A few of the highlights of these reports include:

• A proposed cost offsets and rebate program could achieve a 24% savings on the cost of lawn conversion and maintenance.
• Implementation of River Friendly Yard in Fredericksburg could increase landscape related jobs by 12%.

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 OIE Project is a part of the Forests to Faucets (F2F) program funded by The Virginia Department of Forestry and The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Inc..

A screenshot of the Sediment OIE Dashboard is shown below:

Some argue that an increase in the transportation tax, while perhaps needed, is bound to provide less return in the future due to likely increases in vehicle mileage and use of electric cars. While this may be the case in the distant future, the average miles per gallon of cars in the U.S. hasn’t increased much lately and as for electric cars - there isn’t much of a demand yet. Regardless, the use of tolls is a mechanism to help place the cost of roads where it belongs - on its users.

The link between roads, and perhaps tolls, and the Bay, is coming more into view. Until recently, scientists thought that nitrogen pollution from vehicle exhaust rises into the atmosphere. The latest evidence suggests this is not the case - nitrogen pollution from vehicular exhaust is deposited in the immediate vicinity of highways - on roads, trees, and buildings.[1]In contrast, nitrogen deposited on forests is retained in the forest. [2]This finding means there should be significantly greater emphasis on the treatment of nitrogen pollution deposited directly on the road surface and new land use policies, plans, and BMPs to link vegetation with mobile sources of pollution within a several kilometer swath around highways.  

gwrtc-presentation-final-2012

Our “back of the envelope” calculations show the following regarding the possible implementation of this concept for the proposed Rappahannock Parkway - the toll road that until recent elections in Spotsylvania and Stafford Counties have placed the project in doubt, would link I-95 to Rt. 3 West:

The cost to neutralize the impact of nitrogen on the Bay would be 2 cents per vehicle per trip.  

Note: This includes implementation and maintenance of an on-going program to neutralize impact.

The Commonwealth of Virginia, working with the Environmental Protection Agency, is working on a Bay Restoration Plan that is expected to drive responsibility for reducing pollution down to the local government level. The cost of achieving likely pollution reductions has been estimated to be billions of dollars for the states in the Chesapeake Bay drainage basin. Facing these costs, urban jurisdictions could seek innovative ways to meet these reductions and save money.  The proposed mechanism would create a systems approach to fund restoration - with less reliance on taxpayers footing the bill through the local government general fund - and more reliance on those actually causing the problems.  

- Michael Collins

Note 2: The Global Exposure of Forests to Air Pollution, April, 1999. Fowler, David et. al., Water, Air, and Soil Pollution, Volume 116.

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, and addressing those, will lead to a robust private sector - based self-replicating restoration program.

1. The Rappahannock River Basin Commission approved acceptance of grant that provides partial financial support from the Virginia Department of Forestry last week.

2. A project website has been launched and will be regularly revised in the weeks ahead.

3. A design charette will be held tomorrow, December 13, at the George Washington Regional Commission from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

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 to support John and the CMS team as they work to grow the business in the months and years ahead.

In addition to his degree in Forest Economics, Dan is also working on completion of Doctoral research on the ethical stewardship of natural resources using a balance of methods to capture the range of guiding values from instrumental (quantitative) to intrinsic (qualitative), from the perspective of current and future generations. His wisdom, experience, and genuine concern for people and nature of this generation and those to come will be an invaluable asset to Conserv and all of its Partners.