Riparian Forests for Landowners Program

The Virginia Department of Forestry (DOF) is announcing a new program that provides landowners free, flexible riparian forest buffer installation plus one year of maintenance. The Riparian Forests for Landowners (RFFL) program is a unique watershed-based partnership including DOF, the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Friends of the Rappahannock, James River Association, Terra Habitats LLC, and York River Steward.

This program is open to all Virginia private property owners including homeowner associations and civic leagues in rural, urban and suburban areas. Funding is provided by the Inflation Reduction Act through the USDA Forest Service and the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Water Quality Improvement Fund Act. Complete this survey-style Landowner Interest Form and a DOF forester or partner organization representative will contact you.

DOF is accepting continuous sign-ups for this program until funding is depleted. Eligible projects will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis with planned buffer establishment from fall 2024 to spring 2025, with follow-up maintenance support through 2026.

Find out more on the DOF Riparian Forests for Landowners webpage. 

VDOT Pollinator Habitat Program to Install 135 New Acres of Pollinator Habitat in 2024

RICHMOND, Va. — The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) will install 135 new acres of pollinator habitats this year as part of its ongoing commitment to protect the valuable ecosystem provided by pollinators such as bees, birds, butterflies, bats, beetles, flies, and more.

Since 2014, VDOT’s Pollinator Habitat Program has created naturalized areas of native plants along state-maintained roads and properties that provide habitats to threatened and dwindling pollinator species. The program began with four plots in Northern Virginia.

This year marks five years since VDOT joined the nationwide Monarch Butterfly Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances, a voluntary agreement between energy and transportation partners and the programs’ administrator, the University of Illinois-Chicago. VDOT’s initial five-year goal was to proactively implement conservation measures on roughly 3,100 acres of interstate roadsides to support the monarch butterfly. Five years into the program, VDOT estimates contributing around 8,000 acres of pollinator habitats along VDOT roadways, well above the initial goal. VDOT performs monitoring each spring season to document milkweed and nectar flowering species.

“Supporting pollinator conservation is a win-win for VDOT, because the agency can save money and improve efficiencies, and pollinators gain thousands of acres of habitat,” said Chris Swanson, director of VDOT’s Environmental Division. “We value being good stewards of the environment, which is why, throughout the Commonwealth, we’re working to provide safe habitats for pollinators to ensure a healthy and sustainable future.”

This year, VDOT and partners will add 107 acres of pollinator habitat plantings in Hampton Roads, 22 acres in the Greater Richmond region and about six acres in Southern Virginia. Last year, VDOT planted 82 new acres across the Commonwealth.

Pollinator corridors assist VDOT in efficiently delivering a safe transportation system. Roadside vegetation reduces erosion and stormwater runoff while providing sediment control. With more flowers and vegetation, VDOT beautifies the roadsides and saves time and money by reducing how often it needs to mow areas along the roadways. Additionally, roadsides with healthy plant communities can better resist invasive plants that can require the use of herbicides.

Governor Glenn Youngkin proclaimed June 17-23 as Virginia Pollinator Week in recognition of the important role of pollinators to the Commonwealth’s environment and agricultural economy.

Wildflower and Protect Pollinators license plates help fund the Pollinator Habitat Program. VDOT has partnered with the Department of Motor Vehicles to offer special license plates to support the program.

June 17, 2024 Press Release

New Virginia Invasive Plant Coalition is on a Mission!

The new Virginia Invasive Plant Coalition is on a mission to make dramatic progress against invasive plants and support the use of native plants. Its new website - VirginiaInvasives.org - lays out the coalition’s Common Ground Agenda.

In mid-December 2023, representatives of public, private, and nonprofit groups from around the state met in Charlottesville for a three day workshop - Imagining a Virginia Without Invasive Plants: A Statewide Future Search Strategic Planning Workshop. With the support of a grant from the Richard K. Mellon Foundation, Blue Ridge PRISM sponsored and hosted the workshop.

Approximately 80 attendees included state and local employees, nonprofit leaders, service providers, private landowners, and three members of the Virginia House of Delegates.

Together, they represented a microcosm of the interconnected statewide community that deals with the influences of invasive plants and the lack of availability of native plants.

The overarching goal of the event was to build a statewide coalition and strategic blueprint to reduce invasive plants and increase the availability of native plants in Virginia.

Learn more about the coalition’s 10 goals on its new website - VirginiaInvasives.org

There are many reasons to Celebrate Virginia’s Native Trees! This new animated video highlights a nestful!

This 2-minute video has a lot to say!

Have you witnessed the busy Chickadee repeatedly visiting a nest of chicks, its mouth full of caterpillars? Perhaps you have heard Dr. Doug Tallamy, author of Nature’s Best Hope and The Nature of Oaks, so eloquently share his experience?  Virginia's oak species and other native trees are host to the caterpillars that are critical to raising the chicks of the Chickadee and other birds. As a matter of fact, caterpillars are the primary food source for nestlings of 96 percent of terrestrial bird species. And, one nest of chicks eats thousands of these soft, nutritious insects before they fledge!

Check out this new 2-minute animated video from the Plant Virginia Natives Initiative that illustrates just how connected this little bird and the mighty oak - and other Virginia native trees - are to one another.

Just as our trees spread their limbs and shelter wildlife, help us spread the video and its important message far and wide.

You may find yourself watching it a few times first!

New and Revised Regional Native Plant Guides Available!

The Plant Southwest Virginia Natives Campaign has published A Guide to Gardening with Southwest Virginia Natives. View and download the guide.

The Plant Ridge and Valley Natives Campaign has released A Gardener’s Guide to Virginia’s Ridge & Valley Natives Plants. View and download the guide.

The Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Campaign has published a second edition of its regional guide, Piedmont Native Plants: A Guide for Landscapes and Gardens. View and download the guide.

The Plant RVA Natives Campaign has released the second edition of the regional guide, Native Plants for Virginia’s Capital Region. View and download the guide.

Virginia Native Seed Pilot Project Launched and Busy!

In September 2022, the Clifton Institute in Warrenton received a Conservation Innovation Grant from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service to fund a new program called The Virginia Native Seed Pilot Project. This project will launch the native seed industry in Virginia, which will make it possible to plant ecologically appropriate wildflower meadows.

There is substantial demand for seeds of native wildflowers and grasses for pollinator friendly solar installations, meadow plantings, and roadside revegetation in Virginia. But seeds of several species of plants that are common in native grasslands in the state, and beneficial for pollinators, are unavailable from seed companies. Furthermore, seeds of most species that are available have out-of-state genetics, which limits their utility to restore plant communities and provide pollinator habitat. These plants often bloom at the wrong time for our local insects or they’re too tall or too short.

“Native plants, especially native plants with local genetics, are crucial for supporting native insects, birds, and other wildlife,” says Clifton Institute Executive Director Bert Harris. “Not being able to buy the seeds of plant species native to Virginia, let alone from Virginian populations, is a critical obstacle to creating pollinator habitat statewide.”

The grant will fund a new Native Seed Coordinator position at The Clifton Institute. The Native Seed Coordinator with work with partners and volunteers to collect seeds of 15 species of wildflowers and grasses across the state. A new greenhouse at the Clifton Institute will also be partly funded by the grant and seedlings will be grown to then be transplanted in farmers’ fields. Virginia State University and Clifton Institute staff will work to establish a network of local producers who can serve as a commercial source of native seeds. In particular, the project will focus on equipping underserved farmers with the tools and skills they need to grow and sell this new high value crop. Other key partners in the project are the Virginia Dept. of Conservation and Recreation, Virginia Dept. of Wildlife Resources, the Nature Conservancy, Ernst Conservation Seeds, and the Capital Region Land Conservancy.

Recent News on the project from the Clifton Institute:

Virginia Native Seed Pilot Project Progress

The Virginia Native Seed Pilot Project is moving full steam ahead into spring and summer. Check out this introductory blog and this winter update on the project. 

Native Seed Project Coordinator Isaac Matlock has been busy enrolling this year's farmers into the program, supervising the building of a new greenhouse on the Clifton property, and taking care of the seeds that were collected last fall. Now that the new greenhouse is complete, the seeds volunteers helped collect in the fall are starting to grow into seedlings! We are grateful to an anonymous donor, George Ohrstrom, Mark Debord, and a Conservation Innovation Grant for supporting the construction of the new greenhouse.

In April, Isaac and Habitat Specialist Andrew also made time to visit Ernst Conservation Seeds in Meadville, Pennsylvania with the farmers. This trip gave everyone an opportunity to learn firsthand how to prepare, maintain, and harvest seeds from a variety of Virginia native plants, ahead of the farmers planting their own native plant crops later this year. We’re very grateful for Ernst Conservation Seeds for hosting us and being an incredible source of information for this project!

HAVE YOU DOWNLOADED THE FLORA APP?

News from the Flora of Virginia Website:

The Flora of Virginia Mobile App got an important update at the end of 2022. Changes were made to our Graphic Key and some of our dichotomous key couplets, but most exciting of all? Definitions of glossary terms are now just a tap away, as pop-ups! Wonder no more what perigynia (or cauline) means! If you don’t have the App yet, what better time to get it? From the usual app spots.

This followed a major update in December 2020, when just shy of 300 taxa were added, including some genera and even families that weren't in the print Flora of Virginia. Many of these were listed in the back of the book as waifs, but they're being described fully now. (Courtesy of Florascope News)

Don’t have the Flora of Virginia Mobile app yet? It’s time!

Visit the Flora of Virginia Project for more information.

PLANT NOVA NATIVES CAMPAIGN OFFERS 5th ANNUAL WORKSHOP FOR LANDSCAPERS

The Plant NOVA Natives campaign has been holding an annual workshop for landscape professionals to seed the native plant message. The Fifth Annual Northern Virginia Native Plants for Landscape Professionals Conference will be held in August 2023 in Fairfax at the Merrifield Garden Center, Fair Oaks. The workshop is for professionals in the landscaping industry, including landscape designers, landscape architects, crews, growers, nurseries, landscape maintenance, property managers, and builders. Topics to include conservation landscaping (design and plant choices for stormwater management as well as other practical issues), erosion control (The role of native plants, plus a little on engineering solutions), riparian buffers (design, plant choices, and relevant laws and government programs) and an invitation to participate in the Plant NOVA Natives Campaign. Learn more at www.plantnovanatives.org/aug-22-conference .

In February 2023, the campaign held a workshop for Spanish speakers in the landscaping industry - www.plantnovanatives.org/clase-en-espanol.

Regional Native Plant Campaign Efforts Featured in VNPS Sempervirens

The Winter 2023 issue of Sempervirens, the quarterly newsletter published by the Virginia Native Plant Society, features a front page article, Virginia Natives Initiative Grounded in Collaboration, submitted by Virginia Witmer. The article highlights the efforts of Plant Virginia Natives Initiative’s regional native plant campaigns across the state. Thanks to VNPS and all its members for their partnership in Plant Virginia Natives, and critical role in spreading the message of the Initiative!

Plant Central Rapp Natives Campaign Demonstration Gardens in King George Showcased During 2023 Historic Garden Week

In April 2023, Cedell Brooks, Jr. Park in King George County was the headquarters for a garden tour hosted by the Rappahannock Valley Garden Club as a part of the Garden Club of Virginia’s Historic Garden Week.

Plant Central Rappahannock Natives campaign partners were excited that the series of native plant demonstration gardens installed at Cedell Brooks, Jr. Park were highlighted. The five gardens, including over 70 species, showcase the color, variety, and multiple co-benefits of native plants, and include a native plant meadow garden, pollinator garden, rain garden, hillside garden, and street side garden.

“The county envisioned the park as an educational, discovery and demonstration facility where visitors can learn about the flora and fauna of our region, and the conservation practices that can be applied at home,” explains Chris Clarke, Director of the King George County Parks and Recreation Department.

Plant Central Rapp Natives promotes use of plants that are regionally native to the City of Fredericksburg and counties of Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania, and Stafford. The George Washington Regional Commission received multiple grants from the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program to establish the regional campaign and the demonstration gardens. This included developing the campaign’s native plant guide. These funds as well as support from partners like the Master Gardeners of the Central Rappahannock Area, the Rappahannock Valley Garden, and King George County are key to the success of the Cedell Brooks, Jr. Native Plant Demonstration Gardens.

Live in, or planning a visit to, King George County? Take some time to enjoy a stroll through the flourishing native plant landscaping at the park!

Learn more about the Plant Central Rapp Natives Campaign.

Photo by Virginia Witmer, Virginia CZM Program