Photo: Virginia State Capitol Building, Wikimedia user Skip Plitt via CC BY-SA 3.0
Tom Blackburn
Conservation advocates lost several battles in the 2024 General Assembly, but did score a couple of wins that allow local governments to adopt some environment-friendly requirements. We can use your help in lobbying your local governments to adopt these measures.
Tree canopy funds
Governor Youngkin signed into law HB459 and SB121, identical bills that allow local governments in northern Virginia to broaden the use of dollars that developers pay to restore the tree canopy. Localities can adopt an ordinance to allow the tree canopy fund to maintain trees on public property and plant and maintain trees on private property. Before the enactment, those funds were limited to planting trees on public property. The new law also allows a locality to remove provisions that required that any funds not spent within five years be returned to the original contributor, although it maintains the five-year spending requirement. The bill also allows for expanding the canopy credit.
Herbicide application by volunteers
Governor Youngkin also signed into law HB320, which allows local governments to permit supervised volunteers to apply herbicides, a provision that can assist local programs working to push back on invasive plants. The law allows localities to authorize unpaid volunteers to use any nonrestricted herbicide to control invasive plants or noxious weeds on properties owned by the political subdivision. The unpaid volunteer would have to operate under the direct supervision of and following instruction by a certified commercial applicator. The instruction would cover
(i) the risks associated with the herbicide utilized, (ii) the proper use of equipment used to apply the herbicide, (iii) the proper use of personal protective equipment, (iv) other information to prevent an unreasonable adverse effect on the environment, and (v) any other information relevant to the specific herbicide utilized.
Localities will have to adopt ordinances to make these new provisions effective in their jurisdictions. If you are interested in advocating for your locality to adopt the new provision, please email Tom Blackburn, ASNV’s Advocacy Chair, at advocacy@audubonva.org.