The Trust for VI Lands: Protecting Special Places in the US Virgin Islands
Help Save Hawk Hill, St. Thomas
TVIL is fundraising to protect a unique resource in Frenchman's Bay on St. Thomas: a rare and endangered hilltop plant community found nowhere else in the world.
Plant ecologist and St. John native Eleanor Gibney explains, "Lyonia rubiginosa is a shrub or small tree in the Heath family (Ericaceae) that is known only from this location. Also found on the land are a number of the (federally listed) Endangered St Thomas Lid-flower, which was originally collected and described from this same location in the 1700s. Other rare plants seen here include Ouratea littoralis (abey armarillo) a Puerto Rico- northern VI endemic (only known St Thomas location); Byrsonima lucida (locust berry), in one of five known VI populations; and Psychillis macconnelliae (butterfly orchid), a Puerto Rico-Virgin Islands endemic."
To buy this land and keep this hilltop green, TVIL must raise $100,000 by August 2026 and the last $150,000 by February 2027. A generous donor has committed to match 1:1 every donation up to $50,000. Please consider a donation to help buy and conserve this special landscape forever.
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.