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A passion for land preservation
Paul Ziluca was surprised to receive an appointment by Gov. George Allen in 1994 to the position of director of the Virginia Outdoors Foundation.
Before Allen's inauguration that year, Ziluca had served for four years as the chairman of the Republican Party, helping score an important win for the governor. Although the appointment to the land preservation department seemed odd to him at the time, Ziluca said, it would be a decision that would change his life.
Nearly 15 years later, Ziluca's efforts to protect Virginia's landscape are being honored by Inova Loudoun Hospital's Loudoun Laurels. He is one of two recipients of this year's Loudoun Laurels award.
But this effort almost ended before it began, Ziluca said. His first instructions from Gov. Allen, he said, were to see whether the program should stay or be terminated.
“The Virginia Outdoors Foundation [around 1994] was a bit down,” said Ziluca, who served as director from 1994 to 2002, when Gov. Mark Warner (D) took office.
With more appeals from Virginia residents for their properties to be put under easement than the foundation could handle, Ziluca set out to increase funding and awareness of the program.
During his tenure at the foundation, he took the staff from two permanent employees to 19, and increased funding for land easements from $50,000 to about $12 million, Ziluca said.
Land easements also have increased exponentially, from about 80,000 acres when Ziluca arrived, to 250,000 by the time he left the foundation eight years later.
“It became very much part of my life,” Ziluca said. “I love the idea of riding across the countryside and the beauty. It's something worth preserving.”
Ziluca's statewide efforts have hit home here in Loudoun.
“As the growth in our area, in Loudoun, increased with the spread of urbanization ... people were just clamoring to get in [to the easement program,” he said.
“While doing that work, I got particularly interested in the type of easements that were put on battlefields in Virginia,” Ziluca said, adding that Loudoun has five battlefields. In 2000, Ziluca was able to persuade the county Board of Supervisors to create a committee to look into battlefield easements and preservation. He served on that committee.
“Easements talk about development on the land and there are restrictions on the kind of [residential] building,” he said. “The battlefield easements go further to protect [battlefield structures] or trenches ... so you can have them for research, tourism.”
A project he is particularly proud to be involved in is the restoration of the Aldie Mill, which sits off of U.S. 50 in Aldie.
The foundation had acquired the mill in 1981. Through fundraising efforts, about $1.5 million was raised for its restoration, but it wasn't enough money to complete the project.
Local residents began to ask whether it would ever be finished, he said.
Ziluca was able to get a $400,000 grant and $200,000 from the state's General Assembly to complete the project.
“And that's how you are able to see the mill today,” he said. “That's one of my proudest achievements.”
After living for 30 years in Loudoun County, Ziluca has retired and now lives in Winchester. He is, however, still very much involved in Loudoun's land preservation movement.
In January, Ziluca, now 81, helped persuade the county Board of Supervisors to add battlefield protection to Loudoun's comprehensive plan.
“It was a big achievement. Loudoun is only one of four counties in Virginia that have that,” he said.
“[I] try to keep the land open and keep the scenic values of the land,” Ziluca said. “The conservation easement is the best way to do that.”
Contact the reporter at hhobbs@timespapers.com
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