No Trespassing! Lessons Learned from Cultivating and Sustaining Working Relationships with Project Site Landowner
Christine Pankow and Bailey Wilfong
RES
Warrenton, VA
Stream restoration involves a multitude of challenges, but the challenge of working with property owners can become an afterthought to the restoration design. After examining three previous projects, we’ve compiled examples of the lessons learned through successes and failures of working with agricultural landowners. These challenges present themselves at various stages of the project, however, they all must be considered in the initial project planning and discussions. From the onset of the project, site access must be coordinated around business, planting and hunting schedules. The project’s design must include sufficient stream crossings for vehicles and animals to satisfy the landowner’s current and future needs, while also being approved by permitting agencies. During the construction phase, additional challenges arise when construction operations and land uses, such as laydown and stockpile areas, must fit within actively farmed fields/pastures. During the implementation of fencing and other farm improvements included in the project, significant communication with the property owner and timely execution are necessary in order to avoid negative impacts to their agricultural business.
Beyond these immediate challenges, long-term challenges present themselves in the drafting of the restoration project easement. Property owner’s future plans for the property/farming operation need to be discussed and incorporated into the layout of the easement to ensure that a property owner will be satisfied in perpetuity. Lastly, a significant challenge that we’ve begun to encounter on our projects post-construction is the effects of reconnecting the restored stream to the floodplain, and the resulting raising of the water table. Ecologically this is an improvement, however, landowners don’t want permanently wet fields and pastures. We’ve seen entire fields become saturated beyond our stream restoration easements. Understandably, landowners have not been pleased to find that they no longer can profitably use parts of their land that they thought would be untouched. Moving forward, these impacts must also be discussed with landowners prior to design. As practitioners, we must keep in mind that while we don’t have to live and work at our restoration sites, the landowners do.
About Christine Pankow
Christine joined RES in 2017 as an engineer focused in water resources and stream restoration design. During these five years, she has assisted with engineering and overseeing the implementation of several large-scale stream restoration projects in Virginia and Maryland. Christine graduated from Virginia Tech earning a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and a Master of Science in Civil Engineering.
About Bailey Wilfong
Bailey Wilfong is an Engineering Manager for RES focusing on stream restoration design and engineering. During her career, Bailey designed over 25,000 LF of restored stream and oversaw an additional 40,000 LF of stream restoration design. Before joining RES in 2013, Bailey began her career in commercial construction, which provided direct construction experience and a strong foundation. Bailey values the design-build process, ensuring that designs are functional and implementable through construction, and meet their identified performance metrics throughout their service life. Bailey holds a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Virginia.