Center for Natural Capital Board Member Chandler Van Voorhis will speak at the November TEDx in Charlottesville. Chandler is a Principal with GreenTrees and an expert on market-based conservation. Board Member Roger Voisinet is serving on the Steering Committee for this event.

As Ecology II students at Orange County High School, VA learn about the science side of stream cleaning, local landowners such as David Perdue & Family, Somerset Plantation, and others are stepping forward to enroll the streamside portion of their properties in this local youth eco-job training and entrepreneurship program. Property owners in the Liberty Mills, Spicer’s Mills, [...]

Yesterday, Center Board Members Fred Circle (FDC Enterprises) and John English (English Boiler and Tube) along with staff Michael Collins, VBS Program Manager Brian Becker and affiliate David Richert, participated in the session The State of Virginia’s Sustainable Biomass Energy System 2013. The session offered the state of the major elements of the sustainable biomass [...]

Today the Center for Natural Capital received support from the Energy Foundation. This will be used for Sustainable Bioenergy coalition building in the Mid-Atlantic region, U.S.

Today, Forester David Richert has joined the Center for Natural Capital’s Consulting Collaborative with an immediate focus on sustainable community forest management and ecosystem services-friendly woody biomass energy for renewable heat and power. David is a certified forester and certified arborist with 12 years of experience managing public and private forests.  David has developed and [...]

Today, the Smith Creek Trout Restoration Project is the first on the Ahyayha Funding Platform to go over 5k in contributions and get over 50% toward the goal.
The project has 37 days left to successfully reach its goal.
Ahyayha.com was launched in September and already has raised thousands of dollars for small conservation projects through the [...]

VCU Energy & Sustainability Conference
1/31 Plenary Session
Biomass for Heat and Power: A Sustainable Energy Solution for the Commonwealth’s Institutions
Target Audience:  Facility managers considering converting their facility to a sustainable biomass feedstock fuel source.  Given that they currently are probably only dealing with a single contractor for delivery of their fuel, they are probably wondering:
A.      What [...]

At the upcoming VCU Energy and Sustainability Conference, Center Staff and Board members, and others, will provide an interactive discussion with a large roundtable composed of parties directly involved in or concerned about bioenergy. Short briefings designed to tell a portion of the “bioenergy story” as it presently exists in Virginia will be provided by each [...]

Today, contributions for the Broadway High School (Shenandoah Valley, Va.) Water Quality Testing Fund, essential to provide transportation and other funds needed to support Science Department Field Investigations, surpassed the $2000 mark.
With 1/3 of the funding timeframe left to go, this project is 1/3 of the way there. ~ $6000 is needed to create an [...]

Contributions from a diverse group of supporters - businesses, landowners, entrepreneurs, universities, and other non-profits - are rolling in to support the concept of community-based bioenergy, fueled with conservation-friendly woody biomass and native warm season grasses - to provide heat and power.
Virginia Biomass Solutions and the Virginia Bioenergy Network is moving forward through a grassroots [...]

Yesterday, the Conserv Board of Directors voted to rename the organization The Center for Natural Capital, Economic Development through Healthy Ecosystems. This action reflects the acquisition of Public Policy of Virginia earlier this year and the Board’s increasing interest in bottom-up, market-based solutions designed to increase the health of ecosystem services.
The Board also adopted a [...]

For the U.S. environmental restoration microfunding startup Ahyayha.com, today, Hawlloween 2012, marks a milestone. For the first time since the company’s launch October 18, a project has gone beyond the $1000 dollar threshold. With 41 days left, the Broadway High School, Virginia water quality testing project only needs 5k to reach its goal. Learn more [...]

Ahyayha.com in cooperation with local conservation organizations and governmental entities is preparing to launch a streambank restoration project south of New Market, Virginia. The project, planned for Smith Creek, a tributary of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River, has a long-term goal to restore native Brook Trout.
Ahyayha’s role will be to help provide matching funds [...]

The Conserv Board of Directors will meet this coming Friday, November 2 from 2-4 p.m. Agenda items will include possible organization name change, 2013 projects, development, and 2012 Fund Drive.

Last month, Conserv, in partnership with CSG Geotech, Inc. and Civil and Environmental Services, LLC, successfully completed deliverables for a 3-year contract with the Virginia Department of Forestry (VDOF) Forests to Faucets (F2F) Program on time and on budget. The F2F program is funded by the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Inc.
Buck Kline, Director [...]

In response to needs identified through 2009-2010 projects, the Conserv Board of Directors facilitated the formation of a new venture in 2011 to stimulate voluntary demand for non-market and emerging market ecosystem services. The venture, called Ahyayha (Cherokee meaning “to hold in hand”) was chartered as one of Virginia’s first Benefit Corporations. The beta platform was launched Friday, October 12. Under the [...]

After months of preparations, Conserv has launched Virginia Biomass Solutions (VBS).  VBS fosters the economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable production and utilization of biomass in Virginia for food, fiber, energy, and environmental services. VBS is the next generation of biomass and bioenergy  programming originally developed by Public Policy of Virginia [...]

On Tuesday, September 18, the Board of Directors of the Association of Conservation Real Estate dba Conserv assumed control of the organization Public Policy of Virginia (PPV). This friendly transition was accomplished with the assistance of PPV staff and PPV Board of Directors. The entire PPV Board, with the exception of Al Weed, has been [...]

The Final F2F Advisory Council Meeting will be held at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, September 26 at the George Dean Board Room on the second floor of the Virginia Department of Forestry in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The agenda will be focused on a review of the watershed payments portion of the project and then the meeting will [...]

An explanation of funds available as “payments for watershed services” in the Rivanna River Basin watershed…
http://www.wina.com/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=5941576

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2012/082012/08182012/719483

In service to our clients - the Rappahannock River Basin Commission, the Virginia Department of Forestry,  the National Wildlife Federation, and the City of Fredericksburg, Conserv + Partners recently completed the Phase I Rappahannock River Friendly Yard Program Brochure.
http://www.conservationrealestate.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/rfy-phase-i-final-program-brochure-iv-7-26-12-compressed5.pdf
The project could not have been completed without hundreds of hours of pro-bono time offered by Conserv’s [...]

Colonel Bradley R. Pickens, Director, A8, Strategic Requirements and Programming, Twelfth Air Force (Air Forces Southern), Davis-Monthan AFB, and Brad Huff, Principals with Biogreen U.S.A. Inc. have agreed to help guide Conserv with their suburban pollution reduction programming and particularly the River Friendly Yard initiative. These new members of Conserv’s Board of Directors bring real [...]

The OIE decision support system was presented to the Committee for their review. Several in the group felt that the real power of the tool is a context to facilitate discussions between utility/public works staff and conservationists. The staff of the Commission is interested in convening a meeting to invite policy makers to optimize South [...]

http://wetlandswatch.org/NewsPublications/DirectorsBlog/tabid/110/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/87/Wetlands-Watch-Study-on-Conservation-Landscaping-to-Save-the-Bay.aspx
 
 

To keep pace with opportunities in the world of ecosystem restoration, the Board in 2012 initiated a process to expand its members. Candidates were identified with an interest in the following program areas: 

Ahyayha-Conserv micro-funding of ecosystem restoration projects
Rappahannock river basin market-based conservation to meet the TMDL
StreamSweepers job corps and landowner services
Perennial biomass
Biodiversity markets

At the Summer [...]

Conserv + Partners is proud to release the Rappahannock River Friendly Yard Phase I Final Report in the form of a “program brochure” designed for homeowners and landscape vendors. The Rappahannock River Friendly Yard is a project of the Rappahannock River Basin Commission, Virginia Department of Forestry, the National Wildlife Federation, and the City of Fredericksburg, [...]

Next week, local government staff in the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia will begin evaluation of the Optimum Infrastructure Expenditure (OIE) Capital Planning Tool. Two versions of the tool will be evaluated; case studies of the South Fork Rivanna River Reservoir Watershed, and a hypothetical watershed with low legacy sediment.  Results of the [...]

Two critical elements of the Phase I Rappahannock River Friendly Demonstration Program have been completed in draft form - River Friendly Yard Incentives and River Friendly Yard Economic Development for the Fredericksburg, Virginia area.
A few of the highlights of these reports include:

A proposed cost offsets and rebate program could achieve a 24% savings on the [...]

Conserv welcomes several new members of the collaborative -
David Hay - is working on the economic development portion of the River Friendly program.
Steve Keach and Barry Long - will both be working on Phase II of the River Friendly program.
Tatyanna Patten - will be working to further develop the Rappahannock Bioenergy program.
 

The landscape designers and engineers and marketing folks have completed a first draft of their work. Designs will be reviewed - environmental lift will be debated - and ways to incentivize conversions will be discussed. A pre-charette team meeting will be held in Charlottesville on Monday - following that meeting, an agenda for the day [...]

The Association of Conservation Real Estate/Conserv Board of Directors has authorized the separation of The Association of Conservation Real Estate from Conserv. This change reflects the organization’s evolution from a conservation real estate trade organization to an environmental/economic development research and development company. The trade organization will be updated and rebranded in 2012/2013, to include new trends in conservation and environmental restoration, while [...]

Conserv, in association with The Center for Sustainable Groundwater, has completed a beta-version of a capital expenditure planning tool for water supply utilities and local governments. The tool, called the Optimal Infrastructure Expenditure (OIE) Capital Planner,allows the user to optimize expenditures for green infrastructure (afforestation and forest conservation easements) and for grey infrastructure (dredging).
The OIE Project is [...]

The Rappahannock River Friendly Yard Initiative is moving forward.
What makes this project unique is the attempt to incentivize river friendly suburban river friendly retrofits through a suite of property owner rewards, rather than through direct government/grant payments and/or through exclusive public education. It is hoped that recognition of the economic impediments to river friendly landscaping, [...]

After nearly a year and a half in development, Version I of Conserv’s Optimum Environmental Expenditure (OEE) tool and related Watershed-Reservoir Wellness Index (WRWI) will be reviewed for the first time by the F2F Advisory Council at an upcoming Fall, 2011 meeting. The OEE/WRWI is an optimum green/gray infrastructure expenditure sensitivity tool developed for local [...]

After months of development, Conserv will spin off the demonstration project Conservation Meadow Services (CMS) as a new for-profit corporation. The transition from demonstration project to an independent business entity will begin immeditately.
This business development process is a key objective of Conserv’s R&D focus. This birthing process is not an end, rather a new beginning - and we will continue [...]

Conserv is proud to welcome Dan Spethmann, Ph.D. as Consulting Ecological Economist. Dan will be assisting with financial and economic issues for the Forests to Faucets (F2F), Nutrient Neutral Highway, and Trust for Clean Water Economy projects. 
In addition to his degree in Forest Economics, Dan is also working on completion of Doctoral research on the ethical stewardship [...]

The Rivanna River Forests to Faucets (F2F) Initiative Advisory Council will meet Tuesday, October 18th at 10 a.m. at the Virginia Department of Forestry Headquarters in Charlottesville, Virginia. The F2F program includes development of a financial process to link urban water consumers and rural landowners that provide water-supply related ecosystem services. To accomplish this, two [...]

Last week, the Virginia Urban and Community Forestry Partnership (VDOF) and the Tri-County/City Soil and Water Conservation District generously awarded funds for Phase I of the River Friendly Yard program. The program is a growing grassroots multi-year partnership between the City of Fredericksburg, the National Wildlife Federation, the Tri-County Soil and Water Conservation District, the [...]

Conserv welcomes John Hermsmeier as Manager of Conservation Meadow Services.  John attended the University of Virginia and after graduating with a degree in Environmental Science - began a long teaching career with private and public schools in the Charlottesville area, and for many years was Executive Director of the Environmental Education Center. During years teaching at Renaissance [...]

Conserv welcomes Chris Sonne, P.E. as Ecological Engineer to assist with our projects. Chris is the current Board Chairman of the James River Green Building Council and specializes in low-impact site design. Better yet, Chris is also a blacksmith and snowboarder. He lives in beautiful Nelson County, Virginia.

Earlier today, Conserv tested a beta version of The Water Supply Watershed Environmental Services Game at the Lands for Tomorrow conference at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. The intent of the game, actually, a simulation, is to demonstrate the costs and benefits of an environmental services-based approach to watershed management in a water-supply reservoir watershed. The simulation featured the [...]

On July 1st, Conserv will launch Conservation Meadow Services (CMS), a new conservation service for suburban landowners that provides design, installation, and maintenance of native plant meadows. The meadows add color and texture to a yard, in addition to reducing erosion and increasing local plant and wildlife biodiversity. The meadows require little or no water after the first season, [...]

Al Weed, with Public Policy of Virginia, Michael Collins, and Rebekah Remick, DEQ Air Division Staff, presented Small Scale Biopowered Technologies at May 12 webinar.
 

Meeting Announcement and Agenda
River Friendly Yard - Rappahannock
Tuesday, April 26
10 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.
Fredericksburg City Hall
715 Princess Anne Street
1. Review Pre-Scope of Work
2. Revise Scope of Work
3. Discuss Completion of Budget
Dial-in Number: 1-218-936-4700
Participant Access Code: 567004

Conserv, in collaboration with consultant Pamela Sunderland, recently completed a prototype environmental assets report for a 300 acre farm in the piedmont of Virginia (Jordan River Farm Phase I Executive Summary). Protocols developed in the project are now being used for implementation of a new demonstration project for 2011 called Natural Asset Management Services (NAM). NAM [...]

Yesterday, the Conserv Board of Directors officially authorized the launch of three new R&D Initiatives for 2011 and two new fee-based services. The three Initiatives are:

The River Friendly Yard
Rappahannock Optimum Energy and Environmental Efficiency
The Nutrient Neutral Highway

The two fee-based services to be launched in the weeks ahead are:

Conservation Meadow Services yard restoration
Natural Asset Management services

[...]

MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT

The spring Board of Directors meeting will be held Thursday, April 7 at 10 a.m. at the ReMax office on Hydraulic Road. A staff meeting will be held at 9 before the Board meeting.
AGENDA
1. Review January-March, 2011 Activities
2. Review Budget
3. Review April-June Plans
4. Board Request for Authorization of 2011 [...]

Yesterday, an exploratory committee composed of for-profit businesses, non-profit organizations, and local governments enthusiastically agreed to move forward with a 24 month project to explore the efficiency of “river friendly” yards to help reduce pollution to the Chesapeake Bay. In the coming weeks, a Steering Committee composed of Gentle Gardener Green Design, The National Wildlife [...]