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The overall grade of the 2025 State of the James has improved to a B with a score of 68% from its failing health decades ago. Although the pace of progress has slowed, a grade-A James River is possible if we keep up our collective efforts and continue to address key issues together. However, the 2023 American shad stock assessment by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science found that populations of American shad in the James are at an all-time low. Given the dire situation, JRA fought for funding to develop an emergency recovery plan that identified immediate actions that could be taken to improve the American shad fishery in the James River. This plan will be delivered to Virginia Legislators in the fall of 2023 with more actions to follow, but it will take a long-term and sustained effort to bring American shad in the James River back from the brink of collapse.
Advocacy News
WIP 103: Shape It Up – Virginia’s Plan to WIP Wastewater into Shape
Get out your energy domes! This week’s blog is Devo-ted to the James River’s biggest source of nitrogen pollution: wastewater. This issue is hairier than a 1980s rock band, but don’t despair! The draft Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) gives us an...
WIP 102: Taking the Bull by the Horns — How Virginia’s Cleanup Plan Tackles Agricultural Runoff
How Virginia’s Cleanup Plan Tackles Agricultural Runoff As we covered in our first blog post, we’re in the home stretch of the Chesapeake Bay Cleanup -- the multistate effort to reduce pollution and restore clean water to the Bay and all of its...
