Increasing the state’s tree canopy could offer multifaceted benefits — cooling temperatures, reducing storm runoff and improving air quality, among others. But between 2018 and 2023, Virginia’s tree canopy was effectively unchanged, going from 16.6 to 16.8 million acres.
An advisory panel established through state legislation in 2020 is intended to assess tree cover and how to retain or expand it — a discipline called silvicultural. But competing priorities across business, government and conservation complicate the issue, according to Sheri Shannon, a member of the Forestland and Urban Tree Canopy Conservation Plan Technical Advisory Committee and the co-founder of Southside ReLeaf, a Richmond environmental justice nonprofit.
Shannon said a range of perspectives from the home building, agriculture and forestry sectors are represented on the panel, but the issues aren’t always discussed as being inter-related.
“Housing — or affordable housing — is often considered,” Shannon said, discussing the accommodation of presumed population increases in certain areas of the state. “It's just that we recognize as [Southside ReLeaf] the intersectionalities of housing and transportation, as well as public health, right? So, we're always going to bring that up.”
During the panel’s June meeting, members discussed the possibility of losing up to 36,000 acres of forest to sea-level rise by 2050. The effects could be seen as far inland as Chesterfield County.
Shannon said even efforts to plant new trees can’t offset the loss of others that have been in place for decades. And since localities across the state have different needs and disparate levels of tree canopy, there’s not an easy state-level fix. Most local governments don’t have staff focused on the issue, resulting in some officials being unaware of what kind of tree cover exists within their city or county — and what benefits they offer.
Instead, the state is offering technical support to localities might be the ideal scenario, Shannon said.
“We are advocating for legislation that gives all localities the ability to enact ordinances that will protect tree canopy and create the tree fund, as well as tree replacement standards,” she said.
Compounding the potential impacts of the state’s unchanged canopy are utility projects and a national discussion over the Roadless Rule — which could enable logging on federal forest lands like the George Washington and Jefferson national forests.
“What is important for us to figure out at TAC meetings is to define the type of forest that we have in Virginia, for us to recognize what is the optimal performance that we need from our forests across the Commonwealth,” Shannon said. “What resources do we need to put in place — financial support, physical infrastructure, social infrastructure, education — as we are dealing with a changing climate over time.”