National Fish Habitat Action Plan

USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment Ann Mills unveiled Smith Creek as Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay Showcase Watershed on June 18 during a public event at Valley Pike Farm in Rockingham County. Smith Creek joins the Upper Chester River in Maryland and Pennsylvania’s Conewago Creek as one of three showcases designed to demonstrate what can be achieved by combining strong partnerships, sound science and funding to solve natural resource problems in targeted areas.

USDA invited local farmers; federal, state and local agencies; conservation partners; area residents; and the media to Gary and Ellen Lohr’s Valley Pike Farm to learn about resources to support this project and to kick off a new era of partnership activities.

“Making these announcements from local farms is more than a symbolic gesture,” said Mills as she made the announcement. “Nearly 75 percent of the land in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed is in private farms and forests. The showcase watersheds strengthen USDA’s commitment to funding priority conservation practices in places that will do the most good for water quality in the Bay and its tributaries.”

In each of the three watersheds, USDA has committed additional funding and staff to help demonstrate water quality improvements through expanded producer outreach efforts, use of innovative conservation practices and intensive conservation planning, implementation and monitoring. These watersheds are one component of USDA’s strategy to improve natural resources in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. USDA is responsible for implementing new conservation practices on four million acres of agricultural land through 2025. 

Each showcase watershed is also supported by a diverse group of non-governmental partners, including local watershed groups and non-profits that are committing substantial resources to the coordinated effort. Farmers and forest owners throughout the Smith Creek Watershed will have access to technical and financial assistance to help prevent soil erosion and keep nitrogen and phosphorus out of Smith Creek and its tributaries, improving local water quality too.

USDA and its partners are committed to reaching out to 100 percent of the agricultural producers in the 67,000-acre Smith Creek Watershed and will ensure that agricultural producers’ conservation efforts are accurately reported and credited.

USDA’s work in the Chesapeake Bay is funded, in large part, by the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Initiative (CBWI), one of the largest single federal investments in the clean-up effort.  The Chesapeake Bay Watershed Initiative (CBWI), authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill, provided NRCS Virginia with more than $9.6 million in financial assistance funding in fiscal year 2010.

Smith Creek was selected as a National Fish Habitat Action Plan "Waters to Watch" in 2007 under the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture Fish Habitat Partnership.

For more information about NRCS Chesapeake Bay activities, visit www.nrcs.usda.gov/feature/chesapeakebay.html

Smith Creek Chesapeake Showcase Watershed PDF

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