Look at that surge in the river level at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Westham Gauge just upstream of the Huguenot Bridge! In 48 hours, from yesterday morning until tomorrow morning, the river will have gone from about 5.5 feet to 15.5 feet. James Brown will be raging!

I did a little digging on how high 15.5 feet actually is, and it turns out that if the river hits that number at the Westham Gauge, it will be the highest we’ve seen the James since December 9, 2011. That’s almost eight years. We’ve had a couple of crests in the 15s — most recently this past February 12 when the river topped out at 15.4 feet. (The highest of all the recent crests was a 18.1 foot river in January 2010.)

Of course, all these numbers don’t mean much if you don’t know what the river looks like at that height, if you don’t have a mental image of what a given place at 5, 10 or 15 feet looks and feels like. Which tree roots are submerged at 12 feet at Texas Beach? At what height does the James start pushing water into Reedy Creek? What does Hollywood Rapid sound like at flood stage?

So, do yourself a favor and take a few minutes before work tomorrow to check out the river. If you can, get alongside it and feel the power. Watch the huge tree trunks that will inevitably float by like matchsticks. A river level this high might not come along for another seven years or more.

A closeup of Maggie on the RVA Osprey Cam.

It was another successful season at RVAOspreyCam.com, one that is now winding down as ospreys all over the region begin their annual migration to South America. You might still see a few here or there, but in a month to six weeks most will be on their way south.

For the second year in a row, Maggie and Walker, the pair we feature at the osprey cam (ospreys return to the same nest location every year), produced three eggs, two of which hatched and became viable chicks. Like clockwork, the parents returned to the nest in late February (early in the season compared to most local ospreys); the eggs were laid in mid-March; and the two chicks hatched in late April. While it was a wet spring and early summer, fishing was good in the James River, and Maggie and Walker had no trouble feeding this year’s offspring. The chicks grew steadily and fledged in June.

Maggie feeds the two chicks just days after they were born in April.

Every year presents its own technical challenges for an endeavor like this, and 2018 was no exception. We added a microphone to our setup this year, but on rainy days the mic cable would pickup a local radio frequency so viewers would be listening to a radio station if they turned the volume on! We’ve remedied that we hope with a different microphone for next year.

Another issue we ran into was a Virginia creeper vine that reached mammoth proportions and covered about a third of our solar panels for about the last quarter of the viewing season. That meant the panels couldn’t collect as much solar energy as normal and the batteries that powered the camera would die every evening. The next morning we’d have to wait as the sun climbed high enough to re-fill the batteries and turn the camera back on. Good old, Mother Nature!

We sent a crew out to the cam site a couple of weeks ago, and pulled out the vines (after getting attacked by a swarm of wasps also nesting up there!). We hope that problem is fixed for next year.

The osprey cam setup is located just downstream of the T. Tyler Poterfield Memorial Bridge near Brown’s Island.

All in all, it was another rewarding year showcasing these beautiful raptors which choose to make their summer home in downtown Richmond. But they’re not the only raptors for whom that’s true. Starting this fall you’ll be able to watch the Cooper’s Island bald eagle nest just upstream of the Nickel Bridge. That’s right, we’re adding an eagle cam!

Bald eagles return to their nests sooner than ospreys — like before Thanksgiving. So we’ll have the eagle cam up and running by next month. There are only two bald eagle nests in city limits, so this promises to be exciting. You’ll be able to find all of our cams (including our Newport News peregrine falcon cam) at WildStreaming.com.

We will certainly have more on the eagle cam project during and after the install. Stay tuned!

Life on earth is driven by change. Our planet’s biology is in a constant state of flux, which makes it all the more remarkable that for the past 150 million years, sturgeon have remained so unchanged by evolution. They are living fossils, looking much the same as when they first appeared on earth. As a family of creatures, sturgeon have even outlived some of Earth’s continents. They were here before T. rex, Triceratops, and Brontosaurus. They’re older than mammals, birds, and flowering plants. Sturgeon have proven so resilient that they’ve managed to survive and flourish through meteor strikes, mass extinctions, volcanic eruptions, ice ages, and drastic shifts in tectonic plates.

An Atlantic sturgeon breaches on the tidal James River. Credit: Don West

Yet despite these tremendous obstacles, at no point in this fish’s 150-million-year evolutionary history have they faced challenges as imposing as those of the modern era. Consider the last 150 years – 1/1,000,000 of the sturgeon’s time on Earth: In 1850 the Atlantic sturgeon was still abundant, by 1900 it was nearly extinct, and today, in a remarkable (yet tentative) environmental success story, the species has managed to swim its way back from the brink of extinction to a population that seems stable, even slowly growing. A miraculous comeback. A Great Return.

There are many reasons for this budding recovery. Virginia banned the commercial fishing of sturgeon in 1974, but at the time many thought this formality was too little too late. They were too few to fish. Sturgeon were feared to be extirpated from the James for much of the 1900s. Although they survived in local rumors and tall tales, scientists had little-to-no hard evidence to confirm their presence. But ecological recovery takes time. It wasn’t until the 2000s when verified sightings started appearing – at first in a slow trickle, growing more promising each passing year. In 2002 and 2004, two juvenile sturgeon were captured in the James – proof of their presence, and circumstantial evidence that they were breeding. Five sturgeon were struck by commercial vessels in 2005 – a sad fact, but one with hopeful implications.

In 2007, the first thorough analysis of sturgeon populations blew previous expectations out of the water. By documenting watermen’s bycatch, researchers were able to identify 175 sturgeon in the James. Scientists at VCU, VIMS, and other institutions have since developed strategies for tracking these fish, giving us valuable insights into their real-time location, movements, and behavior. Ongoing restoration efforts and federal protections have been enacted to secure these population gains. Ecotourism is on the rise, and the sturgeon’s rebound has been embraced by local businesses. Today, at last, we are confident that decades of hard work and activism are finally paying off.

VCU researcher Matt Balazik grapples with a large Atlantic sturgeon caught near Hopewell in 2009.

But threats remain. Each year, sturgeon migrate hundreds of miles upstream to spawn in the James, and each year’s version of their Great Return pits these fish against new obstacles. Questions remain regarding the scarcity of juvenile sturgeon, the impacts of the Surry-Skiffes transmission line, and the
effects of massive industrial water intakes, especially at Dominion’s Chesterfield Power Station. Collisions with commercial vessels continue, and regular dredging of the James River’s shipping channel wreaks havoc on potential spawning habitat, already threatened by sediment and development across the watershed.

For years, the James River Association and partners have worked to minimize these risks. Our Action Network connects conservation-minded Virginians with their representatives statewide. Our volunteers stabilize streambanks, reduce sediment pollution, and multiply our efforts. Our partners monitor populations, conduct cutting-edge research, and even construct artificial spawning reefs. Across the watershed, locals are standing up and speaking out in support of these steadfast creatures, whose 150- million-year narrative will continue… for at least another chapter.

Their saga has been a story of resiliency and success, but the last few pages remain unwritten. Does the Atlantic Sturgeon’s Great Return have a happy ending? There are many reasons for hope, but the answer is up to all of us.

This will be the park’s first master plan in 50 years.

The Friends of the James River Park has succeeded in raising its goal of $250,000 to fund a new park master plan, according to reports in today’s Times-Dispatch.

Summer whitewater paddling is in full effect in Richmond. No longer turned away by cold temperatures and high water levels, James River Park System parking lots are packed and the river is busy.

Blessed with easy river access and quality urban whitewater, local paddlers will soon have brushed off the dust. Undoubtedly, paddlers will begin seeking new challenges. Those who normally paddle at Huguenot Flatwater might want to give the class I-II Upper James (Pony Pasture to Reedy Creek) a try. Those who normally paddle the Upper James might give the class III Lower James (Reedy Creek to 14th Street) a try. And those who normally paddle the Lower James might find themselves making the drive to other more challenging rivers. Exciting stuff.

So, how can we make sure these new whitewater experiences go as smoothly as possible?

Early in my whitewater paddling career, I found my myself standing precariously on a boulder that overlooked a jumble of rock and irregularly breaking waves that together formed a steep rapid. Wide eyed, I tried to study the rapid again and again, searching for a safe line through the maze of water and rock. No luck. As I picked up my kayak and began the short portage around the rapid I embarrassingly recalled the fact that minutes earlier I was sitting in my boat contemplating if this rapid was really worth taking a look at.

That day I learned a very important whitewater paddling mantra. When in doubt, scout. The simple act of parking your boat above a horizon line and walking down stream to evaluate the rapid is an invaluable tool that every paddler should use. Ask any professional kayaker and they will tell you that no one is ever too good to scout. That said, scouting is a skill. Not knowing what to look for, one could easily spend 15 minutes scouting a rapid, with 75 percent of that time devoted to blankly staring at a big scary boulder in the rapid. I dare say that this same person just might just find himself rather wet and boatless, camped out on the same boulder moments later.

W.O.R.M.S. is a whitewater scouting tool that I have learned to use so that I can evaluate rapids effectively and relatively quickly, without getting overwhelmed or distracted by unnecessary details. So, when it doubt, bring your W.O.R.M.S. to scout.

Scouting ahead of time can help you avoid this.

Water: Ask yourself, “What is the water doing?” and, “Where is the water going?” Those who are hydrologically literate will probably be able to quickly pick out river features such as eddies, downstream currents, and waves. And even more importantly they will be able identify how different river features are interacting within the rapid. Meanwhile, the untrained eye might feel overwhelmed and see nothing more than splishy-splashy rushing water going through some rocks. But, fear not, untrained eyes! Based on the paddlers I know, reading whitewater is not rocket science, it just takes a little time and intentionality. Little tricks like throwing a stick (not a log) in above the rapid and watching where it floats will provide beginner paddlers a good visual and an indication of where the river wants to push us.

Obstacles: Ask yourself, “If I don’t paddle at all, and just let the river’s current guide me, what obstacles will I encounter in this rapid?” and “What consequences could come with encountering those obstacles?” Based on those questions, I normally break obstacles into two categories, water obstacles and other obstacles. Water obstacles could include waves, breaking waves, eddy lines, boil lines, and munchy holes. Most notable in the other obstacles category are rocks and wood, but we could find ourselves considering everything from other paddlers to bridge pylons. Needless to say, obstacles can vary widely in character and hazard level. One paddler’s “yeehaw” wave could be another’s “oh-no” wave. Observe and assess accordingly.

Route: Ask yourself, “What path do I want to take through this rapid?” If you are used to thinking in terms of ball sports, this step is the equivalent of calling your shot. For this I always try to imagine myself in the rapid, starting with basic considerations such as boat position and paddle strokes, and eventually consider more advances concepts such as changing boat angle and the effects of the waves on my boat. With that in mind, remember to consider the difficulty of the rapid. Routes for class I and II rapids are often straightforward and require little maneuvering. Where as a class III and IV rapids will likely require advanced maneuvering, not just advanced confidence.

Markers:  Ask yourself, “What can I see from the shore that I will not be able to see from the seat of my boat?” and similarly, “What can I see from the shore that I will be able to see from the seat of my boat?”. One of the biggest mistakes in scouting rapids is to not consider the change in point-of-view that occurs when you walk back to your boat. Suddenly you find yourself disoriented, visually groping for sight of waves and rock that moments ago were so obvious from your shoreline perch. To avoid this, simply search for markers that can be seen from both water and shore. For example, you might want to avoid a hidden shallow rock in the middle of the rapid which can not be see from the seat of your boat above the rapid. Well if you did things right you would have noticed that a single red leafed bush is on the shore perpendicular to the rock you wish to avoid. Now rather than searching for the hidden rock, you just have to spot the obvious bush and time your paddle strokes to avoid the marked obstacle. It’s my experience that this is a much more effective approach to scouting than the traditional return to raft and stand up like a prairie dog in search of hazards while floating towards the rapid.

Safety. Ask yourself, “If things go awry, how can I make sure that I stay safe?” Hopefully the effort you are putting in up front by scouting will pay off and your rapid experience will be free of swims, but remember, we are all in-between swims. So, for starters, never underestimate the value of the whitewater swimmer position in which feet are facing downstream and your nose and toes stay out of the water. Beyond that, safety plans can be as simple as knowing to swim towards the left shore if you end up out of your boat, but they can also be more complex and involve positioning paddlers with appropriate training and rescue equipment on the shore or below the rapid.

At the end of the day W.O.R.M.S. is just one tool among many that can help inform the decisions that we make while paddling whitewater. Even on the James River, a river that many local paddlers have nearly memorized, it will always be worth making the time to scout rapids. Whether you are driving slow in the right lane on the Lee Bridge evaluating the river on your way to the put in, standing in a crowd of strangers above Hollywood Rapid before running it for your first time, bushwacking toward a rapid’s roar on a remote river, or detouring from you normal bicycle work commute to get a glimpse of Pipeline Rapid when the river level changes, it’s important to remember that none of us are too good to scout. Add W.O.R.M.S. to your tool box and keep staying safe out there.

Our friends at the James River Association are working constantly to connect people of all ages to the James and its tributaries, so we can all realize the benefits that a healthy river has to offer. At the same time, they’re also looking toward the future.

To that end, the JRA is developing a 10-year strategic plan to chart a course for the organization and plan the best way forward toward restoring the James to full health. They’ll be working with a local marketing firm to gain insight into current perceptions of the organization, as well as potential challenges and opportunities. As a part of this process, they’re asking community members and river lovers to take five minutes to give them your thoughts on the organization by completing this short survey.

All comments are anonymous and will be held in the strictest confidence. If you love the river, take the time to help out an organization that does so much for one of our most treasured resources.

The 25th annual James River Parade of Lights will be held this Saturday, July 21 with viewing opportunities at three Richmond-area locations. The Parade of Lights, hosted by the James River Advisory Council, is normally held in December, but inclement weather forced organizers to cancel last year.

“We couldn’t miss the 25th anniversary of this cherished event,” JRAC Executive Director Kimberly Conley said. “So we decided to make it a summer party with a ‘Christmas in July’ theme. This event will be a real treat with warmer temperatures and fun takes on our traditional holiday displays.”

Beginning at 6 p.m., decorated boats will parade down the James from the city of Richmond to the Varina-Enon Bridge. Admission is free. The parade may be viewed at these sites:

Ancarrow’s Landing, 2000 Brander St., Richmond – viewing site only; Osborne Park and Boat Landing, 9530 Osborne Turnpike, Richmond – DJ, children’s games and food vendors; Henricus Historical Park, 251 Henricus Park Road, Chester – children’s activities and food vendors.

More details are available at https://jrac-va.org/signatureevents/annual-parade-of-lights/. The rain date is July 22. Viewers are encouraged to bring nonperishable donations to support FeedMore. The most needed items are peanut butter, canned proteins (tuna, salmon, etc.), canned fruits or vegetables, beans, whole grains and whole grain cereals, tomato products, and healthy snacks (raisins, fruit cups and granola bars).

Interested boaters can still register at www.jrac-va.org. Call Conley at (804) 748-1567 for media interviews before the event. Media are invited to view the parade at any of the sites. Ask for the event site coordinator for assistance and more information.

The James River Association released a report on swimming in the James River this morning that the group hopes will aid river lovers in knowning when and where to swim in America’s Founding River. The report — Swimming Safety in the James – Know Before You Go: Bacteria Monitoring Results 2013-2017 — synthesizes five years of water quality monitoring data to reveal bacteria patterns in the James River, which affect conditions for recreation.

Since 2013 the JRA has monitored water quality at popular recreation locations on the James and its tributaries. Each weekend from Memorial Day to Labor Day, trained volunteers collect water samples at designated locations where the public is known to frequent for paddling, fishing and swimming. Results are verified for quality assurance and then uploaded to the JRA’s James River Watch website, an online resource for river conditions important to boaters, paddlers and swimmers. Weekly water samples test temperature, water cloudiness or turbidity, and E. coli bacteria. In high concentrations, E. coli can be harmful to human health and indicate greater likelihood of other harmful bacteria in the water.

For any activity that takes you into the James River, it’s good to know river conditions before you head out.

James River Watch data shows that, on average, the river is generally safe for recreation, with 83% of all samples taken over the past five years meeting the state’s safety standard. The other 17% of samples that showed high levels of bacteria were primarily found after significant rain events, which wash bacteria pollution into the river from surrounding land or from sewage systems. Although bacteria levels vary based on weather conditions, testing sites in or immediately downstream of urban areas tend to be bacteria hotspots, as well as sites in rural areas where farm animals have access to streams and rivers.

“This data demonstrates that our local waterways are safe for recreation most of the time, but extra caution is necessary after rainstorms,” said Jamie Brunkow, the JRA’s James Riverkeeper. “It’s important for river goers to know local conditions before spending time on the river. Checking James River Watch is an easy way to ensure a safe, fun time on the water.”

Virginia has cleanup plans in place for many of the sections of the James River that are impaired by bacteria pollution. These cleanup plans call for practices that reduce urban stormwater and agricultural pollution, the same issues that are also critical for meeting Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay goals. The state will be updating its Chesapeake Bay cleanup plan over the next year.

“Human health continues to be at risk due to pollution entering the James River,” said Brunkow. “To ensure that the James is safe for everyone to enjoy, we need to strengthen and adequately fund state and local programs to address polluted runoff from urban stormwater and agriculture.”

To access Swimming Safety in the James: Bacteria Monitoring Results 2013-2017 visit www.jrava.org/know-before-you-go. To learn more about local river conditions visit www.jamesriverwatch.org.