The Trust for VI Lands: Protecting Special Places in the US Virgin Islands
THE FILM:
Join TVIL for the premiere of Plant on a Hill, a short film telling the remarkable story of the effort to save Hawk Hill in Frenchman’s Bay, St. Thomas.
Directed, produced, and edited by Dan Mele, the film features St. John botanist Eleanor Gibney and highlights the importance of this special landscape and the opportunity to protect it before it is lost to development.
TVIL invites the community to enjoy an evening of film, community, and conservation, with appetizers and a cash bar.
Please RSVP using the QR code on the event announcement.
More dates coming soon for screenings on St. John and St. Croix!
HAWK HILL: PROTECTION OF AN ENDANGERED AND RARE SPECIES SANCTUARY
Parcel No. 14-78, Estate Frenchman's Bay, St. Thomas - a 3.39-acre hillside - is home to Lyonia rubiginosa, a plant found nowhere else on Earth.
This species was believed possibly extinct until local botanist Eleanor Gibney rediscovered it on this undisturbed hillside in 2013.
This land also harbors:
• Myrcia neo-thomasiana (St. Thomas Lid-flower) - federally Endangered
• Ouratea littoralis - the only known St. Thomas location
• Byrsonima lucida - one of only five known VI populations
• Psychillis macconnelliae (Butterfly Orchid) - a Virgin Islands-Puerto Rico endemic
Photo (right) of Lyonia rubiginosa by Dan Mele.
THE LAND: A ONCE-IN-A-GENERATION OPPORTUNITY
Listed for $390,000, the property faces active development pressure. TVIL has negotiated a purchase price of $300,000 and secured a purchase contract to protect the property from development.
A generous donor has committed to match every donation to the project dollar-for-dollar, up to a maximum contribution of $50,000, so your donation goes twice as far right now. Together, we can turn this $50,000 challenge into $100,000 for the purchase of this land. Once the match is met, TVIL will need to raise a final $57,000 by February 2027 to complete the purchase and protect this property forever.
The deadline is real. The opportunity is real. And this may be our last chance to save this land from development.
Please help us meet the match—and make sure this land is protected for generations to come. Every dollar of your gift goes 100% to this project.
Photo (left) of Hawk Hill by Dan Mele.
Our Mission
The Trust for Virgin Islands Lands (TVIL) is a non-profit, community-based conservation organization.
Our mission is to protect tracts of agricultural and natural landscapes that provide significant benefits to the citizens of the Virgin Islands.
Efforts to achieve this goal include:
1. purchasing and holding threatened lands for transfer to conservation-minded ownership,
2. providing assistance to landowners wanting to limit future development through conservation easements,
3. advocating sound land use policy, and
4. fostering increased appreciation and understanding of our territory’s natural resources.
Our Accomplishments
TVIL is also a proud partner supporting the acquisition process for new Territorial Parks and Protected Areas under a subaward of the NOAA Climate Resilience Regional Challenge Award. For more infoas granted to TVIL by three private landowners, and TVIL owns outright six properties totaling 142 acres. These lands include dense native gallery forests, towering waterfalls, ephemeral freshwater ponds, dry semi-deciduous forests, open grassland and scrub, and coastal cliffs.
TVIL is also a proud partner supporting the acquisition process for new Territorial Parks and Protected Areas under a subaward of the NOAA Climate Resilience Regional Challenge Award. For more information, visit https://dpnr.vi.gov/parks/crrc/land-conservation-park-development/.
Support Land Acquisition
TVIL maintains an Acquisition Fund that is earmarked for purchasing land or easements for conservation. Often land with significant historical, cultural and ecological value comes up for sale at short notice, and the land trust has to act fast to make an offer on the land. Having money in our acquisition fund allows us to conserve land that might otherwise be sold for development. You can donate money to the land trust and request that it be directed to the acquisition fund.
Please consider a donation in support of our conservation mission.