Renova Conservation Projects
Marginland and Streambank Conservation
Each year, the United States loses an average of 1.9 metric tons of topsoil per acre, through uncontrolled erosion and stormwater runoff. While some erosion is a natural part of life, overt erosion from negligence and soil mismanagement is not. When topsoil loss is combined with the vast additions of nitrates, weedkillers and pesticides that are annually being applied to lawns and fields, we are losing the very soul of our land while toxifying the water we depend on to thrive, at the self-same time.
Renova Sustainable Agriculture maintains a private agriforestry nursery of wetland trees and shrubs, chosen specifically for developing rich root networks in moist soil, and plants them on Donor properties across the Piedmont as localized conservation projects. We supply several varieties of Willow (S. nigra, S. babylonica, S. purpurea), Elderberry (S. canadensis), and Mulberry (M. rubra).
Renova’s Marginland and Wetland Conservation projects have successfully retained topsoils and reinvested stormwater runoff into carbon sequestration plantings, reclaimed drainage swales into sustainably planted and usable land, reclaimed mosquito breeding areas, and restrained bituminous pollutants leaching from a highway from entering our waterways. Our plantings have also provided perennial forages for native fauna and migratory pollinators.
*** If you would like for Renova Sutainable Agriculture to provide Conservation services on your land, please email us at the address provided below.
Project: Restoration
Project: Restoration is a grassroots initiative to restore the biodiversity and native ecology of Virginia. A brainchild of our Founder, the project is a visceral response to the unilateral loss of pollinator forage and multi-level canopy covers that our native species depend on, to survive and thrive. As commercialization and urban sprawl advance across the Piedmont, we are seeing many acres of melliferrous native groundcovers and canopy trees being removed for development. With Project: Restoration, we offer “pro-bono” replantings of indigenous covers and canopies with very strong nectar flows, to re-bolster the forages needed by the pollinators of Virginia. A land is only as fertile as its pollinators are strong, and we simply must provide them with the sustainance they require, to survive and thrive.
Project: Restoration plants heavy nectar-producing species that flower from April through September. This will offer enhanced protections against nectar dearths and pollinator starvation, mid-year. We plant on Donor properties, at their request, in both urban and rural locales. Species planted include Black Locust (R. pseudoacacia), Tulip Poplar (L. tulipifera), American Basswood (T. americana), Chinese Chesnut (C. mollisima), Appalachian Chinquapin (C. pumila), and Staghorn Sumac (R. typhina), as well as Late Boneset, Sawtooth Sunflower, and Aster Daisies planted as indigenous autumnal forages.
Project: Restoration - because stewardship can be a seed, a tree or a bee. And because small is mighty.
*** If you would like for Renova Sutainable Agriculture to provide Conservation services on your land, please email us at the address provided below.
