Agri-Pulse, a trusted news source in farm and food policy, recently highlighted the James River Buffer Program in their article Successful Virginia Buffer-Planting Program is Worth Replicating in the Farm Bill. The Article includes, “The next Farm Bill could support a similar program that would provide big benefits for both farmers and the health of local waterways. Installing new streamside buffers is one of the Bay states’ main strategies to meet their commitments to reduce excess nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment running off farmland into the Bay and its tributaries.”

“While existing state and federal programs offer funding to landowners to plant buffers, they do not provide the same combination of full funding, maintenance, and technical assistance that has made the James River effort so successful.” Four years in, the program has already installed over 900 acres of forested buffers on several dozen properties in the Middle and Upper James River watershed.

Read the entire article on Argi-Pulse.com »