A coalition of environmental groups in multiple states, including Virginia, will receive $200 million from the Environmental Protection Agency to use toward nature-based ways to reduce carbon emissions.
The coalition includes Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Over the next five years, The Nature Conservancy Virginia will receive $47.2 million to improve forest management in southeastern Virginia and help tidal wetland restoration on the Eastern Shore. Bettina Ring, executive director of TNC Virginia, said it took a lot of collaboration between all four states to put together an application for the competitive award. In total, the EPA announced 25 selected applications for more than $4.3 billion in the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant Program.
“It was really a pretty quick turnaround, but a lot of time was put in to make sure we had an incredible proposal, using the good science that we have in place and priorities that we’ve established,” Ring said. “(There are) areas that we know we need to do more, either restoration work or acquisitions and easements and carbon agreements. What’s really nice is this has the combination of many tools in that toolbox: from private land stewardship to forest being acquired, or easements being put on that land, or carbon agreements on private lands.”
Ring, who has spent much of her career as a forester, said peat is “an important piece of this puzzle” for reducing carbon in Virginia. She said the majority of the work in Virginia will focus on forest restoration, including rehabilitation of salt marshes and peatland, planting trees in cities, conserving farmland and preserving land for outdoor recreation.
Funding will enable current efforts to reach an additional 36,000 acres of hardwood forests in the Appalachians, 7,750 acres of longleaf pine ecosystem and 150 acres of tidal wetlands. Ring said this will help to lower risks from wildfire and flooding along with their carbon sequestration benefits.
“As long as we have these resilient forests and wetlands and also the peat, then you’re making sure that things are happening naturally,” she said. “It helps us when we see what’s happening with our climate; you can see it every day. We’re seeing more severe storms. We’re seeing drought as well as flooding and obviously the sea-level rise in the eastern part of the state. Knowing that we can truly use natural resources as a solution to (climate issues) is just huge. The nice thing about those solutions is it supports not only protecting the environment, but it supports the local economy and supports local communities as that social aspect.”
When complete, The Nature Conservancy has estimated that these efforts will result in sequestering between 200,054 and 507,871 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. That’s the equivalent of taking more than 6.6 million gas-powered vehicles off the road a year.
“Protecting, restoring and enhancing our natural resources throughout the Commonwealth is critical to ensure their continued enjoyment by Virginians for generations to come,” said Travis Voyles, secretary of natural and historic resources for the state of Virginia. “This funding will accelerate that work and bolster our resilience efforts from our cherished coastal environments around the Chesapeake Bay to our treasured forests and wetlands.”
Eliza Noe, [email protected]
