Our FORESTS - fine Virginia hardwoods like oak, yellow poplar, ash, hickory, and walnut - represent about half of our total acreage.

We are long-time members of the American Tree Farm System, the oldest certifier of sustainable forests in the United States, and we are interested in the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) program that continues to evolve here in Virginia. That initiative encourages - and we try to follow - forest management practices that are economically and environmentally responsible and that maintain and improve long-term forest health and productivity. We do that by hiring only the most committed consulting foresters who advise what and where to harvest our timber crops and how improve out forests generally.

These FORESTS play a big part in buffering water and in serving as a collection point for the lower "sponge" areas, particularly so on our less-steep forested areas where water "spends a while" soaking in deeply and does not flow off as rapidly as it sometimes does on steeper slopes. Accordingly, we have much of our steeper land in permanent hardwood forests that are actively managed both for occasional harvest of high-quality hardwoods and - concurrently - enjoyment of our guests on long walks or horseback trail rides. Bundoran Farm vistors enjoy wildlife like the Ruffed Grouse and the Hunt Club members pursue Whitetail Deer under the welcome guidance of the Virginia State Game Commission and its Wildlife Bioligists. We incorporate Timber Stand Improvement practices as well as having a few small impoundments to collect water.

Conservation of land by encouraging productive agriculture is not a new idea. "Great cities rest upon our broad and fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country"... William Jenning Bryan at the 1896 Democratic convention.