The Nature Conservancy in Virginia to Restore Sunken Meadow, Reconnect Habitat to James River

After a nearly year-long local community engagement process, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has announced plans to restore approximately 150 acres of freshwater tidal and non-tidal wetlands, as well as reconnect 21 miles of streams to the James River at Sunken Meadow, a habitat that has been impacted by a dam for more than 100 years. The planning will also explore public access opportunities like hiking, birdwatching and fishing across the nearly 700-acre property that features seeps, springs and globally rare plant communities that occur in unique calcium-rich soils.

“We are grateful to the dozens of community members who have come to our open houses and our field trip over the past 10 months and shared in conversations about this special place and its ecological importance,” said Karen Johnson, director of TNC’s Stream and Wetland Mitigation Program (SWMP). “We are looking forward to completing more surveys and conducting additional environmental research to ensure our restoration efforts provide wonderful benefits for both nature and people.”

SWMP has worked for more than three decades in Virginia protecting wetlands and streams. Through its conservation and restoration of more than 22,000 acres—nearly half of which is now public land—the program has reduced sediment from polluting streams, reduced flooding risks for communities and safeguarded havens for native and rare plants and wildlife.

Dr. Robert Elliott, Jr., Surry County Board of Supervisors Claremont district representative, said, “This project with The Nature Conservancy stands to benefit all residents of Surry County with future opportunities for public access and is a net positive for wildlife.”

In the 1930s–1940s, Harvard University’s renowned botanist Merritt Lyndon Fernald visited and studied the flora of Virginia’s Coastal Plain, including visits to parts of Sunken Meadow. At the time, he commented that Virginia’s Coastal Plain must be the most varied and numerically largest indigenous flora across Central and Northeastern North America. Today, the importance of the site remains undiminished, with Joey Thompson, vegetation ecologist for the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), noting that “calcareous seepage swamps are small communities that are rare in southeast Virginia and the only place in the world where they are known.”

Restoring Sunken Meadow will involve the removal of a dam and associated pond. The dam was constructed sometime between 1886 and 1912, according to historic maps, then rebuilt in the 1960s, and does not meet requirements set by the Dam Safety Act, which is enforced by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation’s (DCR) Dam Safety Program. As a result, Sunken Meadow has not met water quality standards for recreation or aquatic life in recent years, and the nearly 70 years of pond siltation has stressed the existing ecological system and limited native wildlife.

“Dam removal at the Sunken Meadow site has the potential to bring an important part of the tidal marsh and tidal bald cypress forest ecosystems back to a creek where it occurred historically in Surry,” said Thompson. “Draining of the Sunken Meadow lake will also reduce pressure caused by water encroachment and sedimentation of upland and seepage wetland ecosystems in the existing forested areas, which is key to longevity of those communities. We are happy to see this project move forward and to see how the imperiled ecosystems at Sunken Meadow respond after the water level of Sunken Meadow Creek returns to its historically natural level.”

Sunken Meadow is already regionally known for bird watching, and TNC’s restoration efforts will provide great benefits for both existing bird populations and for an even wider variety of species. While ponds are open-water systems that offer limited vegetation and a simplified habitat structure, wetlands are dynamic systems where fluctuating water levels, dense vegetation, and soils improve the water quality and create diverse and complex habitats that support a range of plants, fish and other wildlife during all seasons of the year.

James Shelton, the legislation chair of the Richmond Audubon Society, said, “Dam removal will benefit Sunken Meadow and create habitat similar to College Run in Chippokes State Park. This will create a migration path for eels and river herring, which is the food for herons, osprey and bald eagles. The outflow of the creek will be a better place for loons, grebes and mergansers in the winter. Low tide will be a place for spotted and solitary sandpipers. The succession forest will be a place for warblers and chats. The James River near here will be better for Caspian, royal and Forster’s terns. The dam removal will benefit the river herring swimming all the way to Nova Scotia and the American eels that travel all the way to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. This will be a good benefit to the natural world.”

The restoration of Sunken Meadow will be funded by SWMP, which receives funding through a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Virginia Department of Environmental Quality approved mitigation program. TNC uses this funding to conduct large-scale restoration in ecologically significant locations. For Sunken Meadow, TNC opted to invest in a one-year community engagement process facilitated by Marvel—a design firm with a focus on natural and urban environments— that included two open house events, one field trip to discuss restoration options, materials mailed directly to nearby residents, and a final meeting on August 19 held in Claremont. 

The dam removal process requires studies with civil and environmental engineers and is anticipated to take around two years to complete. All plans and permits will be coordinated with and approved by federal, state and local regulatory agencies and governments.

Karen Johnson said, “We all desire to see Sunken Meadow protected and restored to its natural state. There are currently very few public access opportunities nearby and we look forward to continued conversations with the local community as we develop restoration plans to create a future where nature is thriving and people can fully benefit from the beautiful healthy landscapes of Sunken Meadow.”

Materials from the community engagement meetings and the final report are available on TNC’s website at nature.org/swmp.