The health of a watershed includes not only the health of the water, but also the wellbeing of the environment surrounding it. That’s why federal and state agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are implementing a plan to restore the shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata) population in portions of the South River Watershed, specifically at Maple Flats, Big Levels, and Loves Run. Restoration of the shortleaf pine community will bolster the region’s sustainability and long-term water quality of the South River Watershed and larger Shenandoah Valley ecosystem. The group implementing the plan includes members of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, the George Washington & Jefferson National Forest, the Virginia State Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Virginia Natural Heritage Program (DCR), and the National Shortleaf Pine Restoration Initiative. The plan involves prescribed burnings over 1,565 acres to restore the natural cycles that maintained shortleaf pine in these areas and 500 acres of plantings to supplement natural shortleaf pine reproduction. These restoration techniques have been successfully used for several years elsewhere in the National Forest and on other partner agency and NGO lands. Prescribed burns in the South River Watershed were completed as scheduled in 2021 and 2023, and a third is scheduled for 2025. With the help from some friends, it is safe to say that projections for the future of thriving shortleaf pine tree population are good.