In October 2025, NDPonics secured and protected 149 acres of forestland in western Virginia, preserving a high-value landscape that includes old-growth forest, a 20-foot waterfall, and critical wildlife habitat. The property directly adjoins the Short Hills Wildlife Management Area and other NDPonics-protected lands, strengthening a growing conservation corridor and preventing future fragmentation from logging or incompatible development.
The newly protected land plays a key role in safeguarding forest and water resources while supporting long-term landscape connectivity across both public and privately conserved lands. Its location and ecological value make it a cornerstone of NDPonics’ broader effort to conserve culturally significant places and steward land using Indigenous-led conservation principles.
With support from The Conservation Alliance’s Confluence Program, NDPonics was able to act quickly when the property became available, using the funding as critical matching support to leverage additional conservation dollars. The acquisition marks a major milestone in NDPonics’ long-term strategy to protect forests of exceptional ecological and cultural importance.
NDPonics will foster Indigenous stewardship practices here by hosting cultural gatherings for the Yessah People. To guarantee the land’s conservation values into the future, they will place this parcel under a permanent easement, and continue working towards protecting additional land in the area that strengthens habitat connectivity and cultural values.
