In April, ABRA received thrilling news: the Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance’s James River Headwaters Environmental Stewardship and Resilience Initiative was selected for a two-year, $247,000 Environmental Protection Agency Thriving Communities grant. This bold program would tackle urgent threats in western Virginia’s headwaters – including toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) pollution, failing water infrastructure, weak regulatory enforcement, and worsening flooding from climate change – to protect our communities and waterways. It was a moment of hope and validation for one of the most ambitious projects we’ve ever undertaken.
Unfortunately, less than a week later, the Trump administration abruptly terminated the Thriving Communities grant program nationwide – including ABRA’s award – as part of a sweeping wave of environmental rollbacks. Our project wasn’t terminated on merit or impact. It has been stalled by politics, alongside hundreds of other community-driven clean water and resilience initiatives. But we refuse to let this setback stop us.
ABRA’s commitment to water resources remains as strong as ever, and the James River Headwaters Initiative is too urgent, too impactful, and too far along to abandon. Developed with our trusted local partners – the Cowpasture River Preservation Association, Jackson River Preservation Association, James River Association, Rockbridge Area Conservation Council, and others – this initiative addresses critical needs in historically marginalized Appalachian headwaters communities. It combines youth environmental education, citizen water-quality monitoring, community mapping tools, and grassroots advocacy to restore the Jackson River, protect the Cowpasture River, and bolster regional flood resilience.
In late March, ABRA and the Cowpasture River Preservation Association, completed the initial watershed-wide stream health survey for Phase One of the James River Headwaters Initiative. In a single “synoptic” sweep across the Cowpasture River watershed, volunteer teams sampled water quality at 69 sites, spanning mountain creeks and river tributaries. This snapshot of conditions across the watershed yielded both concerns and heartening highlights. In some streams we detected elevated levels of sediment and conductivity (a sign of possible runoff or disturbance). In stark contrast, other streams proved to be exceptionally pure. One standout is Laurel Run, which our tests showed to have virtually zero turbidity (murkiness) and extremely low conductivity—a strong indicator of an undisturbed, pristine stream ecosystem.
The data from Phase One will guide our next steps. Streams showing stress will get closer examination (and remediation efforts where possible), while the intact streams like Laurel Run set a benchmark for water quality to strive for. This project also embodies ABRA’s model of transparency and grassroots engagement. All water sampling results will be made public through our Conservation Hub map portal, so local communities and decision-makers can easily access it.
By training and mobilizing volunteers—many of them local residents—we will not only gather critical data but also build local investment in protecting these waterways. ABRA’s volunteers and partners prove time and again that citizen science is a powerful tool for conservation. Together, we’re ensuring that the “birthplace” streams of the James River (many on our public lands) remain clean, cold, and thriving for generations to come.
In the coming months, stay tuned as we develop resiliency plans based on this baseline survey and expand the project to further safeguard our headwaters. In the meantime, please consider supporting our work on this project.
All water flows downstream…and downstream from these two watersheds, 2.7 million Virginians get their drinking water from the James, and thousands of children and adults fish, swim and play in its waters. The James River is intimately tied to Virginia’s history, culture and economy. Let’s make sure we protect it!