A recent study by the Chesapeake Bay Program found that in the four years from 2013-14 to 2017-18, the bay’s watershed lost over 25,000 acres of tree canopy, while the amount of impervious surface (like buildings, roads, driveways, and parking lots) increased by over 50,000 acres. That’s disturbing news for folks living there—meaning us.
Charlottesville and its surrounding counties are part of the Chesapeake Bay’s vast watershed, and tree coverage plays a huge role in protecting our streams and rivers that feed into it. Trees absorb air pollution; they help control erosion and stormwater runoff, keeping silt and pollutants out of the streams; and they keep things cool and sequester carbon dioxide, thereby countering climate change. According to i-Tree, an online assessment tool, in 2018 Charlottesville’s trees provided $1.6 million in environmental benefits annually. For Albemarle County, that figure was over $76 million.
Our area is fortunate because we have great tree coverage to begin with: 42.5 percent of the city and almost 69 percent of the county, according to fact sheets developed from the CBP study. But we too are losing tree-canopy acreage—not a huge amount yet, but a heads up. “Even that single large tree makes a difference,” says Ann Jurczyk, chair of CBP’s Land Use and Conservation Subcommittee and Virginia director of outreach and advocacy for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. “Fully mature trees—we just can’t replace them fast enough.”
In Charlottesville, Steve Gaines, urban forester with the Charlottesville Parks & Recreation Department, oversees trees on all city-owned property, including parks, schools, and rights of way—about 10 percent of the city. While the city has data on the percentage of tree coverage by neighborhood (thanks to a study commissioned by the Charlottesville Tree Commission, a City Council-appointed advisory body), having information on the quality of coverage is also crucial to guiding replanting and habitat restoration efforts (Gaines notes the city has applied for federal funding to do just that).
This year, the city’s invasive control efforts have been focused on parks—Azalea, Forest Hills, Jordan, and Washington, site of the recently publicized “goat buffet.” (Fry’s Spring is also slated for the goat treatment.) In addition, the city spends $100,000 annually on tree planting, last year concentrating on school grounds. The key thing with replanting, Gaines says, is “getting the right trees on the right site.”
The Charlottesville Tree Commission reviews and makes recommendations on city projects and ordinances that affect tree coverage, says the commission’s Jeffery Aten, a local landscape architect. The commission is also part of a public-private effort called ReLeaf Cville that runs both educational and hands-on programs. With a $46,125 grant from the Virginia Department of Forestry, ReLeaf will plant 126 trees in the Rose Hill neighborhood this fall.
Albemarle County has to manage a wider range of land uses—a mix of urban/suburban landscape with more rural areas. “Maintaining tree canopy is a priority across several departments, including Community Development, Facilities & Environmental Services, and Parks & Recreation, focusing on landscape standards for development, partnerships for tree planting, and invasive species management on county land,” says Abbey Stumpf, the county’s manager of communications & public engagement. Current policies and possible new initiatives will be considered as part of the “AC44” Comprehensive Plan development process—residents can submit their comments on draft goals and objectives for environmental stewardship, parks and recreation, and historic, scenic, and cultural resources through the AC44 website.
In both the city and county, nonprofits like Blue Ridge PRISM, the Rivanna Master Naturalists, and the Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards work with government agencies and run their own programs on public education and habitat restoration. The Tree Stewards have planted trees at schools, parks (including Darden Towe, McIntire, Greenleaf, and Pen), and greenways, and its volunteers help care for the trees after planting, a key to long-term success. The Tree Stewards recently completed urban planting projects in the Belmont and 10th and Page neighborhoods. “We go to the places where they need trees,” says former forester and Tree Stewards member Barbara White. And, through the organization’s free classes, tree walks, and volunteer workdays, “we try to take care of the trees we do have.”
Of course, the elephant in this room is development, a pressing and contentious issue in both the city and county. In Charlottesville, where most of the canopy loss occurs on private land, “the only way we can influence this is through the ordinances and the code,” says Gaines. Public hearings are now underway for ordinance revisions that will help support forest preservation, including making the city’s Best Management Practices for Tree Preservation required. Albemarle County code has an “environmental standards bonus, which allows developers that maintain a larger percentage of wooded area a 5 or 10 percent increase in housing density.
An encouraging new initiative, Resilient Together, is an 18-month collaborative planning process among Charlottesville, Albemarle County, and the University of Virginia (a significant landowner in both jurisdictions). The goal is to work together on climate resilience planning, which will include urban heat reduction, stormwater mitigation, and wildfire management—each benefiting from a healthy tree canopy. As it gears up, the Resilient Together initiative is actively encouraging public input and participation.
In the meantime, CBP will use data collected in 2022-23 to release an updated Chesapeake Bay watershed study next year.