Geography of the James (Earth Lodge)

On the day prior to the GeoJames exam, I decided to take a break from the library to lay in the hammocks. The environment of the library can be a bit overwhelming: the sound of clicking on multiple keyboards, the collective exasperated sighs of overly-stressed students. Stressed out by the environment, I decided to leave my belongings in the library, phone and all, and take a walk around the lake and towards the hammocks. As I swing in the bright orange hammock next to the lake, I take in everything around me. The sky was cloudy and gray, and the trees across the lake look somber. The geese and ducks were quietly resting close to the hammocks. Though it was a nice, quiet study break, everything seemed to take on a monochrome color scheme.

Writing in the hammock as I observe my surroundings

Panorama of my perspective+boy fishing in the background

Now I’ve returned to the spot a couple weeks later on a Sunday afternoon and everything seemed much more alive. The sun was out, giving a richer color to everything and reflecting on the ripples of the water created by the calming wind. The trees look more diverse in color as we get deeper into the fall. I observed people making use of the lake. Across from me, there is a boy fishing, trying to throw the line as far as possible into the lake.  Next to me, there is a father and a little girl laughing and playing in the broken hammock. Families huddled in the gazebo to throw bread at the ducks. Many dog owners and joggers ran on the trail and on the bridges around the lake. Even the geese around me were out and about: some made loud screeching noises while others peacefully swam around the lake. I smile at my surroundings, glad to have found such a great place to reflect and collect my mind. Though I had to leave, I am glad to have found a spot to escape the stressful environment of the library.

As I locked my helmet in place and zipped up my PFD and wetsuit, I looked ahead and saw my coworkers, Zach and Natalie, sliding down the stairs in their kayaks and plunging into the James, barely able to contain their excitement to get in the water. I smiled at their energy and my thoughts wandered off…

Picture taken after much struggle to get our kayaks to stay in one direction

As we drove over to Pony Pastures, I noticed multiple signs that said  “Save Reedy Creek”. I had no idea that this many people were affected by the Reedy Creek project. I’ve never seen a collective group of houses stand up for such a cause.  Also, every time I go out to the James, my appreciation for the river grows. Having clean river areas  accessible to the public to enjoy is great, but it made me think back to the Cronan article on how people  are disillusioned by clean areas of nature when the reality is that the James needs as much help as it can get. As a class, we learned about the true state of the James through events such as the tire pick up at the James and trash pick-up at Dutch Gap. As for the majority of the public, people are not as well-informed as they should be.

After the OAR team saddled up to head into the water, the instructor discussed the hydrology of the James River, showing us what to avoid and what to do in certain situations. We practiced maneuvering out of our flipped-over canoes and submerged into the 60 degree water. After going over the formalities and instructions,  we finally started to paddle towards the rapid areas. Personally, I am not the biggest fan of flatwater kayaking, and I was excited to see how different flatwater kayaking to whitewater kayaking.  As we started paddling, I noticed that the boats are extremely sensitive to the wind and flow of the water because they constantly had a tendency to spin around. Combatting the spinning of the kayaks took a lot of energy, so I would lean back on my seat out of exhaustion. As I leaned back, I noticed the clear blue sky. Many trees on both sides of the James River had hues of red and orange, indicating that fall is finally here. I noticed the cranes and tricerageese perched on rocks and roaming around small islands along the river, peacefully enjoying the river as we are ourselves. Thankfully, there was nothing out of place at the James, so there was nothing to report in the RiverRat Patrol form. As we paddled down the final section of the river with aching arms, I felt centered and at peace in nature, enjoying everything around me with all my senses, forever thankful for the river and forever proud to be a River Rat.

Instead of being sound asleep in a warm comfy bed at 8am on a Thursday morning, 2 weeks ago, we were cooped up in a University van, on our way to Reedy Creek.   As we got closer and closer to our final destination, we came across signs upon signs promoting the stopping of the Reedy Creek Restoration. In fact, numerous front yards even hosted 3 or 4 of these signs, as if taunting the officials involved in restoring the Creek to come talk to them and hear what they have to say. The community seemed to be aware of how detrimental this restoration effort could be to their local creek.

One of the many signs we passed on the way

Through the Reedy Creek Restoration, the local government plans to “repair and improve 2200 feet of the creek, restoring the original creek bed while reducing stream bank erosion and nutrient pollution…resulting in a cleaner James River and Chesapeake Bay.” However, as Bill Shanabruch mentioned during our excursion, this plan is unnecessary, as it fails to address the root of the problem—high volumes of sediment-filled stormwater runoff flowing downstream. On top of that, trees will be cut down, park property and historic sites will be destroyed, and tax payer dollars will be wasted on a project that is hard to maintain overtime. It is essentially a lose-lose situation, or, as Parr states, “the Reedy Creek “Restoration” seems to be nothing more than a government project to just “check off the box” and say they did something beneficial, without actually looking into the details.”

Bill Shanabruch in Reedy Creek

Nevertheless, I was extremely impressed by how successful the Reedy Creek Coalition was in spreading word about the restoration. In fact, they were actually the most successful organization in terms of spreading information about a community-involving situation that I have ever seen, as almost every house we passed seemed to have at least one of the “Reedy Creek Stream “Restoration”” signs. As Dr. Forsyth wrote about in his Awareness-Appraisal model, if one is not even aware of something such as the presence of a local stream or river, or, in this case, the presence of a potential restoration effort to a local creek, it is impossible to appraise the situation and then take necessary actions to fight the restoration efforts. In this sense, Reedy Creek Coalition is on the right path to potentially overturning the restoration project.

Reedy Creek

There I was, standing waist deep in the James River, 1½ hours away from campus in Howardsville.

The river was about 3½ feet deep with the current strong, but I did have one hand on a fallen branch to hold myself steady against the current. Besides, I was not alone—five other canoes and a batteau were cruising down the River for the same purpose as well.

There I was, standing on a truck tire on the river bottom, still clinging tight to its steel rim.

I was trying to work the toe of my right foot down through a slot in the rim. I figured if I could do that, I could maybe lift it up with my foot just high enough to reach down and grab it with my hand and pull it up. Then, maybe Monica could reach it and we could dunk it under together to get rid of the heaps of clumpy silt molded to the tire’s insides like clay. That way, we could drag it to the bank, hoist it up, and heave it into our canoe, perching it somewhat precariously on top of the five other barnacle-lined tires we found in the last 15 feet of the River.

So it goes during The Annual Tireless James River Cleanup.

The trip was not what I was expecting at all. I was not expecting to see, in the midst of the sycamores, river birches, and white oak lining the banks, a carpet of tires lining the bottom of the James River right after canoeing down Goolsby’s Rapids. I was not expecting to be fully submerged under the clear yet somewhat murky waters of the James to retrieve a tire that I can’t even successfully retrieve because it weighs too much. And finally, I was not expecting to use eight people to pick up one enormous tire the size of a fully grown person .

Goolsby’s Rapids.

A big tire.

It was all for the best though, as it was a very successful and enjoyable cleanup, with the entire group of us retrieving more than 50 tires together and canoeing six miles down the River. I only write this now to say, the next time you ponder tossing a tire into a nearby river, think of me.

Standing waist deep in the James River trying to retrieve it with my feet.

“Save Reedy Creek!” Andrew or Parr yells out once again in class after Todd mentions it. I don’t particularly know much about Reedy Creek, much less why we have to save it. It seems like more of a “I’ll cross that bridge when I get there” sort of thing anyway.

One of the yard signs we saw on the way there.

I get to that bridge at 8am on a thursday morning while eating yogurt out of coffee mug riding along in a university van. Barely keeping my eyes open, we pass house after house with yard signs stating “Reedy Creek “Restoration”” with a big red X through the words. Obviously people are invested in their Reedy Creek, but I still don’t know why.

We jump out of the vans at the end of a cul de sac and find Rachel, Andrew, and a man who introduces himself as Bill Shanabruch. Bill has on a nifty tree identification tshirt and leads us on a jaunt through the woods to a beautiful clearing containing part of the infamous Reedy Creek.

Bill starts a passionate rant about how the local government has the money to put a concrete channel into Reedy Creek that will fix some short term issues, but create more long term ones with erosion, sediment displacement, wildlife, etc. The government thinks that if they have the money to do it, then it should happen. There have been many city council meetings where advocates for Reedy Creek have talked about the detrimental effects that the “restoration” will cause. The response was essentially, “just trust us.” For an environmentally conscious populus, it isn’t quite that simple. There is a lack of data collected on the restoration site, the restoration will destroy park property and the tree canopy, and there will be a permanent loss of historical resources. Additionally, projects similar to this one have seen poor maintenance after the project is completed. We should focus on the root (fun pun) causes of stream degradation first to stop the problem rather than temporarily fixing the result.

On a different note, Bill talked a bit about the upcoming election; all but one of the candidates for city council are against the restoration. I registered to vote in Virginia, so I’m pretty stoked to exercise my right to vote for one of those candidates and do my part to help Save Reedy Creek.

The current condition of Reedy Creek in all of its splendor