The 2021 Virginia General Assembly is currently in session. We are highlighting a number of bills that have conservation, wildlife, or habitat impacts. We encourage you to contact your legislators, and the appropriate members of the Agriculture, Conservation, and Natural Resources committees, if applicable. We have included a link at the bottom of this page to find your legislator, and contact information for Loudoun representatives and the Natural Resource Committee Members for the House and Senate.

Here are a few tips for creating a compelling message to your legislators:

1. Introduce – Briefly describe your position on the legislation, policy, or topic.
2. Persuade – Tell your personal story, and how the topic relates to you. Your story is impactful.
3. Inform – Provide background information and data on the topic.
4. Conclude – Restate your message with a call to action.

We are a member of the Virginia Conservation Network. The talking points below are derived from materials produced by VCN and their members. We have highlighted links to additional talking points for these bills as well.

Budget:

Support – Virginia Farmland Preservation Fund, Budget Amendment 97 #2H – $2 Million per year

Patron: Gooditis

This amendment provides an additional $2.0 million the second year from the general fund to the Virginia Farmland Preservation Fund.

• The Virginia Farmland Preservation Fund was established in 2007 to provide grant funding to localities with certified farmland preservation programs. Since its inception, the program has been woefully underfunded.
• Virginia should fully fund this vital grant program, providing much needed matching funds and encouraging other localities to adopt Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) programs of their own.

Support – Virginia Land Conservation Foundation – $16 Million per year

• The legislature should ensure that adequate funds are allocated to this important program that not only protects wildlife habitat and ensure access to the outdoors, but it is also critical in achieving goals on protecting water quality, water supply, and climate resiliency.

Support – Increase VCAP Appropriation, Budget Amendment 373 #3H – $500,000 increase for second year, bringing total funding to $1 million the second year.

Patron: Plum

• VCAP currently has a backlog of more than $200,000 until future funding is provided, and the restoration of the appropriation to its previous level will allow the program to meet growing demand and assist with water quality goals in urban areas.

Support – Environmental literacy funding, Budget Amendment 373 #2H – $170,000, restores funding unallotted last year.

Patron: Bloxom

• This request recognizes the commitment Virginia made to its students and the importance environmental education plays developing and nurturing watershed stewards. These funds provide for meaningful interactions and learning opportunities for students throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
• Environmental Education increases equity in a number of ways including allowing citizens to more fully participate in the civic process surrounding environmental justice, helping citizens understand issues impacting their health and wellness, and providing all students equal access to natural resources and outdoor space.
• Studies have shown a direct correlation between environmental access and equity to mental and physical health with communities living in degraded environmental conditions and less access to outdoor space experiencing more negative health outcomes, which has been further highlighted and exacerbated by COVID.
• Environmental Education best practices are best practices across the board, and increasing our teachers’ capacity to deliver quality Environmental Education programs increases their ability to deliver meaningful content across all curriculums.

Support – Increase Support for Trails and Outdoor Recreation, Budget Item #HB-1800, Item 447-H – $5 Million to provide support the development of multi-use trails

• Virginians need daily access to parks and green spaces to thrive, and we must ensure communities that have inadequate access receive adequate access.

House Bills:

Support – Ensuring Integrity of Conservation Easements, HB1760

Patrons: Webert and Gooditis

• Conservation easements are a critical tool for protecting Virginia’s most valuable habitats, working lands, scenic viewsheds and cultural landscapes.
• This legislation ensures that courts interpret easements in a way that achieves the conservation purposes for which the easement was created.

Assigned to Agriculture, Conservation, and Natural Resources: subcommittee Natural Resources

From our partner, PEC: https://www.pecva.org/region/regional-state-national-region/general-assembly/take-action-in-support-of-land-conservation-legislation/

Support – Agricultural Best Management Practices, HB1763

Patron: Wilt

• Agricultural best management practices (or BMPs), such as fencing cattle out of streams, are one of most cost-effective investments to improve water quality in local streams, rivers and the Chesapeake Bay.

Assigned to Finance Subcommittee #2

Support – Neonicotinoid Pesticides; local regulation and notice, HB2030

Patron: Krizek

• This bill aims to protect pollinators in our community from outdoor spray of neonicotinoids (neonics). There is a major concern that neonics play a major contributing role in pollinator declines.
• They are under scrutiny due to their persistence in the soil, ability to leach into the environment, high water solubility, and potential negative health implications for nontarget organisms such as pollinators.

Assigned to Agriculture, Conservation, and Natural Resources subcommittee Agriculture

Support – Replacement and conservation of trees during development, HB2042

Patron: Guy

• The current statute limits localities’ authority to preserve and conserve their tree canopies. This bill enables localities to adopt higher replacement percentages (than the current range cap of 10-30%) where trees are used to meet water quality, flooding management, and equity goals.
• This bill expands the provisions in the statute, Va. Code 15.2-961.1. to allow local governments to establish a tree fund or tree bank, providing offsite options for developers unable to achieve the canopy replacement percentages onsite.

Assigned to Counties, Cities & Towns subcommittee Land Use.

This bill has a companion bill, SB1393.

Senate Bills:

Support – Ensuring Integrity of Conservation Easements, SB1199

Patron: Peterson

• Conservation easements are a critical tool for protecting Virginia’s most valuable habitats, working lands, scenic viewsheds and cultural landscapes.
• This legislation ensures that courts interpret easements in a way that protects donor intent and achieves the conservation purposes for which the easement was created.

Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Conservation, and Natural Resources.

Support – Strengthening interagency coordination and planning for wildlife corridors, SB1274

Patron: Marsden

• This bill builds on the efforts of the Wildlife Corridor Action Plan (WCAP) passed by the Virginia General Assembly in 2020. It seeks to make Virginia safer for both wildlife and citizens. It does this ensuring that wildlife corridors identified in the Wildlife Corridor Action Plan are integrated into the strategic planning documents of other agencies with activities that could impact wildlife movement and public safety.
• By prioritizing wildlife movement corridors and planning for them, we can help wildlife move safely through the landscape and reduce the vehicular collisions that cost over $533 million annually, saving both money and lives.

Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Conservation, and Natural Resources.

Support – Replacement and conservation of trees during development, SB1393

Patron: Marsden

• The current statute limits localities’ authority to preserve and conserve their tree canopies. This bill enables localities to adopt higher replacement percentages (than the current range cap of 10-30%) where trees are used to meet water quality, flooding management, and equity goals.
• This bill expands the provisions in the statute, Va. Code 15.2-961.1. to allow local governments to establish a tree fund or tree bank, providing offsite options for developers unable to achieve the canopy replacement percentages onsite.

This bill has a companion bill, HB2042.

House Joint Resolution:

Support – Invasive Plant Species Study, HJ527

Patron: Bulova

• This study would allow for the exploration of options for phasing out the propagation and sale of invasive plants in Virginia’s horticultural industry.
• Virginia’s noxious weed law regulates the movement of certain plants. However, if the plant is commercially viable or commercially propagated in Virginia, it cannot be listed as a noxious weed. This allows for an invasive plant to continue to be sold even after it has been identified as harmful to the environment, economy and/or human health.
• Landowners, localities, and our state and federal government spends millions of dollars a year controlling invasive plants in Virginia. These costs will continue to grow so long as invasive plant species continue to be sold and planted in the commonwealth.

Find your Legislative contacts – Who’s My Legislator

You can copy and paste your Senator and Delegate email address into your email

The list of Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee members: 

Chap Petersen (Chair), Emmett Hanger, Frank Ruff, Mark Obenshain,Richard Stuart, David Marsden, William Stanley, Lynwood Lewis, David Suetterlein, Monty Mason, Jennifer McClellan, Barbara Favola, Joseph Morrissey, Todd Pillion, Ghazala Hashmi.  You can copy and paste these committee member email addresses into your email:

district34@senate.virginia.gov, district24@senate.virginia.gov, district15@senate.virginia.gov, district26@senate.virginia.gov, district28@senate.virginia.gov, district37@senate.virginia.gov;
district20@senate.virginia.gov, district06@senate.virginia.gov, district19@senate.virginia.gov, district01@senate.virginia.gov, district09@senate.virginia.gov, district31@senate.virginia.gov, district16@senate.virginia.gov, district40@senate.virginia.gov, district10@senate.virginia.gov

House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee members: 

Ken Plum (Chair), Robert Bloxom, David Bulova, Joshua Cole, James Edmunds, Todd Gilbert, Wendy Gooditis, Nancy Guy, Dan Helmer, Sally Hudson, Mark Kean, Alfonso Lopez, Daniel Marshall, Charles Poindexter, Margaret Ransone,  Shelly Simonds, Kathy Tran, Roslyn Tyler, Lee Ware, Michael Webert, Rodney WIllett, Tony Wilt. Their contact information is here but we’ve made it easier for you to contact.  You can copy and paste these committee member email addresses into your email:

DelKPlum@house.virginia.gov, DelWGooditis@house.virginia.gov, DelRTyler@house.virginia.gov, DelDBulova@house.virginia.gov, DelMKeam@house.virginia.gov, DelALopez@house.virginia.gov, DelKTran@house.virginia.gov, DelDHelmer@house.virginia.gov, DelJCole@house.virginia.gov, DelSHudson@house.virginia.gov, DelSSimonds@house.virginia.gov, DelRWillett@house.virginia.gov, DelNGuy@house.virginia.gov, DelLWare@house.virginia.gov,  DelDMarshall@house.virginia.gov, DelTGilbert@house.virginia.gov, DelCPoindexter@house.virginia.gov, DelJEdmunds@house.virginia.gov, DelTWilt@house.virginia.gov, DelMWebert@house.virginia.gov, DelMRansone@house.virginia.gov, DelRBloxom@house.virginia.gov

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