Virginia has an overwhelming number of natural resources. This
includes forests, farmable land, coal, sand, rocks, wildlife of both land and water, clean water, clean air, and beautiful scenery. Virginia has many natural resources, where a variety of trees thrive. We also have cultivated forests. This means the forests have been planted and maintained by humans. These forests create a wonderful habitat for many creatures to live and survive. Virginia has farmable, or arable, land. This allows the land in Virginia to be used for growing crops and raising livestock, which are then used by people living in Virginia and other parts of the United States and the world. Virginia has a great variety of plant and animal resources.
Coal is a very important natural resource to Virginia. It is found in
mines in the Appalachian Plateau of Virginia. Coal mining has become an important economic venture for the residents of southwest Virginia. Coal is a fossil fuel, which means, when the resource is gone, it is gone because it is a nonrenewable resource. Sand and gravel/rocks are important to Virginia as well. Sand can be fired to make glass products. Virginia has all kinds of rocks (igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic) that are used for a great many different things, from helping to build homes to covering countertops, to forming roads and driveways.
Wildlife and aquatic creatures are located throughout Virginia and
are used for food, recreation, and viewing. Deer are one of the most plentiful land creatures in Virginia. They are often hunted for food or sport. Likewise, fish populate Virginia’s rivers as well as the Chesapeake Bay and are caught for food or sport. It is very important to keep our water resources, therefor we must take care of what we have. It is important to reuse the materials we can, recycle the ones we can’t, and reduce the amount of pollutants in the air, water, and land. It is especially important to remember that we all live downstream. This means that the things we do on our land effects not only those around us, but those downstream of us. Most of us live in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. A watershed is an area over which surface water, and everything it carries, flows to a single collection place. The Chesapeake Bay watershed is one of the largest ones along the East Coast of the Unites States. Virginia’s water resources include: groundwater, lakes, reservoirs, rivers, bays, and the Atlantic Ocean. Rivers and lakes tend to contain fresh water and therefor will contain different kinds of aquatic life than those that contain only salt water. The Chesapeake Bay is an estuary, which is partially enclosed body of water that contains brackish water. Brackish water is a fresh water and salt water combination. The fresh water comes from the rivers and streams that flow into the bay, and the salt water comes from the Atlantic Ocean.
The Chesapeake Bay watershed covers about half of Virginia’s land
area. The other major watersheds in Virginia are to the Gulf of Mexico, these are in the southwestern counties of Virginia, and the North Carolina sounds, these are to the southeastern counties of Virginia. Our watershed address here is to the James River. If there is a smaller stream or creek closer to your home, that would come first. Natural Resources Vocab