Jurisdictional environmental coordination, Gloucester County, Virginia

The ability to coordinate the management of human activities in the landscape from an environmental perspective has been a desired, yet elusive, interest. The ability to accurately value environmental functions economically has confounded this process; but conflicts are not confined to the obvious ones between economics and the environment. Even those activities within the field of environmental management are not always harmonious. A myriad of management activities administered at various levels of government results in a web of responsibilities lacking in any central coordination. Varied local, state, and federal programs administered by different agencies have missions that put them in conflict with other agencies and programs

A survey of compensatory mitigation within the tidal wetlands of Virginia

This study has as its primary purpose an examination of how compensatory mitigation has worked as a wetlands management tool to date in Virginia (i.e. how well theory has been put into practice). Our approach was to look at the overall use of compensation in coastal Virginia based on regulatory records and to examine as many existing created wetlands as possible within the tidal area of the state to determine how closely these projects have come, collectively, to fulfilling the compensatory goal of wetland replacement. Secondary objectives includes an examination of the literature regarding wetland compensation concept evaluation and to construct a comprehensive lists of wetland compensation sites in Virginia. --p.

Prioritizing Natural and Nature-Based Features (NNBFs) that increase the resilience of Coastal Communities to Flooding

Presentation by Pamela Mason of VIMS and Ross Weaver of Wetlands Watch for the Hampton Roads Sea Level Rise/Flooding Adaptation Forum, July 9, 2021

Evaluation Report on Chicago Connection's El Centro de Educacion y Cultura Even Start Program

This report examines the accomplishments of El Centro de Educacion y Cultura (hereafter referred to as El Centro) Even Start program in light of the three program objectives stated in the national Even Start evaluation. The objectives are as follows: The literacy of participating families will improve; Even Start projects will reach their target population of families that are most in need of services; and Local Even Start projects will provide comprehensive, instructional and support services of high quality to all families in a cost-effective measure

Virginia’s Coastal Program: Strategic Mapping of Management Goals

Virginia’s Coastal Resources Management Program is a networked program bringing together the activities of many state agencies and institutions to achieve the overarching mission of coastal zone management. The Program’s objectives were originally set out in a series of 25 goals in the 1986 Executive Order (see Appendix B) that established the Program for the Commonwealth under the federal Coastal Zone Management Act. Beginning in May of 1999, representatives of the Virginia state agencies involved with the networked Coastal Program attended a series of meetings to develop logic maps of these twenty-five goals. This document represents the final results of these efforts, which took place over a two and a half year period. The goals which were mapped are the results of early efforts to reformulate the goals to better fit today’s social, economic and environmental objectives, and as such include several rewrites and one combination of two of the original goals, resulting in a total of 24 mapped Program Goals

Expanding the use of natural and nature-based infrastructure to enhance coastal resiliency: Forecast and hind-cast load reductions from Living shoreline BMPs : Project Report (Year 2 of 3)

The vulnerability of coastal communities and the growing risks to coastal infrastructure continue largely due to past and ongoing patterns of development in high risk areas. This project is focused on increasing the use of natural and nature-based features (NNBFs) to increase resilience of coastal communities to flooding caused by extreme weather events. This project has proposed two efforts to increase understanding of NNBFS; 1) describe the current status, and 2) quantify role of NNBF creation/ restoration for water quality benefits in support of coastal resilience. The products of the 3-year project are intended to support informed coastal management decision-making regarding two concerns associated with NNBFs: The natural capital of coastal communities is generally declining, and is projected to decline at an accelerating rate due to sea level rise and current land use practices. The use of NNBFs to sustain or increase resilience in coastal communities is restricted by the many competing needs for limited local resources

Shoreline Management Handbook

Shoreline habitats and processes are impacted by the decisions we make about managing coastal development and shorelines. Shoreline Management is making choices to address the desire to protect upland property from erosion or develop property balanced with the benefits and uses of natural and nature-based shoreline features and shoreline habitat restoration. This requires a weighing of the private benefits and cots of management actions and the benefits and costs to public held common resources, also known as the public trust. The natural features along our shorelines -tidal wetlands, beaches and dunes, and riparian buffers, are economically and ecologically valuable. They provide food, shelter, and breeding grounds for a variety of marine animals; recreational and commercial opportunities; water quality services; and can serve as significant protection against coastal storms by dissipating wave energy and absorbing flood waters. Shoreline change can be both slow and chronic–from daily tides for example, or sudden and dramatic–like after a hurricane or Nor-Easter. The natural process of erosion can result in loss of upland property with the distribution of sediment and nutrients into our waters, while also providing material to support wetland and beach habitats.There are two primary reasons for the establishment of legal programs to preserve and manage shoreline resources: 1.Shoreline features provide services valued by society including water quality, erosion control, flood buffering, primary production in support of the estuarine food web, recreational opportunities, and aesthetics. 2.Tidal wetlands, beaches and dunes have been adversely impacted by development with significant losses

School Counselor Educators as Educational Leaders Promoting Systemic Change

If the full impact of the transformation of the school counseling profession is to be enacted, it is incumbent upon school counselor educators to model the same skills and professional mindset that are expected of practicing school counselors. Specifically, school counselor educators can serve as leaders within their educational communities in order to promote systemic change that will remove barriers to student success. The notion of school counselor educators as educational leaders represents a philosophical and behavioral congruence that churns the professional ecosystem, from the professor to the practitioner to the P-12 student. This article outlines the role that school counselor educators can play in modeling leadership and other essential skills for the profession