Conserving land, and its favorable effects on water quality and quantity, were issues front and center last Friday at the Potomac Watershed Forum V, held at the Prince William Campus of George Mason University, and attended by nearly 200 people from around the region and as far away as Westmoreland County on the Northern Neck. In Virginia, 60,000 acres of forest and farmland are converted to development each year. Forest lands provide the best land cover for water quality protection, but nearly 80 percent of such lands in the Chesapeake Bay watershed is held privately.
