Using a variety of means, Virginia exemplifies the wide spectrum of conservation projects necessary to recovering fish and wildlife resources. Whether it’s tactical land purchases, restoring struggling fish populations, or repairing degraded stream habitat, Virginia is working creatively and collaboratively to improve their fish and wildlife resources statewide.
Success Stories
Acquisition of the Mattaponi Wildlife Management Area
A mix of funding partners collaborated with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to purchase a valuable property along the Mattaponi River. The tactics, cooperation and combination of outside and state funding partners make this project administratively unique.
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Enhancing the Walleye Fishery on the New River
Stocking 644,000 walleye in the New River using an indigenous strain of fish was essential in rebuilding the river’s walleye population and providing broader fishing opportunity to anglers. The result of the five year program was that in 2002, approximately 10 percent of the total fishing effort was directed at walleye and by 2007 that number had jumped to 30 percent.
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Smith Creek, Rockingham County
225 years of cattle grazing and agricultural use has eliminated most of Smith Creek’s riparian vegetation, which increased stream temperatures, wiped out the brook trout population, reduced populations of native mussels and American eel and compromised spawning areas. Part of the effort to restore the stream includes reviving six miles of vital spawning, rearing, and late summer temperature refuge habitat for brook trout in the headwaters of the creek.
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