Healthy Waters Program

The Virginia Natural Heritage Program, in the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), is known for the discovery, identification, protection and monitoring of rare biodiversity in Virginia. This biodiversity consists of rare plant and animal species populations, and exemplary natural communities. To address the identification and protection of aquatic communities, DCR-Natural Heritage manages the Healthy Waters Program, in collaboration with Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VDEQ).

Traditional aquatic assessment programs are classified based on water quality standards with a subsequent restoration plan to improve degraded surface waters. While this is a critical activity to provide the Commonwealth with healthy ecosystems, it is equally as important to seek viable opportunities for best management practices to protect streams that are already considered biologically diverse. There is a direct relationship between land cover, key watershed processes and the ecological health of streams. Moreover, the integrity (health) of aquatic ecosystems (streams) is tightly linked to the watersheds of which they are a part. Therefore, the Healthy Waters program operates from a basic understanding: the conservation and protection of healthy waters today is ecologically and economically prudent, and deserves precedence over expending resources in attempt to restore streams after they have been damaged.

Virginia has more than 300 ecologically healthy streams, creeks and rivers and there are more to be identified. Healthy streams are identified by factors that include: high numbers of native species, a broad diversity of species, few or no non-native species, few generalist species that are tolerant of degraded water quality, high numbers of native predators, migratory species whose presence indicates that river or stream systems are not blocked by dams or other impediments, and low incidence of disease or parasites.

The Healthy Waters Program uses high quality archival data, combined with extensive, new data collected by the VCU stream assessment team, to develop a broad suite of georeferenced databases of aquatic resources. These resources include fish and macroinvertebrate communities, as well as instream and riparian habitat data to provide the basis for community level identification and prioritization of critical resources for protection. Streams in Virginia have been identified and ranked as "outstanding," "healthy", "restoration candidate" or "compromised" through a stream ecological integrity assessment known as the Interactive Stream Assessment Resource (INSTAR). Streams identified as "healthy" or "outstanding" are integrated into the Biotics database at DCR-Natural Heritage as Element Occurrences (EOs) and Stream Conservation Units (SCUs). These data products communicate and provide healthy streams data to local land trusts; non-profit conservation organizations; local, state and federal government agencies; and private sector partners to guide efforts to:

Create, maintain, or expand riparian buffers: Vegetative corridors of at least 35' in width buffer streams from activities in the watershed by intercepting runoff that would otherwise transport sediment and other pollutants to the stream. This is one of the most effective measures for protecting streams. However, to achieve protection of steam corridors to maintain and ensure aquatic and terrestrial communities, we recommend forested riparian buffers along the river and any streams on the property. These buffers should be at least 100 feet wide on both sides of the waterways. If slopes are 11-25 % the buffers should be 150 feet wide and if slopes are greater than 25% buffers should be at least 200 feet wide. These buffers should be kept free of livestock and soil disturbances. Timber harvesting of 50% cover of the landward 50 feet these buffers may be acceptable.
Protect headwater streams: Often intermittent, and therefore not recognized as a "blue line stream" and underserved by regulation, these streams are extremely important to the natural function of downstream waters and habitat for aquatic communities. Exclusion such as fencing livestock out of these areas can prevent downstream degradation of high quality perennial streams.
Maintain natural stream flow to ensure aquatic habitat consistent with healthy ecosystems: The natural, seasonal pattern of stream flow, the stream's response to storm events, and maintaining minimum flow levels may be as critical to a stream's health as water quality.
Protect natural stream channels: Stream channels naturally adjust across their floodplain and are continually changing. By protecting riparian corridors, through easements or by excluding livestock from unlimited access to stream channels, direct introduction of some pollution (bacteria) may be minimized as well as reducing the direct impacts to aquatic habitat and the creation of erosion problems.

Click here for a complete PDF version of "Healthy Waters - A New Ecological Approach to Identifying and Protecting Healthy Waters in Virginia". To order a copy of the publication by mail, contact Todd Janeski, the Program Manager at todd.janeski@dcr.virginia.gov