Virginia tree canopy virtually unchanged between 2018 and 2023

July 21, 2026, Radio IQ WVTF

Increasing the state’s tree canopy could offer multifaceted benefits — cooling temperatures, reducing storm runoff and improving air quality, among others. But between 2018 and 2023, Virginia’s tree canopy was effectively unchanged, going from 16.6 to 16.8 million acres.

An advisory panel established through state legislation in 2020 is intended to assess tree cover and how to retain or expand it — a discipline called silviculture. But competing priorities across business, government and conservation complicate the issue, according to Sheri Shannon, a member of the Forestland and Urban Tree Canopy Conservation Plan Technical Advisory Committee and the co-founder of Southside ReLeaf, a Richmond environmental justice nonprofit.

Shannon said a range of perspectives from the home building, agriculture and forestry sectors are represented on the panel, but the issues aren’t always discussed as being inter-related.