Protect our creeks & streams.
Best Management Practices are key to improving watershed health.
- If you are actively managing your forestland for commercial timber harvest, employ best management practices (BMPs) to ensure that disturbed soils remain in the woods to grow the next generation of trees and do not end up in streams.
- Maintain a forested buffer at least 50 feet wide along streams during harvesting activities which keeps wildlife habitat and travel corridors intact while keeping soil and nutrients out of the water.
- Obtain assistance from a professional forester to develop harvest and management plans which will yield healthier forests and better economic returns from the timber.
- Plant trees in sensitive streamside areas and abandoned agricultural fields to restore habitat for wildlife and to reduce soil and nutrient run off impacts on streams.
Contact the following for technical and financial assistance:
Virginia Department of Forestry
State Office
900 Natural Resources Drive
Charlottesville, VA 22903
434-977-6555
www.dof.virginia.gov
Joe Lehnen
Shenandoah County Forester
VA Department of Forestry
265 Lakeview Drive
Woodstock, VA 22664
540-459-3141
Joe.Lehnen@dof.virginia.gov
Bruce Harmon
Rockingham County Forester
VA Department of Forestry
265 Lakeview Drive
Woodstock, VA 22664
540-459-7834
bruce.harmon@dof.virginia.gov