Virginia’s Buffer Summit

Registration + Refreshments

Welcome + Introductions

The State of Virginia Buffers from DEQ

• Hear from Kevin McLean with VA Department of Environmental Quality on progress toward reaching Virginia’s goals for riparian buffers.

Buffer Trivia!

Panel: Buffers across the Commonwealth Learning, Building Capacity & Growing Networks

• Jenny McGarvey, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay
• Maya Alexander, Alliance for the Shenandoah Valley
• Siobhan Nishida, Clinch Valley Soil and Water Conservation District

Virginia Forest Buffer Action Plan & Small Groups

• Gather in small groups for peer learning and strategy workshopping, led by the Department of Forestry.

Scaling Up Collaborative Conservation

• Amber Ellis with the James River Association and Christine Gyovai, with Dialogue + Design Associates.

Please join us for outdoor activities to celebrate and explore riparian buffers.

• Eco-Corridor Design Strategy with Mauri Deihr and Anna Lambert, RES
• Eco-Corridor Walk with Joseph Day and Todd Lookingbill, University of Richmond
• Art by the Creek with Mary Larson, certified Virginia Master Naturalist, Riverine chapter
• Learning Stations along Westham Creek with Claire Sanderson, Rivanna Conservation Alliance and Lara Lacher, Seven Bends Nursery
• Conservation Minded Maintenance with …
  • Maxwell Earle, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute Conservation Ecology Turtle Lab
  • Justin Proctor, Smithsonian’s Virginia Working Landscapes and Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative,
  • Alison Meneffee, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Turtle Conservation Ecology Lab
  • Gavin Martin, Conservation Services, Inc.
• How Projects take Root through Collaboration and Grants with Bryan Hofmann, Rappahannock River Roundtable.
• Engaging the Next Generation in our Conservation Workforce with J. Abraham López Trejo, Defensores de la Cuenca and Christian Gehman, Appalachian Conservation Corps.
• Combining Buffers and Agriculture, a Cost/Benefit Analysis of Buffers with Kevin Tate, Shenandoah Valley Conservation Collaborative.
• Network and connect with fellow Consortium members.