by Alicen Hackney
Michael and Christine Downing of Northumberland County were presented the 2026 Helen and Tayloe Murphy Conservation Champion Award at the Northern Neck Land Conservancy (NNLC) Boots and Barbecue event in early October.
The award recognizes people in the community who have made a significant contribution to protecting natural resources and rural heritage of the region.
The Downing family, including Michael’s siblings and the couple’s daughters, exemplify a legacy of land conservation as the most recent generations to steward Bleak House, a certified Virginia Century Farm established in 1641. Over the centuries, their forebears farmed the land and they hope their descendants will be able to do the same.
