Wetlands and Wildlife in the Chesapeake Bay 

Through the years, wetlands have declined in the Chesapeake Bay watershed due to development, agriculture and other land uses. One farmer who is trying to reverse this trend is Eugene “Dick” Campbell, from King William County, VA.  

In 1995, Campbell was one of the first farmers in the state to sign up for the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP), a program administered by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.  He enrolled 136.5 acres in WRP under a permanent conservation easement.  WRP provided an up-front payment based on the agricultural value of the land to ensure that the land would be retained as a wetland forever. 

Campbell worked with NRCS to develop a plan that would allow native species to become reestablished through natural processes.  He used cost-sharing from WRP to help control invasive species such as Tree of Heaven. Then he allowed a natural succession of grasses, shrubs and trees to grow back on the saturated soils. 

Today you wouldn’t recognize the place.  The old pasture is now a teeming wetland--filled with wildlife including a Great Blue Heron rookery. Recently, NRCS biologist Greg Moser visited the site.  He was amazed at the variety of plants, shrubs and trees, including some pin oaks and willow oaks that were intermixed with standing water and uplands.  Walking near the edge of the wetland, he heard a chorus of singing but didn’t know what it was.  As he moved closer to an area of red maples standing in water and looked up, he discovered a Great Blue Heron rookery.  There were over fifteen nests filled with baby herons. “That  is something you don’t see everyday,” says Moser.

In 2005, NRCS provided more than $400,000 for WRP contracts on four farms to protect or restore valuable wetlands within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.  In 2006, a total of $430,000 in WRP funds is available in Virginia to restore valuable wetlands. 

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