April 18, 2022 - By Delaney Beattie, DOF Riparian Buffer Specialist- James River Buffer Program At Greene County Community Park, partners recently came together for the simple act of planting a tree. Thirty trees and shrubs, to be exact – and there are more to come. Greene County Community Park covers 70 acres and is the only public park in Greene County. The land is mostly open fields, but Quarter Creek runs through the... Read More
August 3, 2021 - By Kendall Topping, DOF Community Forester As rapid development and population growth continue in Hampton Roads, stormwater runoff and sea level rise have become more prevalent concerns. One of the direct effects of these issues includes more drastic shoreline and streambank erosion. Such extreme cases of erosion lead to unstable ground, forcing landowners to lose valuable land while making certain land uses impossible. This causes not only environmental, but also... Read More
May 27, 2021 - By: Rachel Harris, DOF Utilization & Marketing Specialist Every so often, loggers emerge from the woods and sawmill operators shake off the sawdust to join together at an industry event and catch up on the latest news. The fourth weekend in May was a beautiful choice for the 37th East Coast Sawmill and Logging Equipment Exposition, allowing members of the forest industry to gather once again in person and see... Read More
February 2, 2021 - By Chad Austin, Water Quality Engineer, Western Region Members of the western region and water quality team recently installed a GeoWeb ford stream crossing on the Catawba Hospital grounds in Roanoke County. The ford crossing was installed using State Lands funds from a timber sale being conducted by the agency on the hospital’s property. This crossing replaces an extremely undersized culvert crossing that has been a maintenance issue for many... Read More
June 11, 2020 - The results are in, and the 2019 annual Silviculture Best Management Practices (BMP) Implementation Monitoring Report shows that the logging industry and timberland owners continue to excel at protecting Virginia’s water resources. Forests are essential to clean, healthy drinking water and watersheds, and sustainably-managed forests are the most effective land cover for protecting water quality. Forests improve air quality, provide wildlife habitat, and supply clean water, all while producing the... Read More
April 16, 2020 - By Scott Bachman, senior area forester I will confess, when I moved to Isle of Wight County as a much younger forester, I was concerned about the “swamps” and how I would ever work in this environment. Three decades later I have learned to enjoy the bottomland forests and to appreciate the ecosystem services they provide. One such service is floodwater storage and energy dissipation. In mid-February this year, much... Read More
September 10, 2019 - By Emerald Ash Borer Coordinator Meredith Bean It was August 27, very late in the season to be treating ash for protection against the emerald ash borer (EAB), and we were about to do just that. With the state’s most active “Big Tree hunter” as our guide through the swamps of Cypress Bridge Natural Area Preserve, we hopped into canoes to find the largest Carolina ash trees on record in... Read More
August 16, 2019 - by DOF Forest Health Specialist Katlin Mooneyham The Virginia Department of Forestry is taking forest management to new heights! The agency has recently purchased three drones and certified three drone pilots (with three more taking the test soon!) thanks to a U.S.D.A. Forest Service Landscape Scale Restoration grant. The use of drones in forestry is a newer field and DOF is investigating exactly how we can use these tools in... Read More
August 27, 2018 - by Senior Area Forester Scott Bachman Earlier this summer my co-workers and I were finally able to get out and measure a harvest in Southampton County. The harvest had been in a stand of bottomland hardwoods. The landowner retained a riparian buffer on both sides of the stream channel during the harvest to protect the water quality of a significant tributary of the Blackwater River. The Blackwater River is a... Read More
February 28, 2018 - by Area Forester David H. Terwilliger The red maple (Acer rubrum) is one of the first native trees to burst with color in February. You may recognize their seeds (samaras) as the little “helicopters” that spin to the ground when mature. The fall foliage is a brilliant red or orange. These trees are sexually unique. The species is polygamo-dioecious, meaning some trees are entirely male, producing no seeds; some are entirely female; and... Read More
