Vivus Viridis

09/01/2026

Something worth knowing if you're thinking about a conservation easement on your land:

Federal rules about which wetlands and streams are protected have changed six times since 2015. This is not a “red” or a “blue” issue. The current proposed rule, called the WOTUS (Waters of the United States) rule, would remove federal Clean Water Act protection from the majority of wetlands in the country. Depending on where you live, the wet areas on your farm may or may not have federal protection at any given time, depending on who's in office and what definition the EPA is currently using.

A conservation easement through V2 doesn't work that way.

When we place a conservation easement on a piece of land, it protects that land permanently. That protection doesn't change with a new administration. It doesn't expire. It doesn't depend on whether a federal agency considers your stream to be "jurisdictional" under the current definition of the week.

The restored creek stays restored. The wetland stays protected. The easement stays on the deed.

Adam McIntyre, V2's founder, puts it directly: "The principle is to correct and restore what we've degraded over the last 100 years. Federal protection can shift with every new administration. Conservation easements take that decision out of the political cycle entirely. And remember folks, this isn’t a political red vs blue issue, it’s a human issue. We all should want to support the protection and restoration of these critical systems for our present and future!"

If you're a landowner with a wet section of property (a stream bank, a drained wetland, a soggy field that never quite worked for crops) the question of federal jurisdiction matters less than the question of what you want to happen to that land. A conservation easement answers that question and pays you for it, regardless of what Washington does next.

[Sources: Environmental Protection Network · EPA/USACE Regulatory Impact Analysis, Proposed 2025 WOTUS Rule · K&L Gates legal analysis (December 2025)]

08/28/2026

If you farm in the southeast of the US, you already know what a wet year looks like:

** February 2025: powerful storms moved across Tennessee and brought destructive flash flooding to communities across the state. A levee failed in Rives. More than 1,000 people had to be rescued.
** April 2025: Governor Lee declared a state of emergency after an unprecedented period of severe weather and prolific rainfall swept West and Middle Tennessee.
** June 2025, Interstate 40 near the Tennessee–North Carolina state line was closed again due to flash flooding and a landslide, just months after it had been shut down for four months following Hurricane Helene. Full restoration of that stretch of highway isn't expected before 2028, assuming we don’t have another major storm in this region.

Here's something that doesn't make the news but should: a significant part of why flooding has gotten worse is that the natural systems that slow water down have been removed. Wetlands act like a sponge: they take in runoff during a heavy rain event and release it slowly, reducing the peak flow that causes the kind of flash flooding we're seeing. Healthy stream banks hold their shape. Riparian vegetation slows the water's movement across the land.

When wetlands are drained, streams are straightened, and floodplains are filled the water has nowhere to go except downstream, fast.

Wetlands cover less than 6% of U.S. land. Yet they support at least one third of all threatened and endangered species in the country, filter water before it reaches wells and rivers, and recharge the groundwater aquifers that farms depend on.

So, when a wetland filters water before it reaches a river, that's work a water treatment plant would otherwise have to do. When wetlands and floodplains absorb a flood, that's natural infrastructure an engineered ‘solution’ would otherwise have to provide. The global value of what wetlands do for free has been estimated at $47 trillion a year. That's not a market price; it's what we'd have to pay if nature stopped doing it.

The land many landowners think of as a nuisance, the wet corner, the soggy field, the stream that floods every spring, is actually the land that's been doing the most work. And it is the land that we need to protect, restore, and be grateful for!

[Sources: Tennessee Emergency Management Agency · NASA Earth Observatory · Center for Disaster Philanthropy · WATE Knoxville · U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service · EPA]

08/12/2026

🐸 Hey everyone, meet the upland chorus frog, a tiny little guy that can fit on your thumb!

If you've ever been walking a fence line on a chilly February morning and heard something that sounded like a comb being dragged across its teeth, that was probably this little frog.

The upland chorus frog is one of the earliest callers of the year, starting up in winter and running through early spring. They're small, easy to miss, and remarkably tolerant of the kind of land most farmers work every day, from roadside ditches and flooded fields to temporary wet spots after a heavy rain. They don't need a pristine wilderness. They need a wet place and a little time.

Color varies quite a bit from one individual to the next; greenish gray to reddish brown, usually with three stripes or rows of blotches running down the back and a white line along the upper lip. Most common in the Piedmont, but found across the Coastal Plain and into the Mountains as well.

Here's what's worth knowing if you manage land: finding upland chorus frogs on your property is a sign that your wet areas are functioning. They breed in the temporary wetlands and flooded fields that most people consider a nuisance. Restore that hydrology, and they show up.

They were here long before the ditch was. They'll be here long after, if we give them the chance.

[Spotted in the field by David.]

📸

08/05/2026

Hey everyone, it's Adam, founder of V2.

I recently spoke at the Solar Farm Summit in Georgia (managed by Katie Meyer), and I was so impressed with the speakers and the depth of the topics they cover. My good friend and colleague, Dan French (ala agrivoltaic entrepreneur), is, in my opinion, one of the nation's most intelligent and successful environmental entrepreneurs. The impact this organization is having on bringing awareness and interest to the value of solar farming is significant, along with their impact of protecting and finding ingenious ways to steward our planet!

If land stewardship is something you're interested in, reach out to us because we know people in the community!



Photo by Raphael Cruz on Unsplash

08/03/2026

Most people have never heard of mitigation banking. Jamey has spent his career thinking about almost nothing else. (Oh wait, there's fishing...🎣)

As V2's land resource manager, Jamey's job is to find land that needs restoring, and then to evaluate whether there's a match between a need for credits in a given watershed and that potential project. (The restored land generates credits that offset the environmental impact of development.) It's a market that most people don't know exists, and it quietly does a lot of work for the watersheds we all depend on.

What makes Jamey's perspective a little different is his background. Economics, finance, land, and environment. Actually, this means Jamey thinks about land the way a farmer might: What does it cost to restore? What could it earn once it was a conservation easement? What might it look like in twenty years?

The answer, when it works right, is that everyone benefits. The landowner. The watershed. The community downstream. And the fish...😀

07/31/2026

One of the questions we hear from landowners is: how long does this actually take?

The honest answer is that it varies by project, but here's the shape of it.

Step 1: Preliminary site assessment.
We come to you. We walk the land, look at the stream or wetland, and get a sense of what's there and what's possible. This is the conversation that tells us both whether it's worth moving forward.

Step 2: Potential project layout.
If the land qualifies, we put together a picture of what the restoration could look like, where the easement goes, what gets restored, how it fits around your existing farming.

Step 3: Partnership agreement.
This is where we make it official. The agreement spells out what V2 commits to and what you can expect, including how your farming or land use continues alongside the project.

Step 4: Project approval.
The restoration plan goes through the regulatory approval process with USACE and state agencies. This is typically the longest part of the timeline and the part that requires the most patience, but we handle it. That's our job, not yours.

Step 5: Project implementation.
Restoration begins. The stream is restored, native vegetation is planted, and the land starts its recovery. Once milestones are met and verified, credits are released.

From first conversation to completed restoration, most projects take two to four years. That's not a short timeline, but the result is land that's protected permanently and generating income for as long as you own it.

Curious if your land qualifies? Give us a call.

🔗 vivusviridis.com

As a landowner, you own more than just property; you're a caretaker of a living ecosystem with the power to shape its future.

07/23/2026

🐍 Wildlife Wednesday...and an introduction to a little guy our team mate was brave enough to hold!!

This is a juvenile black racer. You've probably seen the adult version which is solid black, fast-moving, and GONE before you could get a good look. The juvenile is grey or brown with reddish-brown spots running down the back. They average around 4ft.

These snakes are NOT venomous, and despite local legend, they don't chase people. What they do is hunt, very actively, during the day, with their heads raised off the ground scanning for movement. Small rodents, frogs, lizards, insects, and even other snakes. They chase their prey down and swallow it alive, which is where the name comes from. No constriction, just speed.

If you find one on your property, that's a good sign. Black racers like open, sunny areas, field edges, stream banks, the kind of habitat a healthy, restored piece of land provides. They're part of what comes back when the land does.

📍Spotted in the field by David.

Check out herpsofnc.org, an organization committed to fostering an appreciation of reptiles and amphibians, overlooked species that are declining due to environmental degradation.

07/15/2026

Hi there, folks! Hope y'all are doing well.

I"m sending you two photos from out in the field because these are great examples of land that qualifies for mitigation banking.

I'm interested in land that has:
* Streams that have been straightened, ditched, or altered over the years and need to be restored to their natural shape and function.
* Wet pastures or fields that were drained or crowned at some point.
* Places where a wetland used to be; maybe it got drained and/or the vegetation removed.
* Property near natural habitats like state forests or wildlife refuges help but aren’t necessary.
* Property next to streams that are on your state's 303(d) impaired waters list.

If you're looking at that list and thinking that sounds like the back 50+ acres, give us a call. The easiest way to know for sure is a site visit, and we're happy to come take a look.

You might be sitting on something worth restoring!

Thanks,
Adam
CEO of V2

🔗 vivusviridis.com

07/08/2026

Okay, so I said we'd tackle some of the common concerns out there that landowners typically tell us about. Here's #3: "Will strangers be tramping through my property?"

Well, first of all, you'll get to know my team and hopefully they won't be strangers for very long. You'll see them off in the distance as they work on restoring your stream (fascinating work, by the way).

But just because that piece of land becomes a conservation easement doesn't mean strangers get to trample through it. Your land stays YOUR land, private, with no public access granted by the easement. The only visits that happen are scheduled monitoring check-ins, done by our team a few times a year, and you'll know ahead of time when we're coming. No surprise guests, no foot traffic, no trespassers with a "right" to be there.

If you've been holding off because you pictured strangers wandering your property, that's not how it works. And, we're happy to walk you through exactly what those monitoring check-ins look like.

~ Adam, CEO, Vivus Viridis
🌐 vivusviridis.com

[Photo by Randy Fath, Unsplash]

07/01/2026

Hey farmers, meet the eastern mud turtle, a small, unassuming little guy you might find tucked into the mud of a slow-moving stream or shallow wetland on your land.

He's only 3-5 inches long, not a strong swimmer, and spends more time crawling along the bottom than gliding through open water. Come winter, he buries himself just an inch or two underground in the nearby woods and waits it out. He doesn't need much. Just a quiet, undisturbed shallow water system and the forest edge around it. And, because only 3-5 eggs are laid a year, this species doesn't multiply very quickly and is endangered in some states.

That's the thing about land: as a farmer, you know that it's always giving. A wet corner of a pasture, a slow creek nobody pays attention to, the woods at the edge of a field: these are home to creatures like this turtle, and protecting that ground through a conservation easement means it stays that way for good.

If you've got land like this, putting it into an easement isn't about giving something up. It's about making sure that what is already there (like the turtles, the wetlands, the quiet places) has a future.

Curious whether your land might qualify for an easement? We're happy to talk it through. Or go to our website and read through our FAQ: vivusviridis.com.

🐢 Spotted in the field by David.