Rappahannock Friends and Lovers of Our Watershed Preserving, protecting, conserving, and restoring the watersheds of Rappahannock County RappFLOW is a grassroots group of citizen volunteers RappFLOW—The Journey So Far representing the varied interests of people who live By Janet Davis and Beverly Hunter in and around Rappahannock County, Virginia. In summer 2002, interested citizens and representatives from local and regional groups founded RappFLOW. Our mission is to help preserve, protect, conserve To learn more about and restore water resources and Rappahannock County’s watersheds. RappFLOW, go to our Web site: Our first phase of work in 2003 and 2004 was funded in www.RappFLOW.org part by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and more Watershed: The than $31,000 in matching, in-kind support from local orga- specific land area that Or e-mail us: nizations and volunteers. Phase I established a foundation drains water into a [email protected] for future watershed protection efforts through broad com- river system or other munity involvement; education and outreach; an atmo- body of water. For sphere of inclusiveness and openness; strong ties with experts more on watersheds, Go with the Flow! in government, business, and nonprofit organizations; and go to page 7. identification of high-priority watershed protection issues. IN THIS ISSUE: RappFLOW planned, promoted, conducted, and reported on five public educa- tion events on air and water quality in Shenandoah National Park; riparian buffers; RappFLOW—The Journey So erosion, sedimentation, and stream protection; sustainable forestry; the effect of Far . .1 agriculture on water quality; and pollution-mitigation strategies. Attendance Why Watershed Protection increased at each public event, from 75 participants at the first to 300 at the Now? . .2 last. Partners include citizen volunteers, state and federal agencies, local govern- RappFLOW Moves into ment, and local and regional conservation organizations (see page 12). 2005 with Watershed- At a strategic planning workshop in September 2004, twenty-five representa- Study Proposal . .4 tives of different stakeholder groups identified the following issues as central to What Is a Watershed?.......7 future watershed Sustainable Agriculture management and Protects Water Quality water-quality protec- and Preserves Farmland ....8 tion in Rappahan- Supervisors Establish nock County: Water Quality Advisory 6 Need for detailed Committee .........................9 data on water quality Watershed Study Looks and related land cover Photo by Hal Hunter for Answers to Water- and land use, in a Quality Problem in usable form to support Thornton River..................10 decision making by New Strategy for Reducing landowners and local Pollution in the leaders on watershed Rappahannock River........11 assessment and water- related priorities The Rappahannock River, near Amissville RAPPFLOW JOURNEY, from previous page 6 Increasing fragmentation of land holdings, cover, and January 2005 we sent a proposal to the National Fish and use due to development, gentrification, and shifts in Wildlife Foundation for a project to protect a local agricultural economics and practices watershed (see page 7). From January to June 2005, we 6 Need for greater landowner awareness and education studied a subwatershed south of Sperryville to test a regarding best management practices and associated process of analysis. cost-sharing programs, such as the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program Rapid Watershed Assessment: A method of determining 6 Need for deeper awareness and understanding among watershed health using trained volunteers and requiring only citizens and civic leaders of watershed and water-quality about 18 months to complete. Created by the Center for concepts, facts, and issues Watershed Protection, a nonprofit organization in Maryland this 6 Need for stronger and more detailed implementation of the “rapid” assessment includes methods that are relatively cheap policies and principles of the Rappahannock County Compre- and easy while producing timely, useable information. hensive Plan and enforcement of existing ordinances. RappFLOW organizers worked in the fall and winter As we go forward with new initiatives, we continue of 2004 to decide how to meet these needs. We chose the to provide input on watershed protection to the Board of Rapid Watershed Assessment methodology for identifying Supervisors and to the Planning Commission, and to hold and analyzing key information because we want to educational forums and stakeholder meetings on water- establish a scientifically defensible knowledge base. In quality issues. RappFLOW Timeline 2 RappFLOW Currents 2005 6 The water in more than 2,000 tiny streams that criss- Why Watershed cross our county lands is more vulnerable to pollution, erosion, and sedimentation than is the equivalent amount of water in a larger river downstream. Protection Now? 6 Our land uses are in transition. Under current zon- By Beverly Hunter ing, the number of houses, private roads, and driveways could triple beyond the number of such buildings and Rappahannock County is not experiencing a water crisis— roads that we currently have. now. As Janet Davis, a RappFLOW founder, said in a 6 Landowners make land-use decisions, so every land- recent workshop, “People see our streams as clean and owner needs to be aware of, understand, and care about plentiful.” So, why is now the time for the county’s citi- the ways in which his or her decisions and actions affect zens to learn, study, and make decisions about protect- the watershed and water quality. ing our watersheds here in the headwaters of the 6 External developments, such as global commerce, Rappahannock River watershed? affect the economics of our local agricultural Over the past two and a half years, practices and industry. hundreds of people of all sorts have par- 6 Staff time and political will are required ticipated in and contributed to public for strict enforcement of ordinances, such as education forums organized by those designed to prevent erosion and sedi- RappFLOW and its partners. We have mentation. been learning from each other, and from 6 Land-use taxation and other incentives we experts who generously donate their time use locally to help keep our land in agriculture to help us. We’ve been learning about and forestry are subject to economic and such things as political forces that can change at any time. 6 The use of vegetative cover to protect our Then again, for us Rappahannockers, the streams and ponds matter actually is simple: we love our natu- 6 The solution (and avoidance) of erosion ral world. problems on our driveways and private roads What is more satisfying than having a 6 Management of our forests for multiple good crop or healthy animals, because they purposes, including watershed protection grow on healthy land and clean water? What is 6 The impact of our individual and collec- more joyful to do on a sunny day in June tive decisions about how we use our land than to go tubing down the Rappahannock on stream and habitat quality for our- or the Thornton River or watch trout jump selves, plant and animal life, and our from a clear stream kept cool by the over- downstream neighbors hanging trees? What is more satisfying than watching 6 Cost-sharing programs, conservation easements, and rain from a storm miraculously and securely disappear expertise offered by state and federal agencies into the ground, protected by native vegetation and not 6 The Chesapeake Bay Agreement, tributary strategies, causing erosion to roads or streams? Total Minimum Daily Loads (TMDLs), and other federal The fact that we are not in a crisis makes this exact- and state initiatives designed to help clean up the ly the right time for us to learn, study, plan, choose, and Chesapeake Bay watershed. act so we can avoid a crisis. The fact that we do care about We have learned that watershed protection is both and understand our natural world here makes it possible very simple and very complicated. It is simple, because for us to invest in this effort. The decisions and actions trees and other vegetative cover are the most powerful that individual landowners, communities, and govern- protectors of our streams. More than 7 percent of ments make over the next few years may enable us to Rappahannock County’s land cover is forested. focus on watershed protection now and avoid far more Yet it is complicated, for natural, economic, educa- costly restoration later. By taking steps now to protect tional, cultural, and political; for example reasons: our watershed, we ensure it as a viable resource for the future. RappFLOW Currents 2005 3 Total Maximum Daily Load in areas surrounding category-5 RappFLOW Moves into 2005 impaired stream segments identified by the Virginia with Watershed-Study Proposal Department of Environmental Quality. The TMDL is the amount of particular pollutant that a water body By Janet Davis and Beverly Hunter can receive from both point and nonpoint sources and still meet water quality standards. The TMDL levels for RappFLOW, with support of fifteen other local organiza- the specified stream segments was set to meet goals in tions, submitted a proposal in January to the National the Rappahannock Tributary Strategy (see page 11) and the Fish and Wildlife Foundation for a local watershed- Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act. protection project, “People, Land, and Streams of the Upper Thornton River Watershed: A Model for The Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act and Regulations Countywide Watershed Management Planning.” established a cooperative program between state and local Our goals for this proposed project are to governments aimed at improving water quality in the bay and 6 Preserve, protect, and restore the water quality in the its tributaries by promoting the application of sound land-use Upper Thornton River watershed (as designated by the planning and management practices on environmentally sensi- state), which is part of the Rappahannock River water- tive lands. The act requires local governments to incorporate shed, as shown on the maps on the opposite page.