Program of the Month
The Virginia Coastal Program: Protecting and strengthening our coasts
The tally is significant: More than 2,000 acres of coastal land bought and protected. Hundreds of grants totaling nearly $40 million awarded. Thousands of people informed. Hundreds of acres of Virginia's wetlands, oysters and buffers of trees between waterways and land restored.
These accomplishments are among the many that add up to a successful 18-year effort by the Virginia Coastal Program at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. The program, funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, provides guidance for coastal policies at all levels of government and ensures that those policies are consistent.
"Our goal is to protect and manage the coastal ecosystem, and at the same time strengthen the coastal economy in a sustainable way," Outreach Coordinator Virginia Witmer said. "We pull all the players together and help maintain consistent and comprehensive coastal policies."
Kayakers paddle in a waterway along Virginia's Eastern Shore. Promoting ecotourism is an important element of both the Dragon Run project and the Seaside Heritage Program.
Staffed with six employees at DEQ, the program is a network of a dozen state agencies, eight regional planning commissions and many local governments within Virginia's coastal zone. The coastal area includes 46 counties and cities in eastern Virginia, from Fairfax County to Virginia Beach, and all of the area's waters, reaching three miles out to sea.
"Sixty-three percent of Virginians live in our coastal zone, but the coastal zone is only 22 percent of our state's land. This creates significant pressure on our coastal resources," Program Manager Laura McKay said. "Our challenge is to accommodate the human desire to be near the coast, to enjoy its beauty, to make a living from it, without degrading it."
The National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration provides about $3 million annually that the program awards to academic institutions, nonprofit organizations and local governments across the coastal area. The federal Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 gives the program authority to fund and implement projects.
Program grants support research on wetlands, bird migration and sand dunes; environmental enforcement or coordinator positions; educational outreach; land acquisition and improved public access to coastal waters.
Due to the large scale of some of the program's environmental protection and restoration efforts, partnerships and citizen involvement are essential for success.
The Seaside Heritage Program focuses on the management of coastal resources along the seaside of Virginia's Eastern Shore. Started in 2002, the program consists of more than a dozen state, federal, local and private organizations, including many of the same partners involved in Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts.
Organizations involved in the seaside program are restoring and protecting underwater grasses, oyster reefs, marshes and shorebird habitat; creating a mapped inventory of natural resources and developing ecotourism and aquaculture opportunities.
"Thanks to our partners' dedication and expertise, we are making great strides toward restoration," McKay said. "We are thrilled by the sight of sea grasses growing where they had not grown since the 1930s and by higher shorebird nesting success."
Citizen participants also make important partners. They have made the Dragon Run watershed, for example, what it is today-a beautiful, relatively undeveloped area on Virginia's Middle Peninsula-and will also determine its future.
"The watershed is really untouched, and it is the conservation commitment of these private landowners that has given us such a pristine watershed," Coastal Planner Julie Bixby said.
The Virginia Coastal Program and its partners, including citizens from the watershed, are working on a plan that includes guidance for future land and agricultural development, public accessibility to waterways and land acquisition for protection and research purposes. Activities also include the purchase of 274 acres of land and the hiring of people to coordinate the effort and increase public awareness.
"Our hope is that we will provide starting money for the plan, and 20 years from now, the policies will still be in place," Bixby said.