A coalition of environmental groups in multiple states, including Virginia, will receive $200 million from the Environmental Protection Agency to use toward nature-based ways to reduce carbon emissions. The coalition includes Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Over the next five years, The Nature Conservancy Virginia will receive $47.
2 million to improve forest management in southeastern Virginia and help tidal wetland restoration on the Eastern Shore. Bettina Ring, executive director of TNC Virginia, said it took a lot of collaboration between all four states to put together an application for the competitive award. In total, the EPA announced 25 selected applications for more than $4.
3 billion in the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant Program. “It was really a pretty quick turnaround, but a lot of time was put in to make sure we had an incredible proposal, using the good science that we have in place and priorities that we’ve established,” Ring said. “(There are) areas that we know we need to do more, either restoration work or acquisitions and easements and carbon agreements.
What’s really nice is this has the combination of many tools in that toolbox: from private land stewardship to forest being acquired, or easements being put on that land, or carbon agreements on private lands.” Ring, who has spent much of her career as a forester, said peat is “an important piece of this puzzle” for reducing carbon in Virginia. She said the majority .