2026 Backyard Buffer Design Workshops
Join the Upper and Middle James Riparian Consortium this October in Charlottesville or Chesterfield for a Backyard Buffer Design Workshop! 

These upcoming workshops will provide hands-on experience with conducting a site assessment and designing a backyard buffer. Certainly, a small backyard buffer has different design considerations compared to its larger country cousins. We invite all riparian landowners, landscape designers, and anyone interested to join! The header image features a backyard buffer known as Lodge Creek, more about this site on the Consortium Website.

The workshop will be facilitated by Nicola McGoff from Wild Ginger Field Services and David Hirschman with Hirschman Water & Environment, along with local partners. 

Space is limited to 25 for each workshop.  We recommend no more than four participants from one organization to ensure adequate opportunity for others, please email if you would like to request more spots. If space is full for the session you would like to attend and you want to be added to the waitlist, email Rachel Bensink at at rbensink@thejamesriver.org.

Workshop cost: Free! Please consider a donation to the Riparian Action Fund to support future programming. 

Two opportunities to join us:

     - October 6th, 2026 in Charlottesville, VA from 10am-3pm (Meet at TJPDC Water Street Center: 407 E. Water Street Charlottesville, Va 22902) - This workshop has passed

     - October 20th, 2026 in Chesterfield, VA from 10am-3pm (Meet at Rockwood Nature Center: 3401 Courthouse Road North Chesterfield, Va 23236) - Join the waitlist


Workshop Agenda

*9:00 – 9:45 am: Optional pre-workshop session - Desktop site assessment 

10:00 – 10:55 am: Welcome and introductions 
- Introductions & workshop overview
- Presentation: Why Backyard Buffers are Different
-Break & travel to site 

10:55 am - 12:15 pm: Field time
- Facilitated field activities
- Site assessment checklist

12:15 – 1:00 pm: Lunch
-Travel back to classroom
-Lunch

1pm-1:50pm: VCAP & design concepts
-Overview of VCAP 
-Backyard Buffer Design Concepts
-Break

1:50 – 3:00 pm: Small group work & closing
-Work in small groups on design concepts
-Facilitated report outs
-Wrap-up
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Which workshop are you registering for?

Please note we have reached capacity for our October 20th workshop in Chesterfield.

Please join our waitlist to be notified if a spot becomes available.
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Do you plan to join us for the pre-workshop session: Desktop Site Assessment? This session will be held from 9:00 – 9:45am prior to the main workshop.

*This session will introduce several online site assessment tools: local GIS viewer, Web Soil Survey, Google Earth, and USGS StreamStats. These tools are helpful to get an early read on site conditions and can be used to examine historic aerial photos, soils, topography, drainage areas, and can be used to measure distances and areas, e.g., for potential buffer planting. Interested participants should bring their own laptops for the facilitated hands-on session.
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