About the James River
Conservation Priorities
Water Quality
JRA’s top priority is to protect the health of the James River, and it starts with water quality. The major impacts on water quality are sediment plumes and algae blooms.
Sediment gets into the river from stream bank erosion caused by a lack of vegetation on the land that borders the river, or the riparian zone. Much of this occurs when the land is cleared for development and agriculture and a riparian buffer strip along the water isn’t retained.
Too much sediment in the water will cloud the water, blocking necessary food-giving sunlight from the underwater grasses, and clogging the gills of fish which can suffocate them. It will fill in the spaces of the rocky bottoms of which so many aquatic organisms need to lay their eggs. And it is also a carrier for nutrients and toxins, especially if there is no filtering mechanism between the source of pollution and the river, such as a buffer strip or wetland.
About the James...
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