While we await Old Man Winter releasing his icy grip, I wanted to point out two recent releases from the James River Association that should be of interest to outdoors folks in the area.

The bunkhouse for the JRA’s Ecology School on Presquile.

The first is an opportunity to discover one of Central Virginia’s hidden gem outdoor destinations: Presquile National Wildlife Refuge. Just 15 miles from downtown Richmond, Presquile is a 1,329-acre island in the James River that’s only open by appointment. The NWR system has a few facilities there, and the JRA’s ecology school is based there as well. It’s teeming with wildlife and is a great place to discover by canoe or kayak. And on April 12, the public has that opportunity for the second year in a row. The JRA and US Fish and Wildlife Service and holding their annual Presquile Field Day. Activities lead by the James River Association, VCU, US Fish & Wildlife Service, VA Master Naturalists and the Audubon Society will be going on throughout the day. This is a once-a-year opportunity to see one of Central Virginia’s most stunning natural settings.

The JRA also recently announced that they’re giving away free trees. Who doesn’t love free, right? Especially when we’re talking trees. Actually, they’re giving away money to reimburse people for the cost of planting trees, but the end result is the same.

The wetlands boardwalk on Presquile.

During the spring and fall planting seasons, the James River Association is offering free
trees to Richmond City residents. Homeowners can receive up to a $200 reimbursement per
home for trees planted on their property.

This tree incentive program is only open to City of Richmond residents and reimbursements are
available March through April, and September through November 2014. Homeowners must be
an existing River Hero Home or submit an application to become a new River Hero Home to
qualify.

River Hero Homes is JRA’s certification program that recognizes homeowners who are
successfully taking steps to improve water quality by reducing the amount of stormwater and
pollution leaving their property. To become certified, JRA requires homeowners to install a
river-friendly practice, such as planting trees or installing a rain barrel, as well as following some
simple everyday actions to reduce pollution. These actions, which include picking up after your
pet or planting native plants, may seem small, but when adopted on a wide scale, can have a
significant impact on local water quality.

Tree reimbursements are available on a first-come, first-served basis and will be available until
funding runs out. For more information about this program, and to find out if your property
qualifies, click here.

Every year around this time the James River Green Building Council sponsors its Green Spaces Design Competition, focusing on a public space (or spaces) that could use a makeover and soliciting the public to submit ideas/designs. Those entries are then judged by a panel of professionals in fields such as architecture, design, business and art and a cash prize is awarded to the winner.

One of the proposals for Kanawha Plaza from last year’s Green Spaces Design competition.

Last year it was Kanawha Plaza the JRGBC focused on. This year’s competition will give new life to an iconic Richmond structure — the 17th Street Farmer’s Market. With the site being redeveloped, the market structure will be dismantled and pieces stored away for future use. “The Enrichmond Foundation will be the ‘keeper’ of the materials,” said Julie Buchanan, a volunteer helping to organize the competition for the JRGBC, “and we’re partnering with them on this competition.” Buchanan said that the competition is focused on three area’s this year, not just one. And I think the second one, especially, will be of interest to RichmondOutside.com readers. “We’re asking contestants to design three new structures using materials salvaged from the old market: A market pavilion for George Wythe High School to open a student-run farmer’s market; a trailhead pavilion connecting recreationists to the James River Park System from the planned Dam Walk; a small-scale storage and shade pavilion for community and school gardens.” The trailhead would be located next to the small parking lot at Seventh and Semmes, right before you turn onto the Manchester Bridge. Currently, the lot is open for those accessing the Floodwall, but there’s almost never anyone parked there. That will almost certainly change with the completion of the Brown’s Island Dam Walk. “It’s not a very big space,” Buchanan said. “It would be a trailhead that would maybe have some signage, some wayfinding and some space for interpretation that the city wanted to add to the site. It would connect to the proposed Dam Walk.” The kickoff for the design competition is this Thursday (March 6) at 6 p.m. at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery. That’s where all the details for the competition will be revealed. If you can’t make it to Hardywood, this website will have all the info by Friday morning. 

Hunter Reardon has a great piece on Atlantic sturgeon in the James River in the most recent issue of Richmond Magazine. It’s a bit on the long side, but well worth the time if you’ve followed the return of these prehistoric Richmond natives to the James River.

VCU sturgeon researcher Matt Balazik with a beast in the James. Credit: Chuck Fredericksburg/JRA

Among the interesting tidbits Reardon included:

…the prehistoric fish has managed to avoid destruction, extinction and radical evolution since the Triassic Period. Two hundred million years ago, the first ray-finned fish appeared, and since the Cretaceous Period, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, the physical qualities of the sturgeon have remained basically unchanged.

When it formed so many millennia ago, it was built without teeth of any kind; instead, it feeds by sucking up food from the floor, like a 300-pound vacuum cleaner.

John Smith, for his part, declared that the river contained more sturgeon “than could be devoured by dog or man.”

At the turn of the 19th century, the sturgeon was not in high demand. The fish was considered a nuisance at best, and no Richmond residents hunted it for food. There was no demand for fish eggs among Southern folks, and there were far better fish to fry. In the 1850s, however, immigrants began to arrive from Russia and Eastern Europe. These new settlers were used to catching Atlantic and beluga sturgeon on the Baltic Sea, and they brought with them a knack for cooking and an appetite for caviar.

Bald eagles may be the most visible sign of the recovery of the James River over the past 40 years, but the story of the Atlantic sturgeon is just as dramatic. Click here to read the article.

A tip of the cap to the Friends of the James River Park for highlighting this really interesting piece on William and Mary’s website. In the article, author Lillian Stevens talks to biologist Bryan Watts of VCU and William and Mary’s Center for Conservation Biology mostly about great blue herons.

Herons work on their nests at the downtown rookery on Feb. 10. Credit: Chris Johnson

In May and June, [Watts] logged 200 hours in the air conducting a census survey spanning 900 tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay region (which includes the James River to downtown Richmond).

The CCB census revealed that great blue herons in the Bay region have climbed from just a dozen colonies in the late 1960s to 407 colonies (14,126 pairs) in 2013. In the 1980s the average colony size of great blues was over 100; now it’s about 35. So, over the past decade or so, even as the population itself has made a dramatic comeback, the size of breeding colonies of great blue herons in the region has been diminishing.

Pictures taken by Watts, Stevens writes, also revealed something interesting: Great blues and bald eagles nesting in the same trees.

“We refer to blue herons as colonial water birds because they tend to nest together in distinct colonies,” says Bryan Watts, CCB director. “Like eagles, great blues build their own nests.”

Sometimes a great blue heron colony forms around an eagle nest, and sometimes an eagle moves into a great blue colony. According to Watts, no one really knows why.

There are dozens of nests at the downtown rookery. Credit: Chris Johnson

Watts goes into more depth and offers a few theories. Click here to read more.

Here in Richmond we’ve got nesting herons and bald eagles. This time of year they’re both building their nests in preparation for mating and raising young. Next time you’re downtown, head to the Pipeline and check out the huge heron rookery on the nearby island. If you see any eagles nesting among the herons, let us know…and don’t forget to snap a picture!

A few weeks back I was looking at the lineup of films in the RVA Environmental Film Festival, which begins today and runs through Sunday, and saw a couple of productions by local filmmakers that piqued my interest.

Melissa Lesh has two movies entered in the festival. One — Fairy Shrimp — is a four-minute mini-documentary on an ancient species that lives in vernal pools in, among other places, various James River Park System parcels. Ralph White co-wrote and directed the piece with Lesh, which will be shown on Friday (Feb. 7 at the Visual Arts Center at 8:55 p.m.)

Lesh also produced a documentary called James River Sturgeon, which won first place among local documentaries at the festival. That will be shown at 3 p.m. on Sunday at the Byrd Theater.

But Lesh’s isn’t the only sturgeon-related documentary available to festival goers. Local photographer and filmmaker Elli Morris produced The Great Return (trailer above) for the James River Association, a sponsor of the film festival. Morris said the 15-minute film wasn’t completed in time to be entered in the festival, but it will be shown at the after party at 6:30 on Sunday at Hardywood. Like the festival itself, that is free and open to the public.

Morris said she shot The Great Return, which is aimed at middle to high school educators, as well as the general public, over five days in October.

“We just ended up with some amazing footage,” she said. “The days we went out, we just saw a lot of sturgeon. It’s really focusing on the fact that if we can keep the river clear of sediment then the sturgeon will return.”

And if, after taking in Fairy Shrimp and a double helping of sturgeon, you haven’t had your fill of the James River, you can find another film by Morris — Affair with the James — at the Byrd on Sunday between 3 and 5 p.m.

Click here to learn more about the 4th annual RVA Environmental Film Festival and to see the lineup of films.

As we reported on Twitter last week, the public forum on the Riverfront Plan that was snowed out last month has been rescheduled to February 18 at 7 p.m. at the Virginia War Memorial.

From the city flyer:

The current Vepco Levy Bridge, will be reborn as the Brown’s Island Dam Walk. Credit: Phil Riggan

As a first step in the implementation of the Richmond Riverfront Plan, the Brown’s Island Dam Walk will transform an industrial era structure into a key connection between both banks of the James River at the center of Richmond’s Riverfront. The BIDW will expand the Riverfront circulation networks — a series of connections providing access along, across, and around the river — to serve a diverse group of users — including persons with disabilities, cyclists, pedestrians, and runners — in their pursuit of alternative transportation, fitness, and the spectacular natural beauty of the Riverfront. The project models ecologically-sensitive and sustainable trail development by minimizing runoff, removing invasive species, and extensively re-planting slopes with native species to result in a diverse array of new or enhanced habitats for the rich flora and fauna of the Riverfront.

I stopped by the James River Association‘s new headquarters at Rocketts Landing earlier this week to brainstorm on a number of different river-related subjects. While there Adrienne Kotula told me about an effort they’re in the middle of to make people more aware of how stormwater impacts the quality of the James River.

The group is sponsoring a competition called “Choose Blue,” which challenges local engineering and landscape architecture groups to redesign a couple of prominent public spaces in Richmond using green, low-impact design techniques to better manage stormwater.

The Carillon parking lot.

The JRA sponsored a similar competition back in 2011, Kotula said. “This go round we wanted it to be more community centered, get more neighborhood buy-in on the project and build some more local knowledge on stormwater in general.

They solicited the city parks and utilities departments and chose two locations — the gravel parking lot above Shields Lake (between the lake and Maymont Nature Center parking lot) and the small paved lot in front of Dogwood Dell and the Carillon at the sharp bend in the Boulevard.

“The city went to their capital improvement plan and pulled out a couple of sites within the park system that appeared to need some type of retrofit to address runoff,” Kotula said.

The Shields lot looking down toward the lake.

The deadline for submissions is Feb. 28. Then three expert judges will winnow the field to three in March. Those finalists will be announced in April, and a “Finals Event and Awards Program” will be held at the Carillon in May, complete with dignitary judges. The winning firm will receive a $5,000 prize, and, of course, will get to implement the design.

“There are very few design criteria,” Kotula said. “Basically you have to reduce the amount of runoff coming off the site. You have to maintain the historic integrity of the Carillon site in particular, like the sidewalks and number of parking spaces.. and incorporating the James and educational elements. But other than that the designers have free rein.”

As for implementation, she said, “we are hoping to have at least a focal point element of the design by summer time. It might not be the full-scale overhaul of the site, but maybe an element of the planting design or something of that nature, just to get the ball rolling.”

The highly anticipated public forum on the Riverfront Plan scheduled for tonight at 7 p.m. has been postponed. Stay tuned for the reschedule date and time.

Richmond’s downtown trail system is one of the features that sets the city apart as an outdoors destination. I’d put it right up there with the rapids in the Falls of the James. They’re an amenity that very few cities have. So, with that in mind, we’re launching a weekly trail update on our news blog here.

Every Monday, we’ll bring you news from the trail: What’s being worked on? Where are re-routes planned? What park needs a trail makeover? What volunteer events are coming up? Etc. Whether you’re a hiker, mountain biker, birder, trail runner, dog walker, geocacher or just general trail lover, if you use Richmond’s trails, this will be the place and time to find out what’s going on.

The gravel piled up waiting to be spread. Credit: Enrichmond Foundation

This week I spoke with Mike Burton, Trails Manager for the city. I was out riding the mountain bike on Saturday and saw him loading gravel into a truck below the Manchester Bridge on the Floodwall. He said he was preparing for today’s volunteer event organized by the Enrichmond Foundation. Twenty-five volunteers from HandsOn Greater Richmond arrived to help spread the gravel that Burton was piling up over the weekend.

“As you get further down toward the Floodwall tower,” Burton said, “that always gets really muddy, so we’re adding more gravel and grading it out.”

It was all part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, and the work looks great. If you’ve never been to the Floodwall, go check out one of the coolest views of downtown in the city.

Volunteers hard at work. Credit: Phil Riggan

Next week’s trail update:  A new bridge is in the works for Powhite Park. Where’s it going in, and when can we expect to see it?

A week from tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the Virginia War Memorial, the Richmond Department of Planning & Development Review will meet to discuss elements of the Riverfront Plan. The Brown’s Island Dam Walk and Chapel Island Trail are on the docket, and the public is invited to make its voice heard.

The meeting will open with a short recap of the Riverfront Plan. The firm leading the design of both projects will make a presentation of the designs. The rest of the meeting will then be opened up to questions and comments from the audience. 

The Vepco Levy Bridge south toward Manchester.

On Brown’s Island the old Vepco Levy Bridge will be repurposed into a “Dam Walk,” a pedestrian and bicycle route that will connect Brown’s Island on the north bank to the Floodwall and Manchester neighborhood on the south bank. The Chapel Island Trail will run along the north bank of the river from the 14th St. boater’s takeout to Great Shiplock Park and Chapel Island.

In a recent piece on Richmond.com, Phil Riggan talked to city planner Tyler Potterfield about the projects: “(Potterfield) said the (Brown’s Island) bridge would also have outcropped overlooks with benches. The superstructure supporting the current deck would have to be supplemented with additional structures but the goal would be to “retain as much of the historical aspects as they can.”

Cool stuff in the works. And you’ve got a chance to impact the process next Tuesday.