RD5 - Biennial Executive Summary on the Interim Activity and Work of the Foundation for Virginia's Natural Resources Board


    Executive Summary:
    The Foundation for Virginia’s Natural Resources was created by SB 1141 in the 2005 Session of the Virginia Legislature. It was sponsored by Senator Emmett Hanger of the 24th Senatorial District of Virginia. Governor Warner signed it into law on March 24, 2005. The Board of Trustees is made up of one representative from each of the thirteen major river basins in the Commonwealth plus the Secretary of Natural Resources and the Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry for the period of their service. The names of the citizen board members were announced on November 1, 2005. They are:

    Agnes Anderson – Shenandoah River Basin - (Altavista)
    Shelly Butler-Barlow – Blackwater/Chowan River Basin – (Suffolk)
    Kim Chiapetto – Roanoke River Basin – (Floyd)
    Ed Davis – Upper Tennessee River Basin - (Emory)
    Bob Denton – New River Basin – (Blacksburg)
    Robert Dugger – Potomac River Basin - (Arlington)
    Jim Garner – Piedmont James River Basin – (North Garden)
    Steve Graham – Eastern Shore - (Chincoteague)
    Jim Kibler – Lower James River Basin - (Richmond)
    David Larimer – Big Sandy River Basin - (Tazewell)
    Roderick Slayton – Rappahannock River Basin - (Orange)
    Lee Stephens – York River Basin - (Irvington)
    Jay Gilliam - Chairman – Upper James River Basin – (Steeles Tavern)

    The first meeting of the foundation occurred on December 15th 2005 at the headquarters of the Virginia Department of Forestry in Charlottesville.

    Our goal is to implement a planning and development process during 2006 that will encourage and diversify support for non regulatory environmental education and outreach in both the public and private sector. We will identify criteria for programs and activities that might be supported through the foundation as well as incentives for contributions from public and private sources. We will do this with an advisory task force made up of the following agency heads or their designees: the Director of the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the State Forester, the Director of the Department of Historic Resources, the Director of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, and the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality, and the Director of the Virginia Museum of Natural History. The Board may request any other agency head, agency employee, or environmental steward to serve on the task force.

    All board members seem to be enthusiastically interested in developing a practical strategy and representing their watershed as this new resource comes to fruit. At this time there have been no contributions to the Foundation for Virginia's Natural Resources Trust Fund.