The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Friends of the James River Park are seeking volunteers to help remove English ivy and non-native honeysuckle from the Pony Pasture in the James River Park. Invasive non-native plants such as English ivy and honeysuckle crowd out native plants that provide food and shelter for wildlife and reduce the natural diversity and resiliency of the park’s ecosystem.
A work session to remove the invasive plants will be held Saturday, March 16, 2013, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Volunteers should meet at the Pony Pasture parking lot on Riverside Drive. This is a family-friendly event, so volunteers are welcome to bring family and friends. For more information and to RSVP, contact Aimee Bushman at 804-780-1392 or email abushman@cbf.org.
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Good news state parks lovers: Virginia should be adding a 36th state park sometime this summer.
The budget that recently passed the General Assembly includes the funds necessary to open and operate Powhatan State Park (located on the banks of the James River in Powhatan County). The totals allocated for Powhatan are $200,000 for fiscal year 2013 and $400,000 for fiscal year 2014.
Credit: Rex Springston
According to Department of Conservation and Recreation spokesperson Gary Waugh, if the governor signs the budget as is, state parks would move ahead and “hire staff, furnish buildings, buy equipment, groom the park and establish trails using existing logging roads. If all goes well with the budget approvals we are shooting to open the park sometime in June.”
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The James River Association‘s Amber Ellis had a useful blog post last week on invasive species in Virginia (March 3-8 was National Invasive Species Awareness Week). She listed the top five invasives common to the James watershed and resources for getting rid of them. It’s a topic I’ve written about in the past in Times-Dispatch columns and one that continues to bedevil local parks, including the James River Park. Of particular interest was a list from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation defining plants as highly, moderately, and occasionally invasive.
English ivy leaves and fruit
Also, if you’re a Richmond area hater of English ivy, this is the site for you: http://ivyoutofrichmond.org/
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The Hardywood Twilight 4-Miler doesn’t go off until April 25 at 6:30 p.m., but already 1,000 thirsty runners have signed up. That’s according to Emily Ward, RichmondOutside.com contributor, who’s helping organize the event. Ward added that the self-proclaimed “block party with a four-mile cover charge” will be capped at 2,000 participants. A month and a half out, it looks like they’ll get there.
Ward said the course goes has yet to be finalized but it will start and end at Hardywood (where band Long Arms will be playing) and go through some part of the Fan. In addition, a portion of beer sales will benefit the James River Association, and registrants can contribute to the Sports Backers’ Active RVA initiative when signing up.
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Shenandoah National Park
Maybe you’ve got a trip planned to Yellowstone National Park this year, or Grand Canyon, or maybe closer to home at Shenandoah. Better read this first. I found a really interesting piece on Outside magazine’s website about what the sequester could mean for America’s National Parks.
Among the bad news likely to become reality as a result of the impending cuts, according to Outside:
- It is expected that thousands of permanent employees will be furloughed for up to 22 work days. However, the NPS largely relies on seasonal employees to help meet its demands for the spring and summer months. In the case of seasonal employees, many won’t have to worry about a furlough because they won’t be hired back. Park superintendents have been advised to delay hiring new employees and in some cases might hire none at all.
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Superintendents must slash education outreach programs and seasonal hiring.
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Some areas of the country are completely dependent on tourism in the national parks to sustain their economies.
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If the sequester is enacted, employment at the parks will drop and access roads will close down. Fewer visitors will be allowed and, as a consequence, local economies may lose their consumer markets and start to falter.
The worst part about this, from the a park-lover’s perspective is that our national parks have already had to endure significant cuts over the past few years.
Over the last three years, the park service’s budget has been cut five percent…While the amount of money the parks receive each year hasn’t changed, operating costs have continued to rise, resulting in park employees continually being asked to do more with fewer resources.
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Invasive non-native plants such as English ivy and honeysuckle crowd out native plants that provide food and shelter for wildlife and reduce the natural diversity and resiliency of the park’s ecosystem.
Work sessions to remove the invasive plants will be held Sunday, March 3, 2013, from 1:30-4:00 p.m.; and Saturday, March 30, 2013, from 10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Volunteers should meet at the Nature Center site in the northwest corner of Bryan Park. This is a family-friendly event, so volunteers are welcome to bring family and friends.
For more information and to RSVP, contact Aimee Bushman at 804/780-1392 or email abushman@cbf.org.
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The Sports Backers announced last week that Dominion Riverrock will feature yoga this year. They’ll be partnering with Project Yoga Richmond to introduce “yogaROCK” to the three-day festival scheduled for May 17-19. YogaROCK is a one-hour yoga session on Brown’s Island and will take place at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 18.
“Yoga is something that people are doing down by the river every day, so the partnership with Project Yoga Richmond was a perfect addition to Dominion Riverrock,” said Megan Schultz, Dominion Riverrock event director.
Yoga on the James
The class is a mixed-level flow and is billed as being great for beginner to advanced yoga practitioners. In addition to the session led by certified yoga instructors, all participants will receive an event t-shirt, a goodie bag, a post-event beer or soda, and access to the rest of the happenings including live concerts at the festival.
“We are so excited to be a part of this year’s Dominion Riverrock festivities and grateful for the opportunity to share yoga on a large scale,” said Elizabeth Sobka, an instructor at Project Yoga Richmond. “For me personally, a regular yoga practice has provided benefits including flexibility, focus, breath control, and strength in muscles I didn’t even know I had.”
Sobka guarantees yogaROCK participants will leave feeling “more open, stretched, and ready to take on the rest of the weekend’s events.”
Registration for yogaROCK is now open at www.dominionriverrock.com. The cost of registration is $25 through May 14. All participants must bring a yoga mat.
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The Times-Dispatch reported yesterday that the budget passed by the General Assembly on Saturday includes “big bucks for improvements to water quality.” As Mike Martz, Olympia Meola and Jim Nolan reported, those big bucks include: $45 million for Richmond to reduce polluted overflows of sewage and storm water into the James during heavy rains — reflecting $5 million on top of the $40 million Gov. Bob McDonnell recommended. Lynchburg, upriver from Richmond, would get $30 million for its combined-sewer overflow problem in return for a promise not to return for more state help. The budget also includes $5 million to help Hopewell remove nutrients that pollute the Chesapeake Bay at its sewage treatment plant and $5 million to expand drinking-water supplies at the Appomattox River Water Authority.
The James River at Belle Isle
The James River Association released a statement over the weekend praising the governor and the General Assembly members for “dedicating $221 million in bonds for water quality protection as part of the state budget of which significant elements will go to cleaning up the James River. An additional $26 million was also approved for assistance at the local level.”
“We commend and thank Governor McDonnell and the members of the General Assembly for their leadership and continued stewardship of our critical water resources. This funding represents a huge victory for the James River and will help improve long-term water quality as well as the health of local streams and creeks,” said Bill Street, Chief Executive Officer of the James River Association.
The bonding of $221 million includes numerous investments that will benefit the James River, the JRA press release said, including:
- Upgrading wastewater treatment plants including Norfolk, Hopewell, Richmond and Covington
- Reducing sewage overflows in Lynchburg and Richmond
- Establishing a new funding program to help urban areas conduct capital projects to reduce polluted runoff from stormwater
The General Assembly additionally provided $26 million in funding for the following water quality initiatives:
- Assisting localities in development of stormwater management programs and policies
- Providing funding and technical assistance to farmers for conservation practices that reduce pollution
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It’s a mystery why endurance athletes, especially, seem to be drawn to beer. Or maybe it’s not a mystery. Maybe they run and bike so far and so hard as a preemptive strike against the calories guzzled down with their IPAs, stouts and lagers. Or maybe it’s something else entirely. The point is runners (and bikers) seem to love their beer.
That’s why the Hardywood Twilight 4-Miler makes so much sense. The tagline describes the event perfectly: “The block party with a 4-mile cover charge.” On April 25 at 6:30 p.m., Hardywood Park Craft Brewery will host the 4-mile run (it’s not really meant to be a race). RichmondOutside.com contributor and friend of the program Emily Ward is organizing the run, so we wanted to make sure we did it justice here on the site. Plus, it just sounds cool:
Can’t choose between exercise and happy hour? On April 25, choose both with the Hardywood Twilight 4 Miler. This casual 4 mile run/walk winds through Richmond’s historic Fan district, and ends with a block party hosted by Richmond’s fastest growing craft brewery — Hardywood Park Craft Brewery!
If you’re looking for elite athletes, blazing fast times, and huge prize money…go run the Boston Marathon. At the Twilight 4 Miler, we don’t really care how fast you go, as long as you have fun doing it. There is no chip timing, so save your energy for the after-party. The relaxed atmosphere and scenic course make it the perfect race for walkers and beginner runners.
After the race, enjoy yourself by eating, drinking, listening to live music, and mingling with friends, neighbors and co-workers. Each contestant will receive a ticket redeemable for one complimentary beer, and additional beers may be purchased. We’ll also have the food trucks, a Thursday night Hardywood tradition.
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Spotted salamander egg masses along Riverside Drive
The Friends of James River Park included a cool photo (at left) with their most recent e-newsletter. Those white blobs are egg masses of the spotted salamander. According to wikipedia.org:
During the majority of the year, Spotted Salamanders live in the shelter of leaves or burrows in deciduous forests. However, when the temperature rises and there is a higher moisture level, the salamanders make their abrupt migration towards their annual breeding pond. In just one night, hundreds to thousands of salamanders may make the trip to their ponds for mating. Mates usually breed in ponds when it’s raining in the spring.
Ralph White, former JRPS manager, once described the spectacle to the Virginian-Pilot: “We do the best we can for safe salamander sex,” he said. “Males wait for a real gully-washer. Then it’s like going down to Fort Lauderdale: Where are all the chicks? Where’s all the action? They go running down the hillsides and some move along the road, because they can go faster.”
These masses are in a vernal pool along Riverside Drive upstream from Pony Pasture Park. According to the Friends: “The pool, maintained by Park staff, will remain full for the mating and larval season and drained before mosquito season!”
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A work session to remove the invasive plants will be held Saturday, March 16, 2013, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Volunteers should meet at the Pony Pasture parking lot on Riverside Drive. This is a family-friendly event, so volunteers are welcome to bring family and friends. For more information and to RSVP, contact Aimee Bushman at 804-780-1392 or email abushman@cbf.org.
