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Gov. Tim Kaine's ambitious program to place 400,000 acres under conservation easement during his four-year term should protect some of the commonwealth's vistas from encroaching development. But at the rate land is consumed for subdivisions and shopping centers, that acreage may not be nearly enough.

Hard decisions must be made at every step. Landowners must decide whether the value of the tax credits they could receive and any intrinsic motivation for preserving their property from development outweigh the profits that could be made.

Foundations and state agencies have to question whether each parcel is worth preserving, given the very limited money available to compensate landowners.

Communities must decide how much acreage they are willing to cede to nature over immediate housing and commercial needs.

The preservation of the highly visible Tinker Mountain epitomizes all that can go right when private and public partners join together. The deal deserves the accolades Kaine shared on Tuesday.

But our area also has tough choices ahead. The Western Virginia Land Trust Board of Trustees wants Roanoke to put conservation easements on Mill Mountain and Carvins Cove Natural Reserve to protect them from development, while others covet Mill Mountain for an inn and an incline. Both tracts belong to the public already and come with some limited protections.

Desirable acreage that remains in private hands has become the focus of Kaine's initiative. Through organizations such as The Virginia Outdoors Foundation, which handles the largest share of the state's easements, an aggressive effort is being made to contact large landholders and request that they donate at least some of their land in exchange for tax credits. (The credits work by allowing landowners to write off a percentage of the land's value lost in opting for an easement rather than a sale to a developer. The credits can also be sold for cash.)

While it would often be preferable for preserved land to belong to the public, Virginia can't afford that option. Instead, Kaine worked with lawmakers to extend the tax credit program so that more acreage could be included. It seems to be working.

More than 100,000 acres have been added under Kaine's administration. At this pace, he's likely to hit his goal and in four years double the amount of protected land that it took Virginia since 1968 to amass.

Kaine is right to be concerned that if the land is not protected now the opportunity will be quickly lost as Virginia's population and its demands continue to increase.

An aggressive program to protect large tracts that support wildlife and watersheds is necessary to protect for future generations the quality of life we presently cherish.