Best Management Practices are key to improving watershed health.

• If you are actively managing your forestland for commercial timber harvest, employ best management practices (BMPs) to ensure that disturbed soils remain in the woods to grow the next generation of trees and do not end up in streams.
• Maintain a forested buffer at least 50 feet wide along streams during harvesting activities which keeps wildlife habitat and travel corridors intact while keeping soil and nutrients out of the water.
• Obtain assistance from a professional forester to develop harvest and management plans which will yield healthier forests and better economic returns from the timber.
• Plant trees in sensitive streamside areas and abandoned agricultural fields to restore habitat for wildlife and to reduce soil and nutrient run off impacts on streams.

Contact the following for technical and financial assistance:

Virginia Department of Forestry

State Office

900 Natural Resources Drive

Charlottesville, VA 22903

434-977-6555

www.dof.virginia.gov

Joe Lehnen

Shenandoah County Forester

VA Department of Forestry

265 Lakeview Drive

Woodstock, VA 22664

540-459-3141

Joe.Lehnen@dof.virginia.gov

Bruce Harmon

Rockingham County Forester

VA Department of Forestry

265 Lakeview Drive

Woodstock, VA 22664

540-459-7834

bruce.harmon@dof.virginia.gov

Absentee Landowners