Prepare for the Next Virginia General Assembly: Two Programs on Advocacy

Photo: Virginia State Capitol Building, Wikimedia user Skip Plitt via CC BY-SA 3.0

Tom Blackburn

Advocating for your legislative priorities can be intimidating. NVBA is offering two programs that will help demystify the process and provide an advance look at legislation that will be introduced in the 2026 Virginia General Assembly.

General Assembly Preview: Saturday, December 6 

We are preparing for Virginia’s legislative session by partnering with the Virginia Conservation Network, the largest conservation advocacy organization in Virginia, to host a General Assembly Preview Regional Watch Party. Join us at our offices in the National Wildlife Federation Building, 11100 Wildlife Center Drive in Reston on December 6, from 9:00 AM to noon. You’ll learn about the environmental legislation we expect to see in the upcoming General Assembly session. We’ll provide breakfast, followed by a streamed presentation from experts across the Commonwealth, and an in-person discussion about local issues.

You can register for the General Assembly Preview here. We suggest a $20 ticket price to support this event and our environmental advocacy efforts. If cost is a barrier, please use the promo code “VCNREST2025” during registration for a free ticket. 

Can’t attend in person? You can still register to stream presentations virtually from 9:15 AM-11:00 AM to hear all speaker presentations.

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Effective Advocacy with Delegate Kathy Tran: Tuesday, December 16

When: Tuesday, December 16, 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Where: Online
Fee: FREE

Delegate Kathy Tran. Photo: courtesy of Delegate Tran.

Do you want to learn how to be a more effective advocate? Join NVBA and Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy for a virtual program, “Effective Advocacy in Virginia,” with the Honorable Kathy Tran, Representative for Virginia District 18, and Majority Caucus Chair for the Virginia House of Delegates.

The recent November 4 election determined who will be the Governor of Virginia for the next four years, as well as all 100 representatives to the Virginia House of Delegates, each serving a two-year term. The Virginia General Assembly will convene for a sixty-day session on January 14, 2026. This is an excellent opportunity for you to work to enact legislation that supports and protects the environment. Consequential issues also are before our local governments, including modifications to the master plans of Fairfax and Prince William Counties, decisions on data centers in Loudoun and Prince William Counties, and much more. Delegate Tran will provide advice on how to advocate before the General Assembly and local governments, making your efforts to lobby elected officials more effective.

We’ll conclude the evening with an opportunity to sign up for alerts on important pending legislation to support communications with your elected representatives. 

This event is FREE and open to the public. You can register for this program here.

Tom Blackburn is Chair of NVBA’s Advocacy Committee, and a past President of NVBA.

The 2025 Virginia General Assembly Session So Far

Photo: Virginia State Capitol Building, Wikimedia user Skip Plitt via CC BY-SA 3.0

The Virginia General Assembly adjourned sine die on February 22. It is scheduled to reconvene April 2 to address actions the governor may take on legislation sent to him. The governor can sign the bill if he approves it, and the bill becomes law; he can veto it by returning the bill with his objections to the house in which the bill originated; or he can return it to the house in which the bill originated with specific recommended amendments. The legislators can override the governor’s veto and object to or adopt recommended amendments. The available options are outlined in Virginia Constitution.

There are several bills that we hope will become law:

• Budget Bill Item 367, Nesting area for seabirds: The governor included $4.4 million to create a permanent nesting area for 25,000 seabirds that had moved to a temporary location due to construction on the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel Project. None of the House or Senate budget amendments modified this provision, so it appears likely to be included in the final budget.

• HB 1941 and SB 1166, Invasive plant signage for retail sales: Both the House and Senate bills require retail establishments selling certain invasive plants to post conspicuous signs identifying the plants as invasive, educating consumers regarding invasive plant species, and encouraging consumers to ask about alternatives. The bills would require that the signs be posted as of January 1, 2027. It remains to be seen whether the Governor will veto the bills as he did last year.

• HB 2630 and SB 2638, Tree canopy fund: Both bills passed without amendment in both houses. They allow local governments to set requirements for the replacement of trees that are cut down during development. They also allow local governments to establish a tree canopy fund to collect, maintain, and distribute fees collected from developers that cannot provide for full tree canopy requirements where the development project is situated. The governor may sign, amend, or veto the bills.

There are several bills we had hopes for that failed, including HB 2059, the Great American Outdoors Act, which would have funneled money to parks.

To learn more, visit the Virginia Conservation Network, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Stay tuned!

The Conservation Voter in Virginia: Know the Voting Records of Those You Elect

Photo: Huntley Meadows Boardwalk, Dixie Sommers

The news reports are filled with coverage about the major party conventions for the upcoming Presidential race. It’s important, but don’t let it distract you from keeping track of what’s going on in Virginia. Decisions made at the local and state level also have significant consequences for our environment and natural resources.

So, take a moment to review the voting record of your Virginia legislators. Virginia’s League of Conservation Voters (LCV) has published its 2024 General Assembly Conservation Scorecard, available here. Each year, the LCV ranks all 140 Virginia lawmakers based on their votes for or against the environment and a healthy democracy. This is the 25th edition of LCV’s Scorecard, published every year since 2000.  Advocates look to it as a valuable tool to determine whether their lawmakers are standing up for Virginia’s environment at the General Assembly.

At NVBA we are already preparing for the next General Assembly. We’re assessing past wins and losses, including the large number of bills that passed the General Assembly but were vetoed by Governor Youngkin, and discussing how to strengthen conservation policies. If you would like to help—and we can always use help of volunteers from across northern Virginia—please contact advocacy@nvbirdalliance.org. It always helps if you let us know who represents you at the local, state and federal level.

On the Virginia Conservation Network (VCN) website, you can learn about the full range of conservation issues that this coalition typically works on during the General Assembly’s annual session, generally held in January and February. NVBA works with VCN during every session.

Let’s work together to help the birds and other wildlife in Virginia!

Can you help advocate for your local government to adopt new environment-friendly legislation?

Photo: Virginia State Capitol Building, Wikimedia user Skip Plitt via CC BY-SA 3.0

Tom Blackburn

Conservation advocates lost several battles in the 2024 General Assembly, but did score a couple of wins that allow local governments to adopt some environment-friendly requirements. We can use your help in lobbying your local governments to adopt these measures.

Tree canopy funds

Governor Youngkin signed into law HB459 and SB121, identical bills that allow local governments in northern Virginia to broaden the use of dollars that developers pay to restore the tree canopy. Localities can adopt an ordinance to allow the tree canopy fund to maintain trees on public property and plant and maintain trees on private property. Before the enactment, those funds were limited to planting trees on public property. The new law also allows a locality to remove provisions that required that any funds not spent within five years be returned to the original contributor, although it maintains the five-year spending requirement. The bill also allows for expanding the canopy credit.

Herbicide application by volunteers

Governor Youngkin also signed into law HB320, which allows local governments to permit supervised volunteers to apply herbicides, a provision that can assist local programs working to push back on invasive plants. The law allows localities to authorize unpaid volunteers to use any nonrestricted herbicide to control invasive plants or noxious weeds on properties owned by the political subdivision. The unpaid volunteer would have to operate under the direct supervision of and following instruction by a certified commercial applicator. The instruction would cover

 (i) the risks associated with the herbicide utilized, (ii) the proper use of equipment used to apply the herbicide, (iii) the proper use of personal protective equipment, (iv) other information to prevent an unreasonable adverse effect on the environment, and (v) any other information relevant to the specific herbicide utilized.

Localities will have to adopt ordinances to make these new provisions effective in their jurisdictions. If you are interested in advocating for your locality to adopt the new provision, please email Tom Blackburn, ASNV’s Advocacy Chair, at advocacy@audubonva.org.

Members of Workgroup Appointed by Virginia General Assembly Release Report on Managing Free-Roaming Cats

Photo: Domestic Cat Killing Ruffed Grouse, Navvvrisk

Tom Blackburn

Fourteen members of a Virginia General Assembly workgroup appointed in 2021 to study problems associated with free-roaming cats have just released a comprehensive report detailing the negative impact of cats on wildlife and public health and recommending legislative solutions.

Among the major findings in a report from fourteen of nineteen workgroup members, including ASNV, is the determination that, by itself, the controversial practice of Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) does not work for the reduction of free-roaming cat populations. The practice, in which cats are trapped, neutered, typically given a one-year rabies vaccination, and released back to the outdoors, is also ineffective at mitigating the risks posed by these cats to wildlife and public health. According to a report published in the journal Nature Communications and referenced in the report, 1.3 to 4 billion birds and 6.3 to 22.3 billion mammals are killed annually by cats in the U.S.

Domestic Cat Killing Ruffed Grouse, Navvvrisk

The workgroup was created at the request of then-Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources, Delegate Ken Plum. The nineteen-member work group, composed of experts in wildlife conservation, veterinary medicine, public health and safety, agriculture, animal welfare, and animal law, was tasked with making recommendations for the reduction of the population of free-roaming cats in Virginia, and mitigating their impacts on wildlife, natural resources, public health and property. I participated as chair of ASNV’s Advocacy Committee. We deliberated for 18 months before fourteen members submitted their report to the General Assembly.

Among the findings in the meticulously-documented 28-page report are:

• There are an estimated 2.1 million free-roaming cats in Virginia, of which 1.2 million are unowned.

• These cats are one of the most serious threats to native wildlife in the Commonwealth.

• Free-roaming cats are vulnerable to many hazards and have high mortality rates, especially for kittens, and often have a very poor quality of life.

• Free-roaming cats present numerous risks to public health, including rabies, toxoplasmosis, and other diseases.

• A comprehensive and multi-faceted population control strategy is required to produce results.

• The unregulated feeding of outdoor cat colonies may exacerbate the negative impacts of free-roaming cats by concentrating cats and attracting wildlife.

The report relies on scientific findings from peer-reviewed publications in presenting recommendations for addressing risks and damage caused by the growing population of free-roaming cats in Virginia. Among these recommendations are:

• Each locality must develop an outdoor cat management plan implementing state guidelines and regulations to reduce the population of free-roaming cats and mitigate their negative impacts.

• There must be a local option for the removal of free-roaming cats where conflicts exist.

• Public education is critical to eliminating the abandonment and unintended reproduction of cats.

• Public education should emphasize the importance of keeping cats indoors or confined on the owner’s property to eliminate the impacts of free-roaming cats and to protect the cats themselves. The public also should be made aware of options for the placement of cats that need to be re-homed through shelters, pet adoption programs, and other alternatives to abandonment.

• A statewide policy is needed concerning animal shelters and releasing agencies regarding the intake and acceptance of cats. While 56 localities in Virginia currently have ordinances regulating cats, many others have no regulation whatsoever.

• Where TNR is included in the comprehensive strategy for the reduction of the free-roaming cat population, individual and organizational practitioners must be required to receive training in the various aspects of TNR and cat colony management and should be required to create and maintain complete records of their activities, including individual health records for every cat in a managed colony. These records must be available to animal control, public health, or other taxpayer-funded agencies as needed.

• Release of cats and management of cat colonies should be prohibited in certain areas, including, including parks and other protected areas, near schools or daycare centers, and on land where the permission of the private or public landowner or property manager has not been secured.

The report also includes several recommendations regarding research that should be conducted in Virginia to assess the root causes of cat abandonment, as well as the effectiveness of various strategies and techniques for the reduction of free-roaming cat populations.

Members of the workgroup who released the report expect to work with legislators to develop legislation on free-roaming cats to be introduced in the 2024 session of the General Assembly. You can contact me if you have questions about the report.