Chesterfield County, Virginia Parks and Recreation, 25 Jan 2023

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From YouTube: January 25, 2023 - Environmental Stewardship Update - FOLAR Trails (3/3) - BOS Meeting.

Description

Segment (3/3) FOLAR Trails provided the Board with an update on various environmental stewardship topics that conserve, protect, and promote the Appomattox River for all to enjoy.

A

B

Good afternoon, chairman board members uh we're going to keep it clean. Our talk, cleans e how's that.

C

It just gets better I'm.

B

Wendy Austin executive director of friends of the lower Appomattox River I'm here with Heather barrar who's, really going to present the meat of the information she's. Our director of Trails program, folars Regional, Trails program director we've got to get her a shorter title also here with Virginia PV. Our um Communications and development director and I'm, pretty sure watching from above virtually is Kim Connolly. Our amazing Chesterfield County appointed a member of the folar board of directors.

B

Thank you for inviting us to present on the progress of our work toward achieving our mission to conserve, protect and promote the Appomattox River for all you're, going to get some very lovely photographs too. So you should be calm and relaxed after all, this for 22 years, starting as Grassroots all volunteer program of the crater planning, district commission and now an independent non-profit organization. Volar is the only organization of its type in the region.

B

We seek this vision where all benefit from a welcoming, beautiful, blueway Greenway full art of recent years has been focused on building the 25 mile long, Appomattox, River, Trail and park system really at the assistance of our community members.

B

The underpinning of folar's work, however, is in building. The trail is to the protect the land underneath it and surrounding it. In order to protect the view said, improve the water quality and provide native habitat.

B

Full our service area includes the six jurisdictions along the Appomattox River, lower Appomattox River. It includes the Tri-Cities Colonial, Heights, Hopewell Petersburg and then Three Counties, Chesterfield, Dinwiddie and Prince George. We also have several large institutions that we serve or are in within the region. That's uh Fort Lee, not the National, Park Service and Virginia State University I want to mention that all of the six jurisdictions have passed official resolutions of support of the Appomattox River Trail through their jurisdictions. So we very much appreciate that.

B

Our board of directors, we have a unique arrangement for our board of directors, which include appointed and elected by our other board members representatives from each of the six jurisdictions, as well as the institutions and then also um residents from the from the community. So this has helped us continue our work for 22 years and they also provide expert subject matter. Knowledge and information, we're very fortunate to have these board members um with that, the opportunity to accelerate the work.

B

um Oops. Sorry I missed one.

B

As I noted, uh our Focus has been building the Appomattox River Trail and park system, which we know from so many other Trail systems. Successful, completed Trail systems around the world that, when it's complete, it will transform our region to one of the best Urban Suburban places for not only the people of our community, but also for the plants, animals, birds and fish, who also call the Appomattox River blueway Greenway home. Our work is complex.

B

It is informed and guided by data and planning and implemented through Partnerships collaboration and cooperation. Also important and folar's work is to manage and Lead that and together we are getting this Trail done and Heather is going to come up and tell you a bit more about the details of that.

D

Good afternoon, it's great to be here. Thank you so much for your support over the years I'm going to give you a programmatic and uh update on some on the ground projects that we have going on. So as Wendy mentioned, planning really is the foundation of our work at folar, and, if you remember in 2017, we led the effort for the first Appomattox River Trail master plan and signage plan. Again, all six jurisdictions have adopted that it's been incorporated into all the comprehensive plans.

D

I mean it really leads the location of where the trail will go and what the sign system will look like for the whole region. After we completed that plan in 2017, we really took a step back and started looking at the environmental side and the environmental impacts, and so we've taken some Coastal um some climate change courses to make sure anything we're building will be sustainable for those future climate change conditions.

D

We were included in the state's first Coastal Roseanne's master plan really excited to have that project highlighted to really show that relationship between Green, Space, Public, Access and Coastal resilience can all be together. uh We also have a land conservation plan, first time where we've taken a regional look at land conservation to see what has been conserved along the Appomattox River, and all this data has been informed by best practices in local data. So I wanted to share with you. The local data from our Trail counts.

D

Crater health district had funding to purchase counters for the south side of the river, so we partnered with Chesterfield County to make sure we're buying the same counter system that is already located in Chesterfield. So now our data is the same counter system, the same methodology. So we can combine that data on an annual basis and look at the trail usage along all six localities and we have a pretty good, steady count. We produce a report every single year. Each part gets its own report.

D

So again, all the data we produce on a regional scale is fed back to each locality and they can use on the local level as they need.

D

uh So we talked a little bit already today about conservation, easements and land acquisition, and that really is the um the. What we're doing right now to build the Appomattox, River, Trail and I, say on here. Partnerships are the key and absolutely we could not do this work alone.

D

um We are, are constantly working with all the localities. The battery Foundation Capital Region Land Conservancy, took the lead this year on the Greenwood acquisition, which was in not only Chesterfield County but also Colonial, Heights and uh Petersburg. I think you're going to see a little more about that later.

D

um Radcliffe Conservation Area, expanded by 74 acres and so like we talked about all this land. Is you know great for tree canopy and air quality and water quality, but also Public Access. You know we really are trying to make sure that we get Public Access, so folks can get out there and experience our nature.

D

um You know time and again we here at the state level, local level, water access is what people want. They want to fish, they want to put a boat in. They want to look at the water, so um you know improving water. Access is just something that I think we'll keep on hearing from our citizens and we'll keep on adding to in our system.

D

So this is just the last two years how many acres we've added um to the Appomattox River for public access, and we have a few Acquisitions underway right now um that we're really excited about. But it's not good enough just to get the land we have to manage that land, it's a resource, just like any resource. We have to manage it, and we are really pleased that we've been awarded by Department of Forestry funding to hire a staff member to really just focus on invasive species management native native plants. But she doesn't do that.

D

She does that with citizens. So her role really is plants and citizens together, trying to bring folks out to the river and making sure we are managing our Resource. As Ted just said, we can't do it alone. You know, there's not enough staff at folar, not enough staff at the counties, so our citizens are helping us and they're learning. So we had an event. Last Saturday we already had citizens say great I went home, I identified Wisteria at my house, I'm going to start removing it at home. So that is really the great knowledge right.

D

People can learn stewardship with us at our local parks. They can take it home, continue that stewardship on their own property, and we do this in partnership with all sorts of groups. This is the Governor's School environmental Club, helping uncover a historic resource that was covered by invasive species. We work with the Pocahontas chapter, the master naturalist, located here in Chesterfield. We work with your Master Gardeners and your extension agents and the swelling water district. So we are really really excited that this program has a full-time staff soon to to Really lead these efforts.

D

The other thing we're doing this in this grant this year, that is going to be a benefit for Chesterfield, is developing an invasive species management plan for every single public park on the Appomattox River. So the James River Park system has a similar plan, so we'll be developing one we'll be.

D

uh You know looking at how many invasives are out there and what the method is to control them and then in Partnership together we'll figure out how to start maintaining those and that's just going to really help maintain not only our assets but make better biodiversity for the area. So this is just a program that I'm so so happy that we are able to expand and grow.

D

So, let's transition a little to that Appomattox River Trail that Wendy mentioned 25 miles from the dam at Lake, shesden all the way to Hopewell, where the Appomattox meets the James. We do Envision this to be a blue way and a Greenway. You can paddle, you can fish, you can walk, you can push a stroller or use a wheelchair and- and we are looking at all these six localities of course, 25 miles is a lot, so our Focus really is these Western seven miles.

D

The Western Seven Mile starts at I-95, Pocahontas, Island and Petersburg already Trail in Colonial Heights side, and that seven miles goes all the way to Radcliffe Conservation Area.

D

um We have one left, one private land on our left- that we are working with right now to acquire that property, we'll have seven clear miles of public access and what we've heard from our partners at the Capitol Trail is once you get seven miles, that's kind of the Tipping Point to get tourism to get local folks out, using that as a good 15-mile bike ride and what's really unique about these seven miles, is we have both rural Matoaca and Dinwiddie biking all the way to Petersburg or South Park mall?

D

So we have the urban kind of downtown areas and we have the rural areas linked by these seven miles, which would be really really great for tourism opportunities. Once we get that last land acquisition, we can really start on improving the Seven Mile Stretch I'm, going to hand it back to Wendy to drill down a little farther west on a project I.

B

Get to jump up for one slide and say uh with you know, we are very excited I, get to tout our success uh with accelerating this work, to transform the Western entrance of the entire 25 Mile blueway Greenway through uh the um ignition of all this private funding that we've been able to bring together toward this project so that really we've we've been working 20 years. But this kind of financial investment is what has been able to move us forward this.

B

This project, we're we're working especially closely in partnership with Chesterfield and Dinwiddie, and Prince George on, is transforming the Western entrance. It involves three uh sort of uh separate but interconnect acting parts. We are working to improve the existing Ferndale Appomattox Riverside Park the expand and improve the Appomattox River trail that runs through there and then also create a brand new Appomattox River connector bicycle pedestrian, River Crossing between Chesterfield and Dinwiddie and again Heather has the details.

D

Thank you Wendy, so uh you can see here. uh Camera Cabo foundation and and Cameron Foundation really were on the kickstarter funds for for this project, and we appreciate their support so quickly. Let's look at Ferndale Park, which is just south of Matoaca. You cross the Ferndale bridge and it's right there. It's a park, that's been a park since 1900 people used to take trolleys and ferries to get here from Petersburg or the Mills at Matoaca, and it's got a great footprint.

D

It just needs a little bit of love, and so we last year took the year to master plan. With some of the funding Wendy mentioned, we had Community input meetings. All the park. Staff from the whole region has been involved, and now we have a master plan keyed up with the phasing plan ready for investment, so this just south of matoka will be a great asset for Matoaca residents as well as Dinwiddie and Chester in um Petersburg.

D

So that is part one Ferndale Park part two is two miles of trails, so our trail goes a mile to the East and a mile to the west from Ferndale, and then the third part is the arc or the Appomattox River connector. That Wendy mentioned I'm going to go into a little bit more detail on this. For you, this is a new structure over the river connecting Dinwiddie and Chesterfield County.

D

It's a structure, you'll be able to bike or walk or gather on, and it's a place to connect with each other and connect to Nature as Barbara calling it. The connector uh quickly just want to show you a map to make sure we're all oriented and in southern Chesterfield.

D

So you can see the village of Matoaca the site of Appomattox River connector is a mile and a half up, River from the Ferndale Bridge or a mile south of Brazil Dam at the East End of bratcliffe Conservation Area, and it connects to Dinwiddie that already has a Canal Trail to that point. So Trail systems existing on both sides of the river already I just want to show you a few pictures of the site. It's a really interesting site. It really has natural beauty, but it also has a lot of man-made structures.

D

This was the Commerce of the 17 and 1800s. There's a canal system still in place. Bateau boats ran up and down the river here. There's a dam still in place. There's these great structures from the lock system. So it's a really cool site where nature is kind of starting to take back from our man-made elements. So it's a really fun place to explore. It'll, be a really great place for the connector for people to interact with all this history from this area.

D

This is also the site of a Dominion power where they got their start and were energy from water was started. So some really really great history here so I'm going to quickly show you a little bit about site design and a little bit about how the structure has been inspired. I want to just say this is conceptual we're in a very conceptual phase. Cameron Foundation did fund the conceptual phase of this project. We are still right in the middle of that and that's been a committee process with Chesterfield County, Dinwiddie folar and Cameron Foundation.

D

The Olin Studios was a firm out of Philadelphia. They were selected after a design competition to lead this effort, so we've been working with them and in fact, last week we had an open house for the community to come out and get their first look.

D

So what I'm going to show you now is the layout of what the connector could look like from overhead you'll notice. It's not one just big big piece right. It has a lot of different pieces to it and that really is inspired by the river itself. The river's braided. You can't stand on one bank and look at the other bank you're, always looking at islands, always looking at different River channels, so the connector itself is really inspired by the river.

D

It has many pieces, the orange piece is the spine or where you can bike and walk across, but it has ever other areas where you can gather like the blue area. The green area gives you a place to kind of meander, and the red area will take you up to a high elevation and Radcliffe Conservation Area and give you some different views. So really it's a it's a really unique structure that can give people a lot of different opportunities to connect with the river connect with nature, something you can't do anywhere else in this region.

D

um You know you can't really get to the water like this and really have an experience like this, and so the structure itself has been inspired by that history I mentioned. So the bateau like I said, is that that historic vessel that was used to take Goods, Up and Down the River, and you can see on the left, that is a bateau and on the right. That is an artist rendering of what the this connector could look like and you'll see It'll be made out of wood. It has that curvature like a bat toe.

D

It has that wooden that wooden ribbing and even that canopy you see overhead, is inspired by history. Some of the old photos show canopies on bateaus to protect the goods, so that shade structure for us in the future is actually inspired by a bat. Toe I have one more image to show you. This is how it could function, a bike lane in the middle, so people who want to move a little faster through the site and you know really use that as a transportation piece can.

D

But if you want to stop and sit on a bench or look at the water sit under some shade, there's going to be a lot of options for that kind of use of the connector I want to also point out that it has a single Pier structure and those single Piers really do help with environmental impacts and reduce visual impacts on the site and also take into account paddlers use this site. So there's less impact for people who are paddling through the site. Lots of sight.

D

Considerations have gone into this process and it's been a really good process working as a committee and with the Olin team to get to this point. So does this one one final image of the connector for you? This is another artist rendering you can see Chesterfield to the north and Dinwiddie to the South, and um you know the many benefits that a project like this can address and all of our all of our projects at full are. We feel like address all of these attributes.

D

You know Transportation mental and physical health, education for the outside and really just providing an incubator site for entrepreneurs. So um we're really excited about this project.

D

Like I said we're still in the conceptual phase, you will see it moving along I'm sure we'll be back with more updates on this project, but just wanted to make sure you were aware of this project at that Western entrance so quickly, I'm, just going to finish up with what's happening in the rest of the region, so you guys know that all six localities are doing their part, so I have two sites in Petersburg, I want to mention. The first is just south of Campbell's Bridge right across from VSU. This is our newest Overlook.

D

We opened in 2021, and some of you came out for that celebration uh and it's it was all privately funded. Folar led the project on behalf of the City of Petersburg, and it has seen great use from those counters. We know that it's getting more use than it had before. We've got a lot of VSU students who come out and use it and study carry books.

D

One of the sororities has a free little Library out there we have native plant Gardens, it's getting just a lot of use for the community, so we know as you improve sites. You can see that before you know, as you improve, you do get more use at these sites, the other site in Petersburg that we know will interest. You is the intersection to the fall line, so the fall line, Trail does uh start or begin.

D

You know mile zero is in Petersburg right there across from Virginia State University Fuller has been at the table during the entire planning process working very closely with VDOT. We are very excited that the southern section was chosen for funding and we'll be getting started this year.

D

um The Appomattox River Trail will connect to the fall line on the North and the South Bank, so Colonial Heights will make a connection to the fall line near VSU and then Petersburg will make connections to the fall line um on the South Bank going in both directions.

D

We like I, said, are at the table with this, and we do have some transportation funding secured for Patton Park to make sure we have a good Trailhead for both the fall line and the Appomattox River Trail, as we think this will really be a hub for the region for these major Trail systems and then finally, just to wrap up in our Eastern localities, Hopewell, Colonial, Heights and Prince George. If you have not been to the Riverwalk here, is a picture I urge you guys to check out this great asset in the city of Hopewell.

D

um It will be extended this year, it's fully funded to be extended from its current Terminus, all the way to the Hopewell City Marina. So it's going to go underneath Route 10, as you're leaving Chesterfield you'll, be able to see it from the bridge and that will be starting this year. In addition, city of Hopewell also is doing a bike. Lane Network they're able to install all their bike Lanes at once for their entire city. We've been part of that project and that will also be part of the appomax river trail.

D

We have to come off the riverfront when we get to Hopewell.

D

um You know it's already developed in Hopewell, so our River, our Trail, will come off and be on road for a little bit through Hopewell in Colonial Heights they're, extending their existing trail system, East almost to Temple Avenue, that's fully funded and should be underway this year and then finally, I'm Prince, George folar has secured some private funding, as well as some funding with Prince George County to improve the entrance to that Park improve the parking lot signage and again have some new environmental assets with the native plant pollinator Garden, so projects in all six localities.

D

We are so pleased to have your support of, what's going on in your partnership and I'm happy to be an environmental partner with you guys, I'm going to hand it back to Wendy to wrap up.

B

Last couple of slides just to say that, in addition to all of that technical work and building the trail, we're also in providing opportunities for engagement with the community, because that's so important to have folks be able to access the river and then be part of its care. So you see here A year of planned events, we host them on our own and then partner with great Partners, like j-rack James, River advisory Council. Thanks for your support of that uh just Chesapeake Bay Foundation many others. So we are again working in partnership with our communities.

B

So, in closing, as you see, the work to protect the Appomattox River blueway Greenway is constant, as are the threats and the challenges brought by nature and by people by by even us. We have to say very cognizant of what we are affecting on the river all of this infrastructure, as well as new infrastructure to remove water for use. So it is work that we do best with our Partnerships and we will continue to do that work to ensure that the river is beautiful and accessible for everyone for generations to come.

B

So we appreciate again your partnership and would welcome you on a tour of the river trail anytime. Thank you. Thank.

C

You any questions. Thank you for that very comprehensive presentation to the community. Hopefully a lot of people if they didn't get a chance to watch it, we'll watch it later and see what is going on all through southern Chesterfield County, to provide, what's going to be a tremendous uh amenity for the whole community board members. Anything we're good.

C

Thank you very much.

E

So if there are no other questions from the board, we will close this work session with a short video. Thank you.

F

It's actually a very special place when you think about the history of the Appomattox River, when you think about the settlement that was created in Ettrick. The acquisition that Capital Region, Land Conservancy shepherded and have been partnered with the county has helped to acquire about 40 acres. It's an opportunity to take back the land and restore it to more of a natural area while respecting its history and to give access to the population to be able to come down to the river again. There's a lot of ecology.

F

There's a lot of biodiversity, there's about 500 species that are right in this general area. So the fact that we're able to save this area for the Wildlife bring the public access to it and interpret the history has so many layers when you think about Travelers who will go to destinations to be able to get Outdoors. This is the perfect destination site.

G

I was approached by the county about a walking trail along the river and asked if I would sell them at walking trail. We see Eagles down there, we see Otto, we see.

G

As a family have probably enjoyed for the last 35-40 years,.

A

H

What's called a power purchase agreement which is a contract to install solar panels on our facilities and so far we have 16 facilities identified four solar panels and what that does will allow us to offset some of the energy costs.

H

The good thing about this project is that there's no upfront cost the vendor is supplying the panels and, if there's any maintenance, that needs to be done really a great win-win opportunity for us to be able to help with the sustainability program, but also be able to get electricity at a cheaper cost and also it's a clean energy source. There's no carbon emissions from it. We're capturing the sun. It aligns with our environmental sustainability and stewardship program. It's the right thing to do it and it's a great educational opportunity.

I

Thank you, so the LG Sonic unit is a technology. That's been developed to help us Monitor and control blue green algae, so what it does is it has sensors on it that allow us to to get real-time data on water quality. In addition to that, it also sends out ultrasound at specific frequencies to prevent the blue-green algae from overgrowing, because blue green algae can cause taste and odors, and they can also cause microtoxins in the water so to try to control them is to the benefit of Chesterfield County.

I

The unit that we got this year is special in the fact that it can go up and down the water column. It can go down all the way down to the bottom of the reservoir, so being able to go throughout the water column gives us a better picture of what's going on with blue-green algae, it's called vertical profiling, and this is actually the first one. That's been installed in the United States.

I

J

Coordinate the adopt-a-spot program where volunteers can can sign up to pick small sections of roadway, a neighborhood to help keep litter cleaned up, we'll Supply bags vests and the Grabbers. We even collect the bags after they pick it up. It just helps it keeps litter out of the drain and keeps our storm Waters clean anything that's thrown out in the street and roadways heading to some kind of water source.

J

um We want to keep it out of the rivers and the streams I really enjoy that when the volunteers take pride in their own communities, working with the public in that aspect is very rewarding to help control the litter throughout the county. In 2022, the programs we manage collected over 130 tons of litter and debris, I thought that was a pretty significant number.

C

C

Thank you for the presentation, I'm Clark.