Do you live in the Lynchburg area? If you do, JRA wants to give you a Free Rain Barrel!

Rain barrels waiting for their new homes!

Thanks to funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and a partnership with Lynchburg Grows, JRA is offering the first 100 certified River Hero Homes in the Lynchburg area one free rain barrel per household! 

Why become a River Hero Home?

Even if you can’t see the James River – or any body of water – from your house, your actions still impact the health of the James River and its tributaries.  Every time it rains, fertilizers and herbicides, bacteria from pet waste, chemicals and sediment flows from your property into local waterways.  This pollution results in everything from cloudy water to algae blooms and can make our waterways unsafe for swimming and fishing.

What do you need to do?

You can become a River Hero Home by completing 3 simple steps, many of which you may be doing already.  These steps, which include installing a river friendly practice such as rain barrels and everyday actions such as picking up after your pet and reducing fertilizer use, may seem trivial, but they can all have significant impacts on water quality. Simply fill out the on-line application and send us a picture of your river friendly practice. 

If you don’t already have a River Friendly Practice installed, you can use your free barrel to qualify!  Simply submit your application now and send us a photo after your barrel is installed. Once we receive your application, we will contact you and send you your certification materials. And if you are one of the first 100 homes in the Lynchburg area to qualify, we will send you a certificate for you to pick up your free rain barrel at Lynchburg Grows!

Regardless of whether you already qualify or if you will be using your free barrel as your river friendly practice, please make sure to enter the word “Lynchburg” in the box on the application that asks if you are attending a rain barrel event.

Rewards

In addition to one free rain barrel for Lynchburg residents, every certified home receives an attractive garden flag and window cling with the River Hero Home logo, access to a dedicated Google group and newsletter, and an invitation to the annual River Hero Home Lawn Party.  Members also receive exclusive discounts at participating local garden shops and nurseries. Finally, depending on where you live, becoming a certified River Hero Home may also help you qualify for stormwater rebates or credits offered by your locality.

Part III—From Flooded to Fantastic!

By Linda Mills, JRA River Hero Home

If you’ve been following the saga (see August 26 and September 16) of how our runoff-laden yard was transformed last summer from homely to healthy, here is the final installment. Because of grant money distributed and monitored by the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, we welcomed three fabulous projects into our landscape. The wonderful guys from Greener Landscapes (paul@greenerlandscapes.com, 804-432-3623) worked with us to produce a rain garden, a BayScape and a patio of permeable pavers.

Backyard flood plain.

The area in the photo below was the “flood plain” behind our house. The gate (left side of photo) exits to the alley. When it would rain hard, water would pour off the several pitches of our roof, overflow the rain barrels (yes, two rain barrels), and wash through this area as it rushed toward the alley. Once in the alley (that actually has ruts from the flowing water), the runoff flowed into the street, consequently making its way to Reedy Creek a block away.       

To fix this substantial runoff issue, the contractors dug down about 14 to16 inches with a backhoe. (They also dug out the rain garden while the backhoe was there.) The ground was hard clay. You can see from the photo below, that after several heavy rains, the water did not drain. At all! (Remember how it just kept raining early in the summer?) We christened this area “The Pit.” Because this was the last project to be completed, this lovely muddy mess sat for several weeks. We thought about stocking it with fish. A friend recommended buying a canoe so we could take out the trash.

The Pit

But eventually, the rains stopped and it was time to focus on The Pit. The first step was to dump a load of large-gauge rocks in the bottom. The second load of rocks was a bit smaller gauge. The third load was an even smaller gauge, like medium gravel. It exhausted me just to watch the Greener Landscape guys move those rocks. Talk about aerobic exercise!

Once the gravel was in place, the really exciting stuff began. For the pavers, we chose tumbled bluestone. We wanted a natural feel instead of a more precise brick look. The stones the fellows chose were beautiful. We purchased about ½ ton of extra stone, not included in the grant money, so that we could extend the path slightly. (A half ton sounds like a lot, but it was only about six rocks!)

Paul, the rock expert on the team, artistically placed each piece of tumbled bluestone in the precise best spot, taking into account both the look of the pattern and the practically of the design. Paul leveraged and leveled the stones into the smaller gravel with enough space between them (about two inches) to allow water to drain into the gravel. He is an artist and an engineer!

According to Jacob Bauckman at Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, designing the patio with larger spaces between the stones was the best solution for our particular problem. If we had used bricks or pavers with narrower gaps between them, we might have still had runoff, especially as the gaps “filled in” after a few years. There were no new plantings in the area, but we did weed, trim and mulch. We are overwhelmed with how beautifully it turned out. And when it pours? No water runs off the property. Win, win!

         

Fabulous and functional!

But what happened to all that extra dirt that was dug from the rain garden and The Pit?  There was a lot of dirt to deal with. But the Greener Landscapes fellows had done this before. They took the dirt from the two excavated areas and used it to construct the berms for the BayScape. It was the perfect solution—there was no dirt dumped into the landfill and it gave us this lovely flowing berm around the outside of our fence. The BayScape was planted with our choice of interesting and colorful native plants, including sweet bay magnolia and service berry. Other perennials included bee balm, rudbeckia, wild geranium, giant purple hyssop and Virginia sweetspire. We also are looking forward to fresh blueberries next summer from our own native bushes—if we can beat the native birds and squirrels to them.

BayScape berm (foreground and background)
as the plants were going in

Now that all three of our projects are complete—a rain garden, a BayScape and a patio of permeable pavers, we are thrilled with the results. Our runoff has decreased substantially, if not totally.  We’re glad to know that we are earning our River Hero Home status more than ever by not contributing runoff to Reedy Creek, and therefore the James River. As we tend our new rain garden and BayScape, and anticipate the gorgeous blooms of next spring and summer, we are also gratified that native plants and wildlife call our yard home.

Meet the Queen of Halloween: the Black Widow Spider

by Angie Williams, JRA Database and Web Coordinator

photo by Peter Baer

As Halloween draws close, yards in your neighborhood may become littered with ghosts, zombies and huge creepy-crawly spiders in order to strike fear into the hearts of young and old alike. Although the majority of spiders in Virginia do not cause harm to humans, there are a few that do. One of the most known, fitting perfectly into the all-black Halloween theme, is the Black Widow.

Black widows (Latrodectus mactans) are so named for their black coloring and because females often kill and eat their ‘spouse’ after mating.  These spiders can be easily identified by the red hourglass shaped mark on the underside of their abdomens.

The venom of the black widow is reported to be much more potent that rattlesnake or cobra venom. Although it is rare for a healthy human adult to receive a fatal dose, in the event of a bite, it is recommended to receive medical attention immediately. The venom may cause muscle aches, nausea, and difficulty breathing. Very rarely does their bite cause death in humans; this is mostly due to the development of antivenin. Fortunately, improvements in household plumbing have reduced the incidence of bites to humans!

photo by Jeremy Hall

The black widow preys on a variety of insects and sometimes other arachnids. This makes them carnivorous and cannibalistic!  When their prey has become ensnared in their web, they wrap it in silk and deliver a deadly bite with their fangs. The venom takes approximately ten minutes to take effect. Once the prey has stopped moving, the spider injects it with digestive enzymes that liquefy the dead body so it can be sucked up by the spider.

These spiders are partial to dark areas and wood piles, so this fall when stacking wood or clearing areas take care not to be the black widow’s next victim.

References:

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/black-widow-spider/

http://a-z-animals.com/animals/black-widow-spider/

If you aren’t one of JRA’s River Hero Homes, here’s what you missed!

By Michelle Kokolis, JRA Watershed Restoration Project Manager

On Saturday, September 28, one hundred of our certified River Hero Home owners and their families gathered under the stars at Cross Creek Nursery in Chesterfield for the First Annual River Hero Home Lawn Party.  The party was JRA’s way of saying “thank you” to all the dedicated homeowners who have taken steps to keep runoff and pollution out of the James River and its tributaries.  It was also a way for us to thank all of the businesses that support our program and offer discounts to certified homes.

JRA receives a lot of support from local businesses and it is important for us to return this support whenever possible, so we focused on utilizing small, local vendors.  Guests were treated to a BBQ and fried chicken dinner from David Napier’s White House Catering, as well as local beer from Hardywood Park Craft Brewery and popsicles from the King of Pops.  In an effort to create as little waste as possible, we served water, tea lemonade and beer in reusable, commemorative cups and didn't offer anything bottled.

The River Whyless, a four-piece folk-rock band from Asheville, NC provided the music. And they were fabulous! The evening also included a plant swap during which participants brought plants from home and traded them in on plants brought by others. There was a raffle featuring prizes from some of the local vendors that support River Hero Homes.

We would like to thank everyone who came out to make our first River Hero Home party such a great success!  We would also like to offer a special thank you to Cross Creek Nursery for allowing us to use their amazing space, and to Glen Allen Nursery, Yardworks, Twigs Garden Center and H2o Collect for providing some great raffle items!

We hope that everyone had as much fun as we did and we hope to see you – and many new River Hero Home owners – at next year’s party!

Top 10 Inspirational Nature Quotes from James River Ecology School Students

by Jessica Templeton, JRA Education Manager

The James River Ecology School on Presquile National Wildlife Refuge is a place where time seems to stand still. Typical everyday distractions like cell phones, city sights and sounds are left behind and soon long forgotten by students who visit Presquile. Even after only a couple days of hands-on experiences in the field, exploring and learning about the intricacies of the natural world, students leave feeling inspired.

On an overnight program, we ask students to reflect on their experience and capture their thoughts about their time on Presquile in a quote. Those who choose to can place their quote in our anonymous Ecology School quote box.  In their own words, here are the top 10 inspiration quotes and moments from students during this past spring season at the Ecology School:

1.       When you connect to nature, you disconnect from troubles.

2.       Respect yourself, respect others, respect the world you live in, and everything else will fall into place.

3.       Nature, a simple word with vast amounts of greatness and beauty.

4.       We are not above nature – we are just one organism amongst millions, why shouldn’t we respect it?

5.       Sometimes you just need to stop whatever you are doing and just think, breath, and appreciate.  Appreciate the beauty of the world around you.  Savor the moment, before it is too late.

6.       Never does one feel more lonely than when sitting in nature, yet there is unity in the loneliness.

7.       Nature is neato.

8.       Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

9.       Any place can be good, but the people there make it great.

10.   You will never know the true degree of our connection and dependence on this planet until you experience nature itself, until you build that essential relationship. This, such an easy and quick action of the mind, will truly impact everything you do.  Just as human relationships constantly evolve so does that between man and nature.

I expect as these students grow and progress in life, they will find inspiration in their words well past, but still influence by, their time at the Ecology School. Maybe, even one day, we will find their words inscribed on the boardwalk planks at an environmental education center helping to inspire youth much like they too were inspired by what they saw during their stay on Presquile.