RESTORATION
WATER REPORTER MAP
Post your pics of the Rappahannock River and see community engagement.
Water Reporter empowers everyday citizens to take actions that protect and improve water quality in our community. Members use Water Reporter to organize stream cleanups and lead restoration efforts right in their backyards.
Oyster Wars
The Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States, has a rich history filled with natural beauty and conflict. One such conflict was the Chesapeake Bay Oyster Wars, a destructive struggle for control over the region’s oyster beds that took place in the late...
Make a Wetland in a Bottle
Wetlands are areas of land flooded by water at some point during the year, either permanently or seasonally. These ecosystems offer many benefits including pollution filtration, flood reduction and wildlife habitat creation. Create your own wetland in a bottle and...
Where are the Trees?
“FOR said they were planting trees… but all I see is a field of green tubes!” We get this a lot. “Where are the trees?” As a part of our Rappahannock Coastal Forest Program, Friends of the Rappahannock works with our conservation partners to plant thousands of native...
A Rising Tide of Capacity: Expanding our Tidal Region Programming
This year has brought significant growth in staff and project capacity for the tidal office based in Tappahannock. For years the office was staffed by a Lower River Steward and periodically by an educator from the education staff. With minimal support, our staff did...
Plastic Bag Tax – A Year Later
On January 1st, 2022, the City of Fredericksburg rang in the New Year by being one of the first municipalities in Virginia to impose a 5-cent tax on disposable plastic bags distributed at all grocery stores, convenience stores and drugstores in the City. Friends of...
How to Help Wetlands Help YOU!
Why wetlands are important, the history of their degradation and how we are working to restore them in the Rappahannock River watershed and beyond. Historical unrecognition of the many cultural, economic and personal benefits of wetlands to humans has led to...
Riparian Buffers – What’s the Point?
In reading or hearing about the Rappahannock River, you may have encountered the term “riparian.” Riparian is an adjective used for the area along a river or stream’s edge and is used with several different words. A riparian zone or area is the complete...
BUZZZZ…. Protecting Pollinators
Maintaining a colony of flying, stinging insects may not seem an enjoyable pastime, but it is one that I have chosen to pursue. After being exposed to beekeeping online, I learned of the threats to pollinators, worldwide, and the fulfillment of the beekeeping...
Building the Rappahannock Conservation Nursery
FOR and our partners of the Rappahannock River Roundtable work together to provide technical assistance and cost-share programs that leverage state, federal, and private grant funding to help install a variety conservation projects to help clean water. These projects...
Community Efforts for Mountain Run
Mountain Run is a stream that flows through downtown Culpeper. It begins in agricultural fields before it feeds two drinking water reservoirs, flows through several popular park spaces, under bridges and highways, through backyards, and into the Rappahannock River. In...
Restoring the Tidal Rappahannock: Oysters & Living Shorelines
Many of us like to eat oysters, but how many of us know about their value beyond how delicious they are and how our shorelines can be the key to their success? Oysters are an essential part of keeping our Rappahannock River healthy. A single adult oyster filters on...
Mountain Run Initiative: Improving water quality in Culpeper
Throughout 2020, Friends of the Rappahannock held several events focused on Mountain Run, which is part of our larger goals of our Mountain Run Initiative. Mountain Run is a large tributary to the Rappahannock River and runs right through downtown Culpeper. Like most...
Cost-share programs available to improve your farm, forests and waterways
If you own, lease, manage, or support a farming operation in the Rappahannock River watershed, there are lots of opportunities to improve the natural resources of your farm, forests, and waterways which lead to the Rappahannock River and Chesapeake Bay. There’s...
There is a Season – VACS 2021 Program
The coronavirus pandemic has given us time to slow down and reflect on life. The seasons are still coming and going “Turn, Turn, Turn," now is the season when Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs) are taking a look at conservation projects needed on our...
ChesBay Report Card: The Rappahannock’s grade tanked in 2019. Here are four lessons we can learn from this.
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....
Caroline High School and FOR partner to give out saplings
The Caroline High School Science Department, under the leadership of Robin Didlake, partnered with Friends of the Rappahannock (FOR) and NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) in 2018 to conduct Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience (MWEE)...
Upper Rappahannock Report Card: A surprise grade sparks community action
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...
Building natural defenses against natural disasters
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...
FOR receives $810,000 grant for continued pollution reduction efforts
Friends of the Rappahannock is excited to announce that we have been awarded an $810,000 Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund. NFWF's Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund awarded a...
Growing Trees and Family Traditions in Madison County
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...
