DIRECTOR'S CORNER
Raising awareness of Virginia’s wetlands
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is responsible for ensuring the protection of more than 1 million acres of tidal and non-tidal wetlands.
Wetlands of all types occur throughout Virginia. Although most people associate wetlands with the coast, more than 750,000 acres of the Commonwealth’s wetlands are non-tidal, meaning they do not fluctuate with the changing ocean tides.
Wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems in the world. Their primary functions are:
- Filtering nutrients, sediment and pollutants from the surface and ground water.
- Absorbing excess floodwater and rainwater.
- Protecting our shorelines from erosion.
- Providing habitat to numerous plants and animals, and nursery and hatchery areas for fish and shellfish, including species that area commercially harvested.
So important are wetlands to the economy and ecology of Virginia that state law requires no net loss in the amount and function of wetlands. In other words, the overall number of acres and quality of wetlands must be protected. DEQ upholds this law through the Virginia Water Protection Permit Program.
This program issues permits for projects that affect state waters, including wetlands. In general, wetlands are areas where water saturation (from either surface or ground water) determines soil conditions and plant communities. The goal of the program is to balance the economic and development interests of the Commonwealth with the protection of wetland resources.
A wetland along the Chickahominy River in Virginia.
DEQ requires permit applicants to avoid and minimize effects to wetlands to the maximum extent practicable. If effects to wetlands are unavoidable, then the applicant must compensate for these losses by creating or restoring wetlands, purchasing “credits” from approved wetland mitigation banks or preserving wetland buffers.
DEQ also works to increase the number of wetlands through voluntary measures. Virginia has committed to restoring 6,000 new acres of wetlands within the Chesapeake Bay watershed as part of a multi-state effort to improve the health of the Bay and its tributaries. In addition, Virginia has a goal to restore 4,000 acres outside of the Bay watershed. Collaborating with other federal and state agencies and non-profit organizations, voluntary wetland restoration initiatives are currently under way.
In addition, DEQ has developed a strategy to assess and monitor the condition of wetlands in Virginia. This strategy involves the use of Geographic Information System resources, field surveys and sampling events to assess wetlands throughout the state. When this multi-year effort, funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is complete, the information will tell us the general location and quality of our wetlands by watershed. DEQ will then be able to make more informed decisions about permitting, restoration and mitigation efforts.
While DEQ and other state agencies work to protect wetlands, the greatest safeguard may come from an increased awareness by the public of the value of our wetland resources. It is in this spirit of awareness that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as well as other federal and state agencies and private organizations recognize May as American Wetlands Month. Together we can work to protect our wetlands, one of Virginia’s most valuable natural resources.