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Community Energy

Community Wood Energy Program Expands Staff

The American Climate Partners is pleased to announce the hiring of two consultants to assist with the energy program. Betty Dixon is a social worker and entrepreneur with over 25 years’ experience providing community based services throughout Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic.  After a stint in both the public and private sector, Betty co-founded Virginia’s first state-wide […]

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StreamSweepers

Dave Matthew’s BAMA Works Fund Keeps StreamSweepers Rolling

StreamSweepers and the American Climate Partners, its parent group, and its Board of Directors thanks the Charlottesville Area Community Foundations Dave Mathews Band BAMA Works Fund for selecting StreamSweepers to receive financial assistance for 2016 Central Virginia river cleaning, assessment, and maintenance work. “Rivers are our life blood –thanks for supporting the continuous cleansing of […]

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Community Energy

Virginia Community Wood Energy Program Featured on WVTF Public Radio

The Virginia Community Wood Energy Program was featured on Virginia Public Radio in a two-part story about how using wood and grass fuels for heating can both drive economic development and improve our environment:    

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Community Energy

Virginia Community Wood Energy Program Leads National Bioenergy Day Study Tour in Southside, VA

October 21, 2015 was the third annual National Bioenergy Day.  The Virginia Community Wood Energy Program led staff from federal, state and local governments on a tour of three Southside institutions that are using wood and grass fuels to provide cost effective heat energy while keeping their energy dollars in the local economy and improving the […]

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StreamSweepers

Here is Where our Hope for StreamSweepers 2016 Begins

In 2015 StreamSweepers finished the promise begun 3 years ago to train and employ dozens of local young adults to sweep up garbage from the historic Rapidan River – all the way from Shenandoah National Park to Fredericksburg. This unprecedented achievement is the first time a corps of local high school and college students has […]

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StreamSweepers

What It Takes

This summer was another wonderful opportunity to witness a group of dedicated and amazing young adults working to complete the efforts started by another amazing group three years ago.  By the end of the 2015 summer season the entire Rapidan River had been assessed to determine bank characteristics, buffer quality, erosion, tree canopy and more.  […]

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StreamSweepers

Hometown Heroes

Help From Our Friends Results in Removal of a Tire Weighing 2100 Pounds In mid-July as the StreamSweepers crew was moving down the Rapidan River in the area near Raccoon Ford they discovered a tire like they had never seen before.  On first glance it looked much like the large tractor tires they routinely find, but […]

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Community Energy

National Bioenergy Day Virginia Study Tour

On October 21st, in recognition of the Third Annual National Bioenergy Day, the Virginia Community Wood Energy Program is hosting a study tour of three Southside institutions that are saving money and supporting their local economy by using wood fuels for space heating and hot water generation.  In 2013 the Virginia United Methodist Assembly Center […]

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Community Energy

Case Study: Blackstone Conference and Retreat Center

Wood energy is not just for the big guys.  For the Blackstone Conference and Retreat Center (BCRC), wood energy quite literally may have saved the institution.  The BCRC, formerly the Virginia Methodist Assembly Center, was originally founded in 1894 and operated until 1915 as the Blackstone College for Girls.  The original wooden structure twice burned […]

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StreamSweepers

StreamSweepers Complete Historic Assessment and Cleaning of Entire Rapidan River

Today, the 2015 StreamSweepers completed the first comprehensive assessment and cleaning of entire major river valley in Virginia. This vision, conceived by a small group of residents from Orange, VA to assess and clean the entire Rapidan River from Shenandoah National Park to Fredericksburg, was made possible only through the generous support of Rapidan and […]