Waterworks Plants Trees to Protect Watershed

By: City of Newport News 

As a first line of defense for protecting water quality, the Newport News Waterworks Department manages approximately 12,000 acres of watershed property. An important part of that involves the forest management of the 8,100 acres of watershed forest that surround Lee Hall and Harwood’s Mill reservoirs in Newport News and York County. Since 1965, Waterworks has planted approximately 968,000 tree seedlings on approximately 1,500 acres of watershed property. 

Trees do an excellent job of filtering runoff, controlling erosion, and absorbing excessive nutrients. By managing the forests around the reservoirs, Waterworks creates conditions necessary for healthy trees. This protects water quality, leading to more efficient and cost-effective water treatment. Additionally, healthy, managed forests create age and species diversity to reduce the susceptibility of insect and disease infestations and reduce the susceptibility of catastrophic wildfires. Other benefits of forest management include clean air, carbon sequestration, improved aesthetics and recreation, diverse wildlife habitat, and forest products.

The 8,100-acre watershed forest is currently the oldest certified Tree Farm under the American Tree Farm System (ATFS) in the state of Virginia. ATFS certification means that the forest meets eight standards of sustainability and is managed for multiple purposes: water, wildlife, wood, and recreation. The watershed forest became certified in 1947.

Waterworks was awarded the Outstanding County Tree Farm by the VA Tree Farm Committee in 1998 and won the Exemplary Forest Steward Award given by the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay in 2013. This year, Waterworks was presented the Bronze Award for Land Conservation at the Governor’s Environmental Excellence Awards.