For a Zoom interview with Roanoke College Magazine, Linnea (Stewart) Sherman ’19 shows up in dangly, leaf-shaped earrings and a sweatshirt featuring a monarch butterfly alighting on a purple sprig of sweet Joe Pye weed.
It isn’t hard to guess that Sherman loves nature—particularly native species.
Now, as coordinator of the Plantings for the Piedmont Program at the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC), Sherman gets to share that love with landowners—and advise them on how to make their land healthier for generations to come.
Sherman’s affinity for the environment can be traced back at least as far as high school, when she attended an environmentally focused governor’s school. After earning a B.S. in environmental studies with a concentration in peace and justice at Roanoke College, she went on to the University of Oxford, where she obtained an M.S. in biodiversity, conservation and management.
After stints with the National Park Service (via Appalachian Conservation Corps), Fairfax County Park Authority and Northern Virginia Regional Commission, she has settled into the full-time, grant-funded position at PEC. There, she coordinates with landowners to establish riparian buffer enhancements along waterways on their property.
These riparian buffers are areas of vegetation, particularly trees and shrubs, that line the borders of a water source and divide it from the land around it. These buffers serve myriad purposes, including controlling erosion and sediment; reducing agricultural runoff, including pesticides, fertilizers and animal waste; and creating a hospitable habitat for native wildlife such as aquatic species that require the kind of cool, moist environments that shade can provide.
The work of Sherman and PEC could improve water quality in the Rappahannock, Potomac and York watersheds, ultimately benefitting the Chesapeake Bay. It is also educational.
“I think trees are a good way to get folks thinking about conservation,” Sherman said, “and that can open the door to conversations about permanent land protection and easements and things like that.”
Each project begins with a meeting to discuss the landowner’s vision and goals. Sherman then coordinates the plantings and works with contractors to install and maintain them. Their best practice is to create 35-foot forested buffers with native tree species such as oak, sycamore, poplar or elderberry. They also use shrubs that attract pollinators, such as button bush. They can even select plants, based on a landowner’s wishes, that attract native wildlife such as turkeys.
“We really try to take into consideration what landowners are interested in,” she said.
Sherman also helps landowners work through the puzzle of funding, as some of these projects can be quite pricey—especially those that require fencing or well-drilling to keep livestock away from creeks or streams. Those funding sources may include federal grant money from PEC layered with state and federal cost-share programs or zero-interest loans. PEC’s work on riparian buffers and land conservation is supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund, which promotes community-based efforts to develop conservation strategies to protect and restore the diverse natural resources of the Chesapeake Bay.
Sherman figures she has met about 100 landowners and worked on 40 projects during her role with PEC. And, as much as she loves nature, she said it’s the people she meets who most inspire her.
“I enjoy seeing people being willing to do a project they might not see through to the end, because some of these trees will take 50 years to grow full size,” she said. “They are willing to make these land management decisions for the benefit of future generations.”