Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced the 10 winners of the Virginia Grand Basin Clean Water Farm Awards for 2022. The awards recognize farmers or farm owners doing exceptional work to protect soil and water resources. One winner is selected from each of Virginia’s major river basins.
“Virginia’s farmers are vital to the Commonwealth’s work to restore the health of streams, rivers and the Chesapeake Bay,” said Youngkin. “The Grand Basin Clean Water Farm Award winners are among our most innovative stewards of the land and water, and Virginians owe them a debt of gratitude for their outstanding conservation work.”
The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation sponsors the awards in partnership with Virginia’s 47 soil and water conservation districts.
The winning farm owners or operators employ technologies and best management practices that improve water quality. Such efforts include planting cover crops, establishing rotational grazing, installing vegetative buffers along streams and keeping livestock out of waterways.
“It is important to commend these Virginia farmers who are taking important steps to conserve soil and protect water quality on their land,” said Travis Voyles, acting Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources. “By taking action to safeguard our critical natural resources, these efforts benefit all Virginians and protect our legacy of rich, fertile land and productive farms.”
Several of the winners are farms extending several generations. These include Steve and Charlie Smith in Washington County, the seventh generation of their family to run their farm, and the Teel family, whose Clover Green Farm in Albemarle County has been in the family since the late 1700s.
“This year’s Clean Water Farm Award winners represent the best in conservation farming in Virginia,” said Matthew Lohr, Virginia’s Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry. “We are especially proud of — and grateful to — these successful farmers, who are role models helping bring other producers into the best practices fold. They’re showing the Commonwealth that conservation isn’t just good for the environment. It’s good for business.”
“DCR is proud to sponsor this awards program with the soil and water conservation districts,” said DCR Director Matt Wells. “These farms are shining examples of the agricultural community’s commitment to helping Virginia meet its water quality goals. Their leadership in keeping nutrients out of waterways and conserving soil resources is inspiring and helps ensure that their farms will be best-in-class for generations to come.”
Virginia’s soil and water conservation districts offer farmers technical assistance and advice on new technologies and practices to help them stay on the cutting edge of conservation farming.
“District staff and the farmers they work with are dedicated to growth and continuous improvement in practices that enrich our natural resources,” said Dr. Kendall Tyree, executive director of VASWCD. “We’re proud that many of our partnerships with these farms go back decades. We appreciate the opportunity to assist the agricultural community and look forward to continuing to expand these mutually beneficial partnerships that enhance our land and waters.”
Steve and Charlie Smith of the Holston Vista Farm, nominated by the Holston River Soil and Water Conservation District, won for the Big Sandy-Tennessee Rivers.
Holston Vista Farm is a seventh-generation family livestock and crop operation on 550 acres in Washington County. The brothers have taken part in multiple conservation programs over the past 25 years. Livestock on Holston Vista Farm are excluded from 100 percent of the farm’s surface water, including more than a mile of the Middle Fork of the Holston River and several thousand feet of tributaries flowing into the river.
Pastures on the farm are divided into several paddocks to promote better grazing distribution.
The Hudgins Family, running DRH Farm and nominated by Big Walker Soil and Water Conservation District, won for the New-Yadkin River.
Mason Hudgins and his family operate a 440-acre beef and crop farm and also manage 52 acres of pine and hardwood timber on a farm bordering Wythe County’s Reed Creek, which serves as the water source for the town of Wytheville.
The Hudgins use multiple programs to fence more than 25,000 feet of creeks and tributaries and create an 11.5-acre riparian buffer. The family farm also uses a rotational grazing system and have installed two livestock stream crossings and hundreds of feet of trails and walkways. Most recently, the family has designed a winter feeding area away from all waters.
