Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Va., is tucked away in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley by the headwaters of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River Watershed.

In September 2014, the Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund awarded the University a $200,000 grant to address water quality issues and change agricultural impacts in the nearby Bergton community.

The project team will work with community leaders and farmers to assess local streams and prioritize restoration practices to include implementation of livestock exclusion, stream and buffer restoration and other agricultural water quality best management practices.

“In addition to the restoration work itself and conducting long-term monitoring, we are working on community outreach with a particular emphasis on socially isolated defined areas,” said project leader Jim Yoder, professor of biology. “Our goal is to help farmers adopt best conservation practices and they have been very welcoming to us, allowing us on their land.”

One of the most innovative aspects of the project includes a partnership with the University’s nationally recognized Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, which will integrate social science to aid in community outreach.

To better understand the role of early adopters and how they influence other farmers, students will assist in stakeholder mapping and identifying the community values and attitudes toward local streams.

“It is important for the EMU students to get a hands-on experience.

They will be directly involved in the social science work within our more isolated farm communities. These communities are very defined, which allows us to figure out the best practices for restoration work as well as socially how to encourage adoption of additional conservation practices and BMPs,” said Yoder.

The restoration work for this project includes conducting a watershed assessment on 17 miles of streams and excluding livestock from 23,000 feet of streams, all while restoring 3,000 feet of streams and 25 acres of riparian buffer. The project will result in the removal of 212 lbs. of phosphorus, 623 lbs. of nitrogen, and 930,000 lbs. of sediment annually in addition to producing information about change dynamics in rural communities to encourage early adoption.

“We’re just getting started on this project and the community is already very open to and interested in the stream restoration. If all goes well with that, we expect the community to open up to and adopt additional conservation practices,” Yoder said.