Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, December 25, 1994                   TAG: 9412270117
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LEEDSTOWN                                 LENGTH: Short

729 ACRES ARE DONATED FOR PRESERVE

In one of the largest such gifts in the state, Alan M. Voorhees last week donated $2.69 million worth of land along the Rappahannock River to the Nature Conservancy.

Deer, turkey, beaver and bald eagles roam the nearly untouched riverbank that environmentalists warned was in danger of being sold off to the highest bidder.

``I felt the best way, in the long run, to protect the land is to get people to set some aside,'' said Voorhees, 72, who is chairman of an environmental committee called the Rappahannock Initiative. He hopes his gift, which is tax-deductible, will set an example.

Voorhees lives on 800 acres adjacent to the donated land, where he owns the Westmoreland Berry Farm. A retired civil engineer and transportation planner, Voorhees was one of the original architects of Washington's Metrorail system.

Voorhees said he wants his gift to be used by schoolchildren and others for nature and environmental education. He said his goal is to avoid the kind of development that has grown up around other Washington, D.C.-area rivers.