Conservation News Release
Contact: Michael Collins: 540-661-7379
March 3, 2010
Foundation Funds first Public Utility Ecosystem Services Initiative in
Virginia
Project Studies Links between Urban Water Use and Rural Landowners in the
South Fork Reservoir
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities Inc. has awarded the Virginia
Department of Forestry (VDOF) a $400,000 grant to study the link between urban water
consumers and rural landowners. The program will provide funds to landowners to
improve water-resources related stewardship practices. The new local non-profit
organization, Conserv: Marketplace for Ecosystem Restoration, has also been awarded a
three-year contract by VDOF to provide services for this groundbreaking initiative.
The pilot project will study the link between rural landowners’ financial interests and
their forestland management practices in the South Fork Rivanna River Reservoir
watershed to municipal water consumers in the City of Charlottesville and the urban
areas of Albemarle County. The intent of the initiative is to examine the long-term costs
and benefits of water resource related stewardship practices on the health of the area’s
water supply.
The project will create a Forests to Faucets (F2F) Advisory Council comprised of
business, environmental, city and rural area stakeholders from the area. The F2F Council
will offer technical and policy support to VDOF and Conserv. A series of applied
projects will be completed to compare the costs and benefits of maintenance and
enhancement of watershed health through constructed engineering solutions vs. the costs
and benefits of natural infrastructure provided by healthy forests.
“Expensive, engineered technologies address the pollutant of concern,” said Buck Kline,
VDOF’s director of forestland conservation, “but often contribute little to improving
other environmental values, such as air quality, biodiversity or carbon sequestration.
This project will move beyond basic research to increase forest cover and the ecosystem
services forests provide.”
The services of greatest interest are sediment and nutrient load reduction. The South
Fork Rivanna Reservoir is the principal water source for 82,000 people in the
Charlottesville area, and its watershed supplies approximately 96 percent of the surface
water supply for the area, yet most of the property in the watershed is privately owned.
The goal of this program is to study the effect of a variety of land and water conservation
stewardship practices, including increased forest cover in the watershed, on municipal
water supply.
“Landowners who participate will receive cash payments for increasing forest cover
through afforestation on their property,” Kline said. Afforestation is the practice of
planting new forests on lands that are currently open.
Project partners include the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority; Rivanna River Basin
Commission; Thomas Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District; City of
Charlottesville; County of Albemarle, as well as watershed landowners and businesses.
According to Conserv Executive Director Michael Collins, “This project will use
financial measures to determine the value of forests to municipal water consumers. It will
provide a real test of the efficacy of a new generation of landowner payment programs
for water-related ecosystem services.”