The Appomattox River, which flows from Lake Chesdin to Hopewell Point, feeds into the James River. Virginia State University (VSU) located in Petersburg where the Appomattox River flows through VSU’s Randolph Farm is an Urban Campus and is committed to a “Campus Tree Care Plan.”  In 2015, VSU was recognized as one of the Tree Campus USA sites.  VSU’s goal is to remove pollutants from roadways and parking lots so that it does not enter waterways such as Fleets Branch and the Appomattox River.

The hypothesis of this research is that trees intercept and absorb precipitation (up to 70%) that allows the slow absorption of the precipitation into the aquifer as opposed to allowing run off and erosion from the area.

The study sites included areas of Petersburg, Richmond, Sutherland, Hopewell, VSU campus along the Appomattox River and parts of  James River  in Hopewell where the James and Appomattox Rivers merge. Data was collected on weather conditions during fall, spring, winter and summer in the Appomattox River watershed,  topography of the area within 20ft radius up and down stream and 20ft. arc up the bank and focusing on the canopy cover (with  i-Tree Hydro and i-Tree Eco software), height and canopy spread of the trees by a Hypsometer.  Tree inventory was made by geo-tagging  each tree, specifics such as the trunk’s diameter at breast height (DBH), height, and canopy breadth, and graded according to i-Tree eco specs (25ft upstream and downstream). The water quality was monitored for: nutrient contents (nitrates and phosphates), pH, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen. By demonstrating the geospatial analysis of  tree canopy data and water quality data on ArcMap, we hope to inform property owners, city planning officials, farmers to plan for planting of trees for  increase in buffering of water contamination to the Chesapeake Bay watershed.