News & Updates
Virginia Riparian Forest Buffer Action Plan 2024
The updated Virginia Riparian Buffer Action Plan is now live! This plan identifies challenges from four broad categories of buffer establishment:
- improving site identification and outreach,
- increasing capacity for implementation,
- increasing riparian forest buffer maintenance,
- and improving reporting.
Critically, the document also proposes concrete, actionable strategies to address many of the identified issues. While the report was published by the Virginia Department of Forestry, it was created with extensive collaboration and input from partner organizations and sister agencies from across the Commonwealth.
“We are so thankful for the amazing natural resource professionals who lent their insight and expertise to this plan. Together, we found many realistic solutions to get more trees planted by streams. In the few months since publication, several of those solutions have already started to be implemented. I look forward to continuing to work with this tremendous community to demonstrate how “Trees are the Answer” to so many of our world’s challenges.” – Caitlin Verdu, Watershed Program Manager for the Virginia Department of Forestry