Evaluating and Conserving Natural Assets

Green Infrastructure Center:

“Planning for green infrastructure in the developing and urban landscape – These one-day workshops provide an ideal solution for the busy professional and also offer continuing education credits for many disciplines. They are also priced to be affordable for local and state governments, conservation groups, consultants and small businesses!

Staff from the Green Infrastructure Center will share their professional experience and researched knowledge of green infrastructure planning at multiple scales from regions, to counties, to cities, to towns to sites!  Hands on practice will familiarize participants with all key concepts.

Inexpensive lodging is nearby for those travelling from long distances. Contact GIC for assistance.

  

Learn how to conserve or restore the green infrastructure of your town, city, county or region!  Discover tools to evaluate and utilize landscape features to create both vibrant environments and economies at multiple scales. Already developed landscapes can be redesigned to more healthful with a green infrastructure strategy. This strategic approach to land planning can help meet both regulatory and planning demands and attract new business...

Workshop participants will receive the GIC's 131-page Practitioner's Guide to Green Infrastructure Planning, gourmet coffee and teas, catered lunch and snacks.  Planners can receive 5.5 CM credits. Other professional credits (forestry, horticulture etc.) are also available. Registration attached or visit http://www.gicinc.org/events.htm    

Those who would like assistance with finding overnight lodging should contact GIC at the email below.

Two remaining dates to choose from! 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Thursday September 18 or Thursday November 20, 2014

Held in Charlottesville, VA (convenient to reach by train, airplane or auto! We'll even pick you up from plane or train!)

  

Register by August 19 to receive $30.00 discount off the $130 Workshop Cost for September or by September 23 for November Training!

For more information contact gicworkshop@gmail.com”

~ Green Infrastructure Center

River Recreation Workshop

DCR:

If you value opportunities to meet face to face to share ideas, stories and passions, consider joining elected officials, agency staff and river rats in Mecklenburg County this September. This workshop will provide tools to advance river recreation in Virginia, including information on economic impacts, planning and design, potential partners, promotion and resource protection.

Mecklenburg County is rich in water resources--the Meherrin River, Kerr Lake, Lake Gaston, the confluence of the Dan, Roanoke and Banister Rivers, are all part of the Southern Virginia Wild Blueway for you to explore.

Afternoon field trips and an evening program in South Hill on Sept. 17, followed by classroom sessions and field trips in Clarksville on Sept.18, will cover a range of topics.  Keynote speaker and Secretary of Commerce Maurice Jones is a native of the region who understands how river recreation contributes to business development as well as quality of life.

A paddling trip along the Beechwood Flats water trail led by The Upper Reach will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.  Don't miss out, register today!

 

For your convenience, we have block rates at hotels in South Hill and Clarksville.  Book your hotel room at the Magnuson Inn in Clarksville or Fairfield Inn and Suites in South Hill.  When you call, be sure to say you are with the River Recreation workshop.  While you are in town, think about staying for a long weekend in Lake Country!

26th Annual Environment Virginia Symposium

Environment Virginia:

Environment Virginia is holding their 26th Annual Symposium. The call for presentations is NOW open!

 

Abstracts will be accepted online August 5 – October 3, 2014.

Visit the symposium WEBSITE to submit your presentation proposal.

2015 Environment Virginia Symposium

31 March - 2 April 2015

Center for Leadership and Ethics

Virginia Military Institute

Lexington, Virginia 

The new public-access guide to Virginia’s natural area preserve system is now online!

DCR:

The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation manages the preserve system, which contains some of Virginia’s most unique natural communities and protects habitat for rare plant and animal species. The system consists of 61 preserves (55,352 acres) across the state.

While not all 61 preserves have facilities for public access, the 21 preserves listed in the guide have parking areas and established trails and viewing areas. A few even offer canoe and kayak launches. For more info about the preserve system, click here.

Click here for the report

Virginia Issues State Solid Waste Report for 2013

DEQ:

“The Department of Environmental Quality released its annual report on solid waste management in Virginia. The report includes the amounts of solid waste managed in Virginia in 2013, and the amounts and sources of solid waste generated outside the Commonwealth.

The total amount of solid waste received at Virginia facilities during 2013 decreased by about 80,000 tons (0.4 percent) from 2012. Solid waste includes municipal solid waste, construction and demolition debris, vegetative and yard waste, and other types of waste. The total amount of solid waste from outside Virginia decreased by about 162,000 tons (3 percent), to 5.2 million tons. The total amount from within Virginia increased to about 15 million tons (0.6 percent).”

~Writes the TJPDC

Click here for a copy of the full report

Feds seek partners for water cleanup program

Statewide:

“A brand-new Department of Agriculture conservation partnership initiative will be getting a close look by area agencies that might want to take part.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Tuesday that the partnerships in eight critical conservation areas across the country—including the Chesapeake Bay watershed—will create a pool of clean-water startups. The agency’s Natural Resources Conservation Service office in Richmond announced Wednesday that preliminary proposals from local partners are due by July 14…

The critical conservation areas taking part in the program include: the Great Lakes Region, Chesapeake Bay Watershed, Mississippi River Basin, Longleaf Pine Range, Columbia River Basin, California Bay Delta, Prairie Grasslands and the Colorado River Basin.”

~ Writes Rusty Dennen of The Free Lance–Star

Click here to check out the rankings

Landowners voicing concerns on proposed natural gas drilling

Washington County:

“Some landowners whose properties lie in the proposed natural gas drilling overlay zone in Washington County have banded together to voice their concerns over the practice and ask the county to slow down and look at potential effects. ‘A lot of people don’t even realize this drilling is going to take place,’ said Jimmy Hobbs, who lives in the zone, which is north of Bristol in an area designated for agriculture south of the North Fork of the Holston River, and includes much of Rich Valley Road. ‘Our concern is not about the money so much; it’s about saving our way of life.’…

For nearly a year, the Washington County Planning Commission has been reviewing a draft ordinance that would define the area that can be drilled and set forth environmental and land use precautions to protect landowners, the land and citizens. Currently, drilling isn’t prohibited, but there have been no active wells for decades. In recent months, however, there’s been renewed interest.”

~Writes Allie Robinson Gibson of the Bristol Herald Courier

Click here to read this article