Video: Sustainable Landscaping Workshop June 13, 2013

In this video excerpt, experts from BlandyLord Fairfax Soil and Water Conservation District and Master Naturalists shared information about sustainable landscaping and yard care practices, garden ecology and backyard habitat creation—with an emphasis on Monarch butterflies. Discover how and why you can benefit by changing the way you care for your property and how that can help the local environment as we work to clean up Spout Run in Clarke County.

This program was completely free of charge and brought to you by the Piedmont Environmental Council in cooperation with Clarke County, C Spout Run partners, and a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Please contact Gem Bingol at (703) 431-6941 or gbingol@pecva.org to get more information about the program.

Follow the Spout Run website for news of continuing programs being offered in the watershed.

Clarke County Recipient of NFWF Small Watershed Grant

Clarke County, Va. will receive $141,600 (plus $87,800 in matching funds) to improve water quality and restore eastern brook trout habitat in Spout Run by working with farmers and residential landowners to stabilize stream banks, install fencing and convert turf to trees. As a partner in this effort, The Downstream Project videotaped the NFWF press conference in Arlington, Virginia.

Watch Announcement: remarks by David O’Neill, Eastern Partnership Office Director, NFWF; Jeffrey Corbin, Senior Advisor for the Chesapeake Bay and the Anacostia River, U.S. EPA; The Honorable James P. “Jim” Moran, U.S. Representative

NFWF News Release (download PDF)
ALL NFWF Grant Recipients (download PDF)

[Read more…]

Chesapeake Bay Foundation Supports Spout Run Cleanup

Clarke Daily News

Dear Editor,

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation congratulates everyone engaged in the Spout Run watershed cleanup. It takes just such communitywide, public-private partnerships to restore local streams, as all of us contribute in some way to the pollution of our waterways, and all of us can play a role in cleaning them up. The Spout Run partners are to be commended for moving forward to restore clean water to their community, those downstream, and ultimately to the Chesapeake Bay.

Success will mean a healthier, safer stream, a more vibrant local economy, and better quality of life for local residents and future generations. Kudos to all involved: Clarke County, local residents, farmers, Trout Unlimited, Lord Fairfax Soil and Water Conservation District, The Downstream Project, Piedmont Environmental Council, Friends of the Shenandoah River, and the Virginia Departments of Environmental Quality and Conservation and Recreation.

Ann F. Jennings
Virginia Executive Director
Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Notice of Public Meeting

The TMDL document will be available on the DEQ website the day of the meeting for public comment and review:

The final public meeting on the development of these TMDLs will be held on Wednesday February 24, 2010. The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) seek written and oral comments from interested persons on the development of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for the Spout Run watershed in Clarke County. Spout Run was listed on the 1998 303(d) TMDL Priority List and Report as impaired due to violations of the State’s water quality standard for bacteria and violations of the State’s general (benthic) standard for aquatic life. The benthic and bacteria impairments on the South Fork Shenandoah extend for 3.7 miles from the confluence of Page Brook and Roseville Run downstream to the confluence with the Shenandoah River. In addition, Page Brook was listed on the 2004 303(d) TMDL Priority List and Report as impaired due to violations of the State’s water quality standard for bacteria. This impairment extends for 8.78 miles from the headwaters downstream to the confluence with Roseville Run.

Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act and §62.1-44.19:7.C of the Code of Virginia require DEQ to develop TMDLs for pollutants responsible for each impaired water contained in Virginia’s 303(d) TMDL Priority List and Report.
The public comment period for the final public meeting and TMDL document will end on March 29, 2010. The public notice appears in the Virginia Register of Regulations on February 15, 2010. [Open Meeting]