HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) — A new study by Virginia's Department of Conservation and Recreation largely confirmed a report last year from an environmental group that found many farms falling behind the state's goal for livestock fencing to prevent water pollution.
The Alliance for the Shenandoah Valley says fencing cattle out of streams and planting stream side buffers are some of the most cost-effective ways to keep waterways clean. | WHSV file image of Shenandoah River
Last year, the Environmental Integrity Project released a report that they said showed Shenandoah Valley farmers weren't doing enough to fence their cattle out of streams, contributing to pollution of Valley rivers and the Chesapeake Bay.
It followed a 2017 report that found unsafe levels of E. coli in much of the Shenandoah River and then a follow-up report in 2018 showing similar results.
The Shenandoah River report asserted that dangerously high levels of E. coli in the river were due to animal waste running into the river during rain or from animals directly in the rivers, and that cattle fencing could prevent the problem.
However, farmers said they were doing as much as possible. Craig Miller, a farmer in Rockingham County, said he planted 179 trees as a buffer to improve the water on and around his property, in coordination with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Bob Threewitts, another farmer in Rockingham County, said Virginia Tech conducted monitoring on water coming into his farm and when it left and found that the water was even cleaner leaving than coming in.
But not all farmers have been able to take on projects for waterways, and conservationists say that's often because they do not have the financial assistance necessary to pay for projects requested by environmental groups and government mandates.
"Enough's enough, let's turn the tables, and tell people what we do and how we love our animals and how we love our land and we do the right thing in agriculture," said Craig Miller to WHSV in 2017.
Now, a new survey of aerial photos by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) found that only 41 percent of the farm parcels with livestock in Rockingham County (or 419 out of 1,023) had fenced their cattle out of streams in 2018.
Essentially, it finds that 59 percent of pastures in the area did not have proper livestock fencing installed.
That's despite the fact that last August, Virginia promised the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that all streams on cattle farms will be protected with livestock fencing by 2025 to reduce fecal bacteria, sediment, and other pollutants.
A new state law signed by Governor Ralph Northam after the most recent General Assembly session could mandate livestock fencing, which is currently voluntary, starting in 2026 if farmers don't meet the state's 2025 goal.
So far, according to the DCR study, farms with livestock fencing have increased by about one percent a year over the last 16 years — a rate at which the 2025 goal would not possible be achieved.
“Virginia is going to fall far short of its own Chesapeake Bay cleanup goals if it doesn’t really step up the pace with reducing this agricultural pollution over the next five years,” said Eric Schaeffer, Executive Director of the Environmental Integrity Project and former Director of Civil Enforcement at EPA.
“Herds of cattle defecating and knocking sediment into Shenandoah waterways create high levels of fecal bacterial that make it unsafe to swim or raft in some areas," said Mark Frondorf, the Shenandoah Riverkeeper. "Allowing livestock into the river also has a devastating impact on the ecosystem, including by causing algae blooms that ruin the waterways for anglers and everyone else who loves the Shenandoah. If farmers don’t want a fencing mandate in five years, they need to make the choice to be good stewards and clean up their local streams.”
Frondorf said the new state law would provide state funds for cattle fencing and nutrient management plans so the financial burden would not fall just on farmers.
The Environmental Integrity Project suggests a range of potential solutions, including Virginia paying farmers higher reimbursement rates to install streamside fencing, providing up-front payments and better loan terms to farmers, or mandating that all cattle operations exclude their animals from streams. Each of those was proposed in their 2019 'Livestock Fencing in the Shenandoah Valley' report.
That report examined aerial photography and found that 81 percent of farms with livestock in Rockingham and neighboring Augusta counties had failed to fence their cattle out of streams in 2016-2017, but it used different methodology than the recent DCR report.
The EIP report looked at all streams, including intermittent and seasonal streams, while the DCR study examined streams that run year-round.
The DCR study also focused on parcels of farmland, while the EIP study looked at whole farms, each of which can contain many parcels. The EIP suggests that those differences could explain the discrepancy in the two reports.
The DCR study, completed in March but released this month, found that 24 percent of farm parcels with livestock in Rockingham County (or 281 of 1,163) had fences to keep the animals out of streams in 2002. That percentage increased to 28 percent (334 out of 1,215) in 2007; 31 percent (384 of 1,238) in 2011; and 41 percent (419 of 1,023) in 2018.
You can find the full DCR study here and the EIP/Shenandoah Riverkeeper study here.
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Virginia study finds Rockingham County farmers are behind livestock fencing goals - WHSV
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