landowners face, which can sometimes be a disincentive to pursuing the conservation option.

Established in 2009, The Fitts Fund was created in memory of the late Deborah Whittier Fitts, a long-time professional journalist who reported for both the Loudoun Times Mirror and the Civil War News. Many considered her to be the nation’s leading journalist covering Civil War preservation issues. For over a decade, Fitts wrote eloquently about the struggle to protect Virginia's Civil War landscapes. She covered many significant Civil War preservation battles that made national headlines, such as the proposed Disney theme park near Manassas, the successful preservation of Brandy Station, and many other nationally significant Civil War battlefield preservation efforts. 

In the 16 years since Deborah's passing, Land Trust of Virginia has used the Fitts Fund to help protect the historic battlefields that were so important to Deborah and continue to be important for our shared understanding of our nation’s history. The fund has been very effective, and we want to thank those who have contributed to this Fund for making this preservation work possible.

While we’ve celebrated significant successes, there is much more work to do, and there are many more important properties in need of protection. 

At the Land Trust of Virginia, our focus is on donated conservation easements, not on the much more costly purchase of land. We work with landowners interested in preserving their properties, maintaining the beautiful scenic landscapes we all enjoy as we pass through the Virginia countryside. The most important element of conservation easements is that they permanently preserve open space, by preventing the type of excessive development and subdivision of land that, if left unchecked, will continue to consume farms, forests and historic landscapes. 

We aim to continue building the Deborah Whittier Fitts Battlefield Stewardship Fund to help conserve threatened battlefield lands, and your support of the Fitts Fund is very much appreciated! Currently, there are a half-dozen important battlefield properties we’re working to protect, and we look forward to sharing the wonderful results of our work with you. Thank you for your support of LTV and historic preservation!