Using Conservation Easements as a Water Quality Protection Tool in the Goose Creek Watershed, Northern Virginia
Abstract
Goose Creek was placed on Virginia’s list of impaired waters in 1998 for its failure
to attain the standards for both primary contact use and aquatic life use due to fecal
coliform and sedimentation, respectively. The Middle Goose Creek Subwatershed is dominated
by large parcels and is covered by a mosaic of forest and agriculture. It is also
immediately upstream of the rapid development pressures of Loudoun County, Va. One
particularly comprehensive tool for encouraging and implementing water quality protection
is to place a parcel under conservation easement. The objectives of this project are
as follows: (1) develop and utilize a prioritization scheme for targeting parcels
to be placed under conservation easements, (2) compare the existing easements with
this prioritization, and (3) make management recommendations as to which priority
parcels remain to be targeted for easement and which existing easements need to be
strengthened.
The prioritization scheme is based on four metrics: runoff potential, buffer potential,
forested streambank, and agricultural streambank. The top five highest ranking parcels
of each metric were overlaid to produce a total of 14 priority parcels. Despite 43%
of the land in this subwatershed already being under conservation easements, only
six of the 14 priority parcels were already under easement.
My recommendations are to target priority parcels not yet under conservation easement
to be placed under easement and to amend existing easements on priority parcels to
strengthen riparian buffer requirements. I suggest first focusing restoration efforts
on those “source” parcels identified as having the greatest potential to contribute
sediment and fecal coliform bacteria to Goose Creek, then shifting to preserving those
“sink” parcels which have the greatest potential to decrease levels of sediment and
fecal coliform. I have thus developed a flexible framework for prioritizing a landscape
with the goal of maximizing water quality and using conservation easements as the
tool to accomplish this protection. This methodology can be used by organizations
with limited resources to focus efforts most efficiently.
Type
Master's projectPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/510Citation
Hamm, Tracy (2008). Using Conservation Easements as a Water Quality Protection Tool in the Goose Creek
Watershed, Northern Virginia. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/510.Collections
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