Mary Heinricht heads a Virginia-based agricultural organization, Ag Prospects, after serving as American Farmland Trust’s Mid-Atlantic Director for four years. Ag Prospects provides technical support to local governments and to farming and forestry interests to develop strategies to retain an economically viable agricultural sector. This assistance includes developing rural land use plans, agricultural easement programs and agricultural economic development initiatives.

            Mary Heinricht developed recommendations that led to the establishment of the Virginia Agricultural Vitality Program (2000) and the Office of Farmland Preservation (2001). Her work in this field dates back to 1992, when she became coordinator of the Southern Watersheds Committee in Virginia Beach. She served as spokesperson and primary author of the Virginia Beach Agricultural Reserve Program (1995), the Commonwealth’s first local purchase of development rights program.

            Her previous professional experience includes over thirty years of regional and environmental planning, recreational and land development projects, and management consulting. In the past, she helped develop guidelines for local government review of environmental impact statements and worked on the design and approval of several “new town” projects around the country. She is an expert in the development of purchase of development rights and related public education programs. Ms. Heinricht holds degrees in Regional Planning and Landscape Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design. Contact: maryheinrict@earthlink.net; 540-825-5418