PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT: WATERSHED RESTORATION

by Amber Ellis, JRA's Watershed Restoration Associate/Volunteer Coordinator

The People

JRA’s Watershed Restoration “team” is made up of only two people who cover the entire watershed!

Michelle Kokolis is the Watershed Restoration Program Manager and has been with JRA since 2008. She grew up just north of Pittsburgh near the Allegheny River and if you have ever met her, you will know she is a huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan! Michelle received a Masters of Science in Biology with a concentration in Wetland Sciences from Old Dominion University. One reason our staff love her? She can make one mean cupcake!

Amber Ellis splits her time between Watershed Restoration and Volunteer Coordination for all programs and has been with JRA since May 2010. Amber grew up in Powhatan County and has a healthy obsession with gardening. She may be the only person that actually enjoys weeding! Amber received a Bachelors of Landscape Architecture from Virginia Tech and is a licensed Landscape Architect in Virginia.

The Work

People may think that we are outside every day planting trees., but about 75% of our time is spent in the office. While our projects evolve constantly, there are a few things that remain constant: engaging the public through hands-on projects and educating the public on watershed health.

Our volunteer events include cleanups, rain garden maintenance, and planting. The Self-Directed Trash Program allows groups to direct their own cleanup with site ideas and supplies provided by us. Extreme Stream Makeover is a major project that we do every couple years within the James River watershed. This is a weeklong restoration project that targets an impacted urban stream. During that intensive week volunteers remove trash, build rain barrels, plant buffers and install rain gardens in the targeted area. 

Corporate partner often want to conduct a team building or community service event and with their support, we are able to provide an event catered toward their needs. Some examples have included an invasive species removal and bluebell planting at Pony Pasture with the employees of Tredegar and a tree planting at Bryan Park with Altria staff.

Our education efforts include rain barrel workshops, presentations to groups, and the River Hero Homes certification program. This program recognizes homeowners who are taking steps to improve water quality on their property.  Some steps they can take include installing a rain barrel, cleaning up after their pet, or planting natives.

There are many ways for you to become involved with JRA’s Watershed Restoration efforts. Sign up to volunteer today for one of our upcoming events, rain barrel workshops, or become a River Hero Home!

The Eager Beaver

By Georgia Busch, JRA Intern

The North American Beaver (Castor canadensis) is probably best known for its tree-trimming and pond flooding abilities. But these large, “destructive” rodents have a long history in fresh water ecosystems just like the James River.

It is well-known that beavers instinctually gnaw on trees to cut them down in order to create dams. Beavers follow the sound of rushing water up small streams and even large rivers to find a specific spot to start dam construction. Using their enormous front incisor teeth, beavers will carve into the base of a tree until it falls. These trees, combined with twigs and mud, create a stable, concrete-like consistency to keep the beaver dam in place. Once a beaver dam is erected, up-stream flooding will occur, making a beaver pond. These ponds provide sheltered habitat for the beavers where they continue constructing lodges and borrows. Beavers are very smart when building their lodges and most make a two-level platform; one for sleeping and one for drying their fur. It’s a lot of work to make a beaver home!

     Once a dam, pond and lodge are constructed, beavers will sometimes vacate the area, but most stay to maintain their homes. Beaver dams are not permanent and would most likely collapse without upkeep. These dams have a secondary purpose to control water levels, ensuring the ponds are deep enough to prevent them from fully freezing in the winter. Beavers will also temporarily breach the dam to lower the water level to create more breathing room beneath the ice if the pond does freeze.

     In these beaver communities, males and females gather to reproduce. Beaver pairs are monogamous, mating together for many seasons. Baby beavers, or kits, are born two to six at a time after approximately 128 days of gestation. They grow up inside the lodge, venturing out into their protected ponds with their mother. Kits learn to use their webbed hind feet as flippers to propel them through the water. They also learn how to recognize danger from their mother’s signal. She will slap her flat, leathery tail against the surface of the water, warning the kits to dive below.  

    Some people would say that beavers’ natural activities are a destructive nuisance. However, studies have shown that beaver dams and ponds provide many benefits to freshwater ecosystems. Large beaver ponds provide stop-over habitat for migrating water fowl and nursery habitat for freshwater fish. Beavers also enhance riparian habitat by cutting smaller trees, providing room in the forest understory for shrubs and diversifying the composition. Indirectly, they also create wetlands habitat from flood water collection. Beaver ponds even increase stream flow during dry seasons by seeping stored rain water. All of these effects categorize beavers as a keystone species because their activities bring diversity to the area. The next time you are paddling, boating, biking or hiking near the James, keep an eye out for some eager beavers working to enhance the ecosystem.

A Float Down Memory Lane (Part 3)

RiverRat Aaron Johnson Retells his Journey in a Kayak from Charlottesville to Richmond (Part 3)

September 20, 2006

The campsite was perfect, soft dirt and the pleasant sound of the river…until the sun went down and the first train went by. Rumbling engines and clacking cars made sleep impossible. At about 6 a.m. we gave up and crawled out of the tent to begin Day 3. After breakfast and coffee we sat around waiting for the sun to give us enough light to pack the boats and get going again. We were on the water by 8 a.m., which would turn out to be the most beautiful and interesting day of the trip. 
Our morning goal was to reach Cartersville for coffee. This little town is very quiet and charming, but not a good place for restocking. We saw two people there: an old man fishing, and a person who tried to squash us with a car.

The old man immediately reminded me of my grandfather. As we reached the beach he started into a conversation as if he knew us, just like Papa. Upon learning about our journey, he went into a story about his trip down the James some years back. He drifted down the river for four days, fishing the banks.  At night he camped on islands, eating the fish he caught. This served as a reminder that this journey Erik and I have embarked on is a timeless tradition that ties us river rats together across generations.

After leaving Cartersville, we paddled along the James, sometimes being so far from each other we didn't talk for hours at a time. Erik paddled the banks trying to find treasure. I don't enjoy the threat of dead trees falling on me, so I stayed near the middle and enjoyed the easier paddling of the faster water there.

Everybody thinks I'm kidding when I mention dead trees falling into the water, but this was the day that Erik learned my fear was rooted in some truth. I was ahead of him when I heard a tremendous crash. I turned around to see him looking back at a very large limb that had just fallen very closely to his kayak.  Astonished, I watched as he brushed the twigs off his boat and continued paddling.

To follow:  River Fairies and navigating the Falls of Richmond with heavily loaded, not-whitewater kayaks.   

A Float Down Memory Lane (Part 2)

RiverRat Aaron Johnson Retells his Journey in a Kayak from Charlottesville to Richmond

September 19, 2006 (Day 2)

We woke up a few hours after dawn to break down the camp and prepare our boats for our first long day.  Day two found us leaving the Rivanna and entering the expansive James River at Columbia.
    
In its day, Columbia was a bustling city having the advantage of prime real estate at the intersection of the two busiest shipping lanes in that area of the state.  Batteau carried goods to and from Charlottesville on this route. A system of locks, canals, and dams were built to accommodate the boats. In some areas of the Rivanna the ruins are still visible, including an aqueduct that actually crossed the river at one point.


It was in the James that we started noticing strong vegetation growth in the water.  Paddling was difficult in some areas because we were plowing through grass beds, even in deep water. Underwater grasses are great for water quality, but not for paddling!

Thunderstorms had been forecast for this day for about a week.  We got hit hard for about twenty minutes with barrels of rain.  Soaked and tired, after covering 30 miles we made camp on an idyllic island. 

Idyllic until the sun went down and we realized we weren’t going to get any sleep…    

To follow:  A sleepless night, a man with a story, and a disaster that threatens our trip.

A Float Down Memory Lane (Part 1 of 4)

RiverRat Aaron Johnson Retells his Journey in a Kayak from Charlottesville to Richmond 

In 2006 I approached my brother-in-law, Erik, with my plan to kayak from Charlottesville to Richmond. Erik was one of the first people I talked to about the trip because 1) he would be the only person I knew that would take me seriously and 2) he would want to go, which was good, because he had a tent and I didn’t. Over a series of four blogs, I will share the story of this 4-day/3-night adventure on the James.

September 18, 2006 (Day 1)

Getting started was the hardest part. The boats were loaded in my front yard with water, food, clothes, tent, sleeping bags, and various odds and ends. We couldn’t shuttle cars between Richmond and Charlottesville, so we had to carry everything by hand and cart to the put-in.

Erik had the biggest, heaviest boat, so we strapped a kayak cart to its stern. We formed a kayak train with human couplings and headed down toward the river. One of us was on the bow of my 10.5’ crossover, while the other was at the stern dragging Erik’s 15’ touring boat behind. It is worth noting that most of the injuries for the entire trip occurred while getting to the river!

Erik’s boat, the workhorse of the trip. He is carrying everything I am, plus more water, the tent, stove, even the wheels that we rolled it to the river on. With him sitting in it, the boat only had about two inches of freeboard! But it lost weight everyday as we drank more water and ate more food.

On the bow of my boat, seen in this picture, is a dry bag with all the food I will have for the trip (minus a bag of M&Ms and a Dr. Pepper that I will acquire later on), along with three gallons of water, my sleeping bag, a pair of flip-flops and assorted odds and ends that I tossed in there along the way.

At 11:30 a.m. we put in below the Woolen Mills dam (which was breached one year later) on the Rivanna River and began our adventure to Richmond.

The Rivanna River was flowing very well. Ruins from the Rivanna’s trade route days could be spotted along the banks and under the water. Remnants of wing dams, hydropower dams for mills, canals, towpaths, and locks can still be seen along the Rivanna from Charlottesville to Columbia.

At about 16 miles from our put in, near Palmyra, two public camping areas were marked on the map. The first one was on an island and the second was on the right bank, past the island. We stopped at the island, which had obviously been camped on (LNT hasn’t made it this far, I guess), and stayed the night.

Come back next week for Part 2.