The University of Maryland’s newly published 2019 Chesapeake Bay Report Card found that the water quality in the Rappahannock River fell significantly between 2018 and 2019, from a C grade to a D, based on 7 indicators of water quality. It’s hard to sugar coat this....
At Friends of the Rappahannock, we love Rappahannock County Park in Little Washington. It has everything we look for in a riverfront park, including trails, a large forest buffer, native plant gardens, and lots of interpretive signage to help visitors understand the...
Hurricanes and other coastal storms are a fact of life in the coastal South. Over the past few years, nearby states like North Carolina and New Jersey took direct hits from major storms and incurred millions of dollars in flood damage. Luckily, in 2019, no hurricanes...
A journey of set-backs, ending 2018 with promise In a region like the Northern Neck, characterized by marshes, beaches, and gentle pine flats, the towering Fones Cliffs might as well be Mount Everest. The high ground overlooking the Rappahannock River here in Richmond...
When Paul Goodall walks his farm, he has a lot to remember. As he crosses the hilly pastures, Paul remembers to check his water troughs for overflow, inspect his cattle fence, and monitor the growth of a stand of newly planted trees. On a 600 acre farm, something...
The upper Rappahannock and Rapidan Rivers are home to some of the finest smallmouth bass waters in Virginia. There are lunkers to be found, but they’re crafty and hard to land if you don’t know where to look. Here’s three tips to help you find that trophy...
Friends of the Rappahannock was founded in 1985 as a group of citizens cleaning up trash along the river in Fredericksburg. Since then, we’ve grown to an organization of over 2,000 members and eight full time staff operating across sixteen counties, but we remain true...
How do you write about a feeling? It’s the feeling you get when a well-scripted plan meets a group of hard-working volunteers; when work meets play meets growth; when education meets restoration meets recreation in a symphony of dirty hands, elbow grease, and...
At Friends of the Rappahannock, we like to say that restoring a watershed is like cleaning a car. To do it right, you have to start at the top and work your way down. At the top of our watershed is the “headwaters” of the Rappahannock River system, which starts in the...
This February marks the 14th anniversary of the removal of the Embrey Dam, an act which turned the Rappahannock River into the longest free-flowing river in the eastern U.S. The 22-foot-tall dam’s removal in 2004 transformed the ecology and the landscape of the...
