Protection of Virginia's natural resources and coastal habitats is a significant goal of the Virginia Coastal Zone (CZM) Program. 

Virginia CZM also has shown that land conservation is an economic benefit to Virginia's coastal localities.

Land acquisition using funding from NOAA to leverage and pool partner resources to protect and restore migratory bird habitat, especially neotropical songbirds whose populations have been in significant decline for decades due to habitat loss and fragmentation.  The southern tip of the Eastern Shore is one of those places that provide a critical rest stop during the birds’ fall migration from Canada and the northeastern U.S. to Central and South America.  Since the 1990s, the partners have acquired, protected and restored several thousand acres with the native vegetation these birds need for food and cover from predators. 

Virginia CZM and Eastern Shore local governments undertook a study by George Mason University of the fiscal and socio-economic impacts of land conservation, with the urging of the Southern Tip Partnership - a land conservation group now known as Virginia Eastern Shore Conservation Alliance (VESCA), including US Fish & Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy, Virginia CZM Program, the Departments of Conservation & Recreation (DCR) and Game & Inland Fisheries (DGIF).  This study of the fiscal and socio-economic impacts of land conservation on Virginia's Virginia's Eastern Shore confirmed the net positive economic impact of conserved land to the budgets of the counties of Accomack and Northampton.  Download report

The project inspired the Virginia CZM Program to develop a new 3-year focal area in 2017 that looks at how communities (especially rural coastal communities) can improve their economic condition by capitalizing on the protection of their natural resources.  This led to three new initiatives:

• For the lower Chickahominy River the same economists were selected to do similar economic analyses for the rural counties in that region.  Download the report - Leveraging Economic Benefits of the Natural Resources of the Lower Chickahominy
• Promotion of ecotourism in the Middle Peninsula, Northern Neck and Eastern Shore including connecting various water, oyster and birding trails through branding and a website – VirginiaWaterTrails.org. Also construction of enhanced interpretive signage.
• Promotion of oyster aquaculture while minimizing use conflicts by analyzing the current oyster industry in Virginia, what areas are currently or potentially productive and what areas further offshore could potentially be used for aquaculture.
  Read more about the oyster aquaculture promotion project - FY2019 Task 71.

Learn more about Virginia CZM's oyster restoration investment.

Learn more about Virginia CZM's successful investment to restore eelgrass habitat on the seaside of the Eastern Shore.

Banner image: Scallop in eelgrass habitat restored on the seaside of Virginia's Eastern Shore. Courtesy of Robert Orth.