Many residents in our community and across the world are becoming more environmentally-conscious. By incorporating eco-friendly practices in and around your home, you will contribute to clean and healthy Virginia Beach waterways and a more sustainable environment overall. There are many additional benefits. Read more about what YOU can do as a resident of Virginia Beach.

LRNow offers multiple programs for residents including:

• Pearl Home & Pearl Neighborhood Program (offered to all Virginia Beach Residents)
• Pearl Yards Program (Offered to residents living in the Lynnhaven Watershed only)

So much of the progress we have made in restoring our waterways is a result of the great work our residents are doing to change their practices and adopt more sustainable behaviors. These PEARL HOMES are all over Virginia Beach. PEARL HOMES are places where people care about our community and our environment and want to do what they can to live responsibly and help protect our resources.

Our daily habits and decisions make a difference. Whether you have installed a rain garden or rain barrel, made a pledge to “scoop the poop” or switched to a reusable water bottle and reusable grocery bags, you are helping to bring our waterways back to life, and we would like to recognize your efforts.

It takes a community to restore and protect our waterways. We know how fortunate we are to live in this beautiful place. Water is a large part of our daily enjoyment, our recreation, our local food and our livelihoods. We all want to do our part to restore the health of all of our waterways and protect them for future generations to enjoy.

Virginia Beach residents: Apply Now to become a PEARL HOME  and help us show the community the great work you are doing. Fill out our online application by clicking on  PEARL HOME   You can also download a copy of the Pearl Home Application and mail it to LRNow at Brock Environmental Center, 3663 Marlin Bay Dr, Virginia Beach, VA 23455.

If you are already a Pearl Home, look over our Pearl Home Resource Card to remind you of the extra initiatives you can take around your house and yard, and where you can find more information to guide you through those actions.

We now have more than 5,000 Pearl Homes in Virginia Beach – thanks to all of our Pearl Homes for making clean water a priority. Keep up the good work!

Are you and your neighbors already Pearl Homes? Take the next step and become a Pearl Neighborhood!

To continue raising awareness of our Pearl Home program, you can volunteer to become of PEARL NEIGHBORHOOD Block Captain. Block Captains will encourage all of their neighbors to become Pearl Homes with them. As a Block Captain, you can tailor your efforts to your own neighborhood and go about inspiring your neighbors in any way you see fit (door to door, civic league discussion, Pearl Home block party, etc.). If you are interested in becoming a Pearl Neighborhood Block Captain, email Terri@LRNow.org.

Pearl Neighborhoods in our community as of 2020:

• Atlantic Shores
• Lynnhaven Dunes
• Pine Ridge
• Westminster Canterbury

Printable PDF  Pearl Home Application

If you live in the Lynnhaven River watershed and are interested in learning more about several stormwater management solutions that would best fit your yard through LRNow’s Pearl Yard Program visit this link and apply for free today! Or if you have questions about this program email PearlYard@lrnow.org or call 757-962-5398.

A watershed is the land area that drains into a specific waterway. In Virginia Beach, we have nine watersheds that drain into three significant bodies of water (primary watersheds): the Chesapeake Bay, Albemarle-Pamlico Sounds, and the Atlantic Ocean.

The Lynnhaven River watershed is one of the most densely populated areas in Virginia Beach- over half of the city’s population reside there.

Explore the nine subwatersheds on our watershed webpage Find out which watershed you live in at this link: https://mywaterway.epa.gov/