Protect your property with riparian buffers

Protecting Virginia’s waterways starts right here on you property. Riparian buffers, strips of trees, shrubs, or grasses planted along streams and
rivers.

Help keep our water clean by filtering runoff, trapping sediment, and reducing pollutants before they reach local waterways and the Chesapeake Bay.

These natural buffers also:

  • Help stabilize streambanks and reduce erosion
  • Filter excess nutrients and improve water quality
  • Provide valuable habitat for wildlife and support biodiversity

The Virginia Agricultural Best Management Practices Cost-Share Program can help landowners install these conservation practices through financial assistance:

  • Forested buffers – Up to 95% cost-share reimbursement, plus incentive payments of up to $580 per acre.
  • Grass filter strips – Up to 100% cost-share reimbursement, plus an additional $80 per acre incentive.

Healthy streams mean healthier communities, thriving farms, and a stronger Chesapeake Bay.

Contact your local Soil and Water Conservation District to learn how you can participate.

For more news from across the Shenandoah Valley, click here. 

Try it, you will be hooked!

Whether you’re chasing stripers along the coast or casting for trout in the mountains, or just enjoying your favorite fishing spot, now is the perfect time to experience the fun of fishing in Virginia!

Today and tomorrow (June 6th & 7th), anglers can fish without purchasing a fishing license during Virginia’s Free Fishing Days.

It’s a great opportunity to introduce a family member or friend to the sport and spend time outdoors together.

During Free Fishing Days:

  • No fishing license is required for recreational rod-and-reel fishing.
  • No facility permits are needed.
  • Fishing is permitted on stocked trout waters, including 2,900+ miles of trout streams and many lakes, ponds, and reservoirs.

Please remember that all fishing regulations, including size limits, seasons, catch limits, and gear restrictions, remain in effect.

Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) fishing areas will still require applicable fees.

For more news from across the Shenandoah Valley, click here.

Riparian forest funding

Virginia Department of Forestry used by permission from VDF Communication Specialist Cory Swift-Turner

The Virginia Department of Forestry is now accepting applications for Riparian Forests for Landowners Program project funding.

This is a new statewide landowner assistance program that helps landowners create riparian forest buffer.

Selected service providers will facilitate the installation of, and one year of maintenance on, riparian forest buffers at no cost to the landowner.

Riparian forest buffers are areas near streams, lakes, or wetlands that contain a combination of trees, shrubs, and other perennial plants, primarily to provide conservation benefits.

Riparian forest buffers filter nutrients, pesticides and animal waste from agricultural land runoff, filtering sediment from runoff, stabilizing eroding banks, providing shade, shelter and food for fish and provide wildlife.

For more news from across the Shenandoah Valley, click here.