A Collaborative Summit: Protecting Water Quality Through Actions on Urban-Suburban Properties
Abstract
With 179 people attending, the Summit was a unique convening of a diverse group of interests, experiences, and perspectives from government, non-profit, research, education and private sectors. All assembled for two days to join forces to tackle one the most difficult but necessary water quality challenges for Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay Region: achieving a widespread, accelerated use of watershed restoration and stormwater retrofit best management practices (BMPs) on privately owned urban-suburban properties. Practices most suitable for residential scale properties are landscaping-type practices like rain gardens, soil amendments, dry wells, disconnected downspouts, rain barrels, native plant buffers, permeable pavers, planting trees, green roofs, living shorelines and urban nutrient management techniques like water-friendly lawns
