Virginia’s Soil and Water Conservation Districts are known for helping growers reduce topsoil erosion and nutrient runoff to protect farmland and the commonwealth’s waterways.
But in recent years, the district that serves Williamsburg, James City and York counties is getting a greater amount of new interest from homeowners than farmers.
That’s why Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs) hope the General Assembly will approve more money for the Virginia Conservation Assistance Program (VCAP), which provides funds and guidance for residents to stop stormwater from cutting up and eroding their yards.
The General Assembly is in a special session to finalize the budget. Conservationists with the districts and partners such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation want to see Virginia double the funding to $8 million. The Senate included that in its budget; the House of Delegates’ proposal cuts VCAP by half to $2 million.
A cut could mean districts will be doing a little less for homeowners through the VCAP program through 2028.
“Or perhaps something a little different,” said Jim Wallace, district programs manager for the Colonial Soil and Water Conservation District.
SWCDs are political subdivisions, created nationwide in the 1930s in response to the Dust Bowl crisis in the Midwest. Most localities in Virginia are included in one of now 47 districts throughout the state.
The districts have provided farmers with funding and technical assistance for decades. The Colonial District’s Turf Love program predominantly helps Williamsburg and James City County residents learn to dial in the amount of fertilizer to use on their lawns. Its staff also teaches the community about insect conservation and native plants.
But the VCAP program, which provides cost-share help for homeowners, businesses, schools and religious organizations to fight land erosion, started just 10 years ago.
Projects through VCAP are tailored to address a landowner’s needs. They can range from “quieter” options such as conservation landscaping and bolstering riparian buffers to more complicated plans such as creating bioretention areas that remove contaminants and sediment from runoff and living shorelines. Though the specifics can vary, the principles are often the same: slow stormwater, reduce the angle of its flow and help slopes better soak it up without sloughing away.
Conservationists with the Colonial District say being proactive and addressing problem areas early can keep them from worsening and needing more expensive solutions later. Emma Rich, conservation specialist, said they sometimes find ravines forming and homeowners losing large amounts of their properties when they wait too long.
“If we can take smaller bites of the elephant and tackle it up top before it gets to that point, it’s going to be a lot cheaper and easier to handle,” Rich said.
Robyn Woolsey, senior conservation specialist, said more people began reaching out around 2023 after hearing about the program by word-of-mouth from neighbors and contractors who work with the program.
“We’ve done, on average, 100 site visits per year for the past two-ish years,” Woolsey said. That was up to more than 140 visits in member localities during 2025, according to the district’s annual report, though not all site visits lead to applications for funds.
VCAP has different cost-share rates and funding caps depending on the project, which have to be approved by a statewide committee. Most of the types of projects it covers can get money covering up to 80% of eligible costs, though the process is competitive.
Each project vies for money from the same state-wide pot and interest outpaces the funding. VCAP had a two-year budget of $4 million through 2026. There’s now a backlog of projects and the SWCDs implemented a waitlist last year. Though grants have helped, there’s still about $100,000 of projects across Virginia waiting to be funded.
Conservationists hope that the legislature will see the need and increase the budget. Woolsey’s confident that, whatever the General Assembly settles on, the Colonial District will continue to do good work.
“It may not be the same level of financial input, but hopefully we can piece things together enough to keep everybody going.”
