virginia: We have several urban streams that could use some help in improving the water quality. What are good plantings in Virginia for improving the water downstream from here? Especially, what are some native plants that would grow well from seeds?|||I live near some urban streams in Raleigh, NC, and about 50 feet of one runs through my property. I'm very inspired by how well the native plants have handled the task of mitigating the pollution all by themselves. Like you, I consider myself a custodian of these places. The plants that improve water quality the most are the ones that grow the fastest. The Chesapeake dead zone is caused by excess nutrients, and fast growing plants eat these up. The plants that grow the fastest are usually called weeds, and they don't need much help from us to spread their seed. The native plants that are crowded out were adapted to a different environment, where fertilizer didn't leach into the water from lawns and rain water didn't surge in from storm drains. That doesn't mean there is nothing you can do; we can have a great impact on water quality by building structures that capture water and filter it through soil rich in plant roots. This is called rain gardening; I've attached some links below. The rule of thumb is to "slow, spread and sink" the water into the soil, rather than pave, pipe, pollute it. But you have to do it before the water joins a creek; damming running water is best left to engineers and beavers, because it can cause substantial damage. There are some native plants that feed wildlife that don't spread well in an urban setting. Pawpaw trees only grow in a mature forest, and persimmons only sprout where deer carry the seeds. Groundnut (apops americana) was a native ameican staple food that grew on stream banks. Amphibians are very vulnerable to poulltuion, and if you create a backyard pond near a stream for them to breed it will help maintain their population. I believe that there is a lot you can do in terms of stream remediation, and if just one person on every creek did this it would have a huge impact on the water quality of the Chesapeake. I'm learning to do this on the stream system where I live, and would love to share what I鈥檝e learned. There is some way to send an email through yahoo answers- feel free to.|||Here in NC we can not plant or build anything around most streams or rivers any more. They have special rules, heck the couple hundred acres behind my house they can not even have cows anymore because of run off... And that is just a small brook/stream. I would contact the link below and ask, they may have the best answer and may be able to supply you with the seeds or plants.|||virginia sweetspire, clethra, button bush, Viburnum nudum, fetterbush, alder river birch, ash, boxelder, black locust