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VOF’s first project in Petersburg helps effort to build Appomattox River Trail

The Virginia Outdoors Foundation recently completed its first conservation project in the City of Petersburg—an open-space easement on 4.8 acres owned by Friends of the Lower Appomattox River (FOLAR).

FOLAR’s acquisition is a critical component in the development of the Appomattox River Trail. When completed, the trail will be over 25 miles in length, connecting a rich diversity of historical, cultural, and physiographic areas, stretching from Lake Chesdin in the Piedmont to the James River in the Coastal Plain, where it will connect to historic City Point National Park in the City of Hopewell.

One of several new access points on the Appomattox River created by the FOLAR project.

The acquisition and easement were supported by a $159,000 grant from VOF’s Preservation Trust Fund. The easement requires that the property be permanently accessible to the public for outdoor recreation and education.

“We are thrilled to be a partner in this visionary project, which will provide thousands of citizens with new opportunities to connect to the Appomattox River and nature,” said VOF Executive Director Brett Glymph. “It represents the kind of community-driven conservation that VOF is proud to support.”

The dotted line along the south bank of the river between Battersea and McKenzie Street Park will become a solid line thanks to this project. Across the river is Virginia State University.

“FOLAR is dedicated to conserving and protecting the Appomattox River for all to enjoy,” said Wendy Austin, FOLAR’s Executive Director, “We were very glad to make this happen.”

With its new protected status, the property contributes to several state and local conservation programs. It contains approximately 1,742 feet of shoreline on the Appomattox River, a state-designated scenic river. The Appomattox River Trail is a Regional Featured Project in the 2018 Virginia Outdoors Plan prepared by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. Located within the North Battersea/Pride’s Field National Historic District, the property is also identified as a priority site in the Commonwealth’s ConserveVirginia project under the Cultural and Historic Preservation and Scenic Preservation categories.

FOLAR will use the VOF grant and other funding to make improvements to the property and trail system before conveying the land to the City of Petersburg.

Remnants of arches believed to be connected to an old mill are among the few structures left on the property.

Once completed, the Appomattox River Trail will leverage the growth of the outdoor recreation industry and its beneficial impact on health and wellness in the metro-Richmond region, creating connections between hundreds of miles of regional trail, including the Virginia Capital Trail, James River Park system, the East Coast Greenway, and the proposed Ashland-to-Petersburg trail.

Learn more about the Appomattox River Trail project at https://folar-va.org/projects/appomattox-river-trail-and-signage-master-plan/.

Lee Woodruff Blueway/Dogwood Trail Improvement, Prince Edward County

Jay Wilkerson, horticulturalist for the town of Farmville, manages the trees, shrubs, flower beds and planters all over town. It’s a big undertaking, especially in Farmville, which has qualified as a Tree City USA, for the past 17 years. Tree Cities help increase public awareness about urban trees as green infrastructure and must meet standards established by the Arbor Day Foundation. These include maintaining a tree board that is legally responsible for all trees on city- or town-owned property, passing a public tree-care ordinance, observing a yearly Arbor Day separate from the nationally observed one, and budgeting for a minimum $2.00 per capita expenditure on urban forestry.

Wilkerson saw an opportunity to stretch Farmville’s tree budget in 2020, when he noticed erosion on the banks of Buffalo Creek, a tributary of the Appomattox River that runs through town, and applied to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation’s Appomattox River Fund. Set up in 2019, the limited fund worked to mitigate the loss of riparian trees on a VOF easement in Amelia County. Grant applicants had to demonstrate that their project would enhance water quality in the Appomattox River watershed.

The trees line a new trail segment and bridge that connect downtown Farmville along Buffalo Creek to the local hospital, then to the Sarah Terry Walking Trail, which winds around Wilck’s Lake and links several parks.

“That area along Buffalo Creek was already prone to flooding, but at the time they were building a pedestrian bridge and some new hard-surface trails there, which added to the problem,” he explains. To prevent erosion and improve water quality, Wilkerson used the grant to buy and plant a variety of river birch, a Virginia native, between the new trail and the creek. River birches do well in flood plains, he says. “Because the area floods, we needed to make sure we chose trees that would survive in those conditions.”

Erosion control is just one of the benefits of trees in the urban landscape, he adds. “Green infrastructure in the form of trees and shrubs addresses a wide range of issues, including heat islands, sound pollution and water run-off. You also get a lot of habitat for wildlife.”

The trees are doing well, he adds. “They started out small, in the three- to four-foot range. Now they’re about 12-15 feet tall.” Eventually the trees will reach 30-40 feet.

Trees are an investment, he adds, and it takes time for that investment to mature. “The initial contribution from Virginia Outdoors Foundation was the start of what will be a huge asset. Farmville will continue to nurture that investment.”

For more information on the Tree City USA designation and other urban forestry recognition programs in Virginia, visit the Virginia Department of Forestry website.

New River Wildlife and Conservation Club, Grayson County

August is Clean River Month in Grayson County, but almost every month of the year holds opportunities to get out and enjoy the river and the wildlife it supports, all thanks to the New River Wildlife and Conservation Club (NRWCC). Its 32-acre property is open to the public for river cleanups in August and fly-fishing clinics, hunter education courses, field-to-table workshops, mountain crafts workshops, nature walks, kayaking lessons, and floats throughout the year.

The club protected the property with an open-space easement donated to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation in 2006. The parcel is special, NRWCC’s president Keith Andrews says, because of the diversity of habitats it encompasses. “You have the river frontage, and that’s one ecosystem,” he explains. “Then, a little inland, there’s a vernal pond. And then there’s the meadow, which just in the past year we’ve made a conscious effort to let grow more naturally so that it is more open to butterflies and other pollinators.” From there an upland forest takes over, he adds, “So people can see it all.”

The NRWCC advocated for the August designation and saw it adopted by the county board of supervisors in 2021. The designation means that the county pledges to work with organizations like the NRWCC to increase awareness of what the river has to offer and to promote and support cleanup efforts every August. “It’s our biggest conservation project,” says Andrews. “In August of 2021, we teamed with groups of corporate volunteers to remove 231 tires from the river. This year with volunteers we were able to remove over 200 tires again.”

The cleanups are just one part of NRWCC’s work. They also host citizen science training seminars like the Water Watchers Certification Clinic in partnership with New River Conservancy, and the Fish of the New Clinic in partnership with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. Their objective, says Andrews, is “to start developing the next generation of stewards for the New.”

Andrews tells the story of one of those new stewards, a 9-year-old who was recognized for her participation in August clean-up activities with a Clean River Stewardship Award at the club’s winter gathering. The awards were covered in the local paper. “This young lady, when she saw her picture in the paper, she was so proud of it that she took it to show-and-tell for her class the day after it came out,” Andrews says. “That’s how you start building stewardship.”

Public events for Fall 2023 include a full program of hunter education classes, a club-sponsored kayak trip, an open house and nature walk and, in time for the holiday season, a folk toymaking workshop.

For more details about these and other events on the property, NRWCC has posted Fall 2023 Big Events calendar on their Facebook page.

11 projects awarded grants from Coastal Resilience and Tree Fund

Wetlands Watch and the Virginia Outdoors Foundation recently announced that $68,073 has been awarded to 11 projects from the second round of the Coastal Resilience and Tree Fund (CRTF).

CRTF grants support implementation of resilient practices and enhance the ability of organizations and government agencies to plan for future implementation of resiliency projects within the coastal zone. Project that are eligible for funding include those that:

Achieve increased resilience to flooding, sea level rise, and extreme weather events in Virginia’s coastal communities.
Increase tree canopy in the Coastal Zone and raise awareness of the value of trees as a best management practice and component of resiliency.
Raise public awareness about the role of nature-based solutions in improving community resilience.
Enhance the ability of organizations and government agencies to plan and implement resiliency projects within the Coastal Zone.

VOF provides funding for CRTF and Wetlands Watch administers the grants. Learn more at https://wetlandswatch.org/coastal-resilience-trees-fund.

Project titles, descriptions, and award amounts are detailed below.

CAPACITY BUILDING PROJECTS

Aberdeen Gardens Museum Drainage / Water Project – $2,500

Design of a demonstration site to showcase the benefits of a rain garden. To improve the drainage and water removal from Historical Museum property. Focuses on establishing and maintaining planting and maintaining proper drainage. This will help stabilize grounds, mitigate erosion, and provide natural buffers against storms and flooding.

SHORELINE PROTECTION PROJECTS

Savage Neck Dunes Erosion Education and Reduction – $7,943

Savage Neck Dunes Natural Area Preserve is a very popular publicly open area owned by VDCR. Unfortunately, due to both anthropogenic and natural causes, the shoreline is experiencing erosion. This project will install low-impact, cost-effective fencing, ropes, plantings, and signage in the back dunes and shoreline areas to reduce erosion and protect rare habitat and species. Visitors will learn from the interpretive material and incorporate into their actions and decisions in coastal areas.

GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS

Greening Greater Fulton – $10,000

The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay (the Alliance) and partners will construct an accessible, vibrant green street in the Fulton Hill Business District in Richmond, VA. The project will improve water quality in this highly impervious urban area by implementing green stormwater infrastructure practices to treat and capture stormwater runoff and reduce urban heat island impacts while improving Fulton?s climate resiliency.

Weyanoke Shoreline Restoration – $10,000

Completion of restoration of a residential tidal shoreline on Lambert’s Creek along the Elizabeth River Trail, adjacent to the Weyanoke Bird & Wildlife Sanctuary. The homeowners have worked for several years to eradicate phragmites. The goal is to continue to remove the invasives and replant with native wetland species to suppress their return, to provide shoreline stabilization, to improve site resiliency, and to provide for beautification along the ERT.

Courthouse Community UMC Green Infrastructure – $10,000

Courthouse Community United Methodist Church is located in the middle of Virginia Beach adjacent to the rapidly developing Courthouse area. This 6.5 acre property has extensive impervious parking and rooftop and only a few trees in parking lot islands. The property has three retaining ponds to handle storm-water, but they frequently overflow into the parking area and storm-water sometimes reaches the building. The retention ponds were designed to overflow into a City maintained drainage ditch, but the ditch does not have the capacity to drain the church property and all the new development in the area. To make matters worse, nine acres of adjacent forested property on the other side of the drainage ditch is going to have the trees cut down to be developed into additional housing. This project will restore native trees, shrubs, and perennial garden plants on the church property that is currently turf grass, provide additional ground cover plants on eroding parking lot islands, and include two rain barrels to trap some storm-water for use to water plants between rain storms. Adding large native trees and layers of native vegetation will help absorb some of the excess stormwater, prevent erosion, filter run-off, and restore habitat around the church.

STEWARDSHIP PROJECTS

Invasive Plant Removal on Chapel Island, Richmond, VA – $5,000

Since 2014 the James River Association (JRA) has worked with James River Park System (JRPS) Invasive Task Force to coordinate invasive plant removal and habitat restoration at Chapel Island in Richmond. It is now critical to make progress on removing invasive species threatening this local park and riparian corridor through the heart of Richmond. JRA will use a qualified contractor to treat 2 acres of invasives encroaching on existing native species, including native trees planted in 2021.

Eastern Shore Native Plant Public Pollinator Area – $5,000

Two acres of native plant pollinator area will improve soil quality, reduce runoff, and improve infiltration. The pollinators supported will improve overall ecosystem health and resiliency, while also supporting nearby agriculture operations success. Located on public property, clear and engaging interpretive content will inspire the use of native plant species in residential and business landscaping, spreading the impact of the project well beyond the planted two-acre pollinator area.

Stewardship in the ERT Managed Meadow – $5,000

The ERT Foundation will continue to invest in its Managed Meadow to purchase supplies and materials to remove invasive species that have become overgrown in the area. Supplementing the surrounding area with additional seeding of native plants and obtain a seasonal monitoring contract, as well as the addition of two interpretive signs that discuss the habitat conservation, storm water resilience and bioretention in the meadow, illustrating the trail as a storyteller to sea level rise.

Cape Charles Native Habitat Restoration – $5,000

Cape Charles NAP will be restored by removing invasive plants & replacing them with natives. Native plants will reduce runoff, improve infiltration and soil quality, and support pollinators which improve ecosystem health & resiliency. Located on public property, clear & engaging interpretive content will inspire the use of native plant species in residential & business landscaping & encourage erosion-protective trail use, spreading the impact of the project well beyond the project area.

Lynnhaven River NOW Stewardship Project – $5,000

Lynnhaven River NOW has been installing resiliency projects at residential, school, business, faith organization, and public properties throughout Virginia Beach for many years. We average 42 green infrastructure projects a year that require thousands of native trees, shrubs, and perennial plants. The projects include rain gardens, buffers, conservation landscapes, living shorelines, and tree plantings that help reduce erosion, storm-water runoff, and flooding, and also improve habitat in Virginia Beach. Installing and maintaining these projects requires a reliable source of affordable native plants. We have established relationships with local schools that grow plants for us and other native plant installers who donate overstocks to us for use in our projects. We also have farm land that has been made available to us to raise and maintain these donated native plants. This grant will allow us to transport, maintain, transplant, and distribute these plants to be used in new resiliency projects and to maintain existing projects that need replacement plants.

TREE PLANTING PROJECTS

Enhancing Coastal Forestry in the Tidal Rappahannock Watershed – $2,630

Tree planting project on the banks of the tidal Rappahannock River will connect existing forest with recently planted former agricultural fields. Landowners have worked with conservation partners to plant over 15,000 trees in the last 5 years. This project is the linchpin that connects the plantings together.

Brodnax Town Park, Brunswick and Mecklenburg Counties

In a small town like Brodnax, a nice park can be a big deal. So much so that more than half of the town’s 300 residents showed up at a recent kickoff event celebrating upgrades to the town park funded by a 2021 Virginia Outdoors Foundation Get Outdoors Fund grant.

The funding made the park more welcoming to parents and kids of all abilities, by increasing hardscaping that is easier for wheelchairs and strollers to navigate and adding a second picnic table that is ADA compliant. The town was also able to cover both tables with a pavilion to offer shade, install more playground equipment, and replace existing mulch with playground-certified mulch that better cushions falls and passes the “mommy test,” says the town’s mayor, Don Dugger, by not staining kids’ knees and clothes.

“The improvements were all about accessibility and comfort,” he explains. “The park was built in 2015, and we designed it to have more equipment, but at the time there wasn’t enough funding to do everything that we wanted to do.” The lack of shaded areas was also a problem, he adds. “The little kids could play in the sun for a while, but there was nowhere for them or their parents to go to escape it.”

The park is walking distance for most of the town’s residents.

The park is situated in the middle of town next to the post office and a day care center, within walking distance from most residents’ homes. It’s also a convenient rest stop for people hiking the Tobacco Heritage Trail, which runs alongside it. “We knew that the park had more to offer,” Dugger says, “if we could just muster up the ability to add the things that we needed for it to meet its potential. The Get Outdoors grant made that possible.”

Dugger says that the application process was easy, which was a big factor in the town’s ability to apply. “We’re so small it’s hard to compete with bigger places that have a lot of resources devoted to seeking funds. It’s super rewarding that projects like this can be funded through organizations like VOF.”

The park celebration day featured a bounce house, games, and face painting, making it a fun way to introduce Brodnax’s kids to the new park equipment.

He adds that the Get Outdoors grant opened a gateway to other grants that will help the town complete their vision for the park. “Those funds have been a kick-starter for the whole program,” he states. “We got a grant from VDOT and the Tobacco Commission to renovate the old train depot as a trailhead with bathrooms.” The COVID-19 pandemic got in the way of the renovations, however. “Costs went up, so we were only able to get engineering and plansdone. Now we are reapplying to the same grant, asking them look at the project again.”

In the meantime, the town is planning more ways to bring families out to the park. Businesses that donated supplies to the June kickoff event
are already offering to help with future events, Dugger states. “When we said we wanted to have a day for the kids, everyone came through. It’s important to the entire town.”

For more scenes from the celebration, watch the video below:

12 Ridges Vineyard, Nelson County

There’s a spot along the Blue Ridge Parkway, around milepost 25, where the forested viewshed opens up to reveal gently sloping fields studded with grapevines. This is 12 Ridges Vineyard, at 3,300 feet the highest altitude vineyard in Virginia. As owner Craig Colberg will tell you, growing grapes this high is not for the faint of heart. The mountain climate makes for a shorter growing season, and periods of bitter cold in winter or too much rain in the summer can make or break a harvest. “All of the farming that we are doing at this altitude is experimental,” he states. “It’s a big challenge for us.”

Yet, the challenging conditions of these higher elevations—lower temperatures, higher ultraviolet radiation and light intensity, less oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air—also help create distinctive wines that Colberg wants to share with visitors to the property, whose original 361 acres he protected in 2011 with an open-space easement donated to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation. The easement protects the viewshed along the parkway by guaranteeing that the land will remain primarily open space in perpetuity. That’s not only important for the views, Colberg states. “Wine takes time. A vine is a couple of years old before you put it in the ground. And then you have another four years before you get even a modest crop.” Now in its fifth year, 12 Ridges had its first harvest in 2021, releasing its first vintage of Riesling in 2022 and its Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in 2023. A sparkling Blanc du Blanc, made in the traditional double-fermentation method, is a little longer wait; it will be ready to enjoy in 2025. And if the farming is experimental, the production borrows from tradition: 12 Ridges has revived a centuries-old method of creating Riesling grape pomace, a fizzy beverage with a low alcohol content made from the fermented juice from the skins, seeds, and stems left over from the winemaking process.

Visitors can enjoy the wines and the views on the vineyard’s 7,500-square-foot terrace, which is surrounded by the 12 mountain ridges that give the winery its name. Guests are welcome to wander through the grapevines or bring a picnic blanket and pick a spot to enjoy charcuteries, cheeses and dips from the vineyard kitchen. Live music is available some weekends, and pecial events have included a 2022 fall artisan crafts fair and wine and free apple pie on July 4^th.

The vineyard’s inaugural outing of small-batch wines has been very well-received, and Colberg has responded by increasing the acreage planted in vines from 12 to 20. He has also retained the property’s prior function as a cut-your-own Christmas tree farm and has increased the portion of the property planted in Fraser firs. Like the wine, it will take some time to see the fruits of that labor. “Christmas Trees take about ten years before they’re ready to cut,” he says. “So it gives me more incentive to stick around.”

12 Ridges is open to the public from 12-5pm, Thursdays through Sundays. Dogs on a leash are welcome, and there is a swing set for the kids. Visit their Facebook or Instagram page for the latest news and events and their website to sign up for their newsletter.

AT Viewshed from McAfee Knob, Botetourt County

At an elevation of 3,197 feet, with a panoramic view of the Catawba Valley, McAfee Knob is one of the most photographed sites on the Appalachian Trail (A.T.). Yet it wasn’t even included in the original route planned out by trail mappers in in the early 1930s, according to documents recently discovered in the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club’s archives. Instead, the trail was supposed to follow the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains, passing about 15 miles east of the Knob.

Thankfully, members of the just-formed Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club (RATC) convinced master trail planner and chair of the Appalachian Trail Conference (now Conservancy) Myron Avery to reconsider the route, and today hiking to the Knob is considered an essential part of the AT experience, with more than 50,000 hikers a year tackling the moderately difficult ascent.

Today’s RATC is working closely with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) to protect the site and its viewshed as part of a coalition of stakeholders that includes Visit VA’s Blue Ridge, Virginia Tech, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), Roanoke County, the Conservation Fund (TCF), and the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, which has provided $416,200 in grants from VOF’s Forest Core Fund to protect two parcels in Botetourt County, Hogan Hollow and the Rickman property. The two parcels total over 350 acres, containing part of the A.T. footpath and also forming part of the viewshed from the summit.

The grants helped cover the properties’ purchase price, surveying costs, legal and appraisal fees, title work, and environmental site assessments. It also helped ATC and TCF establish legal boundaries for the Hogan Hollow parcel, enabling the transfer of ownership to NPS. “There were conflicting boundary claims on one of the parcels, and all we had was a trail easement on the path,” says Andrew Downs, the senior director of the ATC’s southern region. “It was underprotected in our view.

“My favorite aspect of this whole process has been how all these different partners came together and started moving the needle towards a better-protected, more accessible, more responsibly used McAfee Knob,” he notes.

Work on a new, more accessible trailhead is underway. In the meantime, volunteers from the RATC continue their work for the trail, educating hikers about leave-no-trace principles and other important information about using the trail responsibly. These volunteers, known as the McAfee Knob Taskforce, also help to steward the trails by reporting problems. According to the Roanoke Outside Foundation website, 52 Volunteer Taskforce members logged 1,678 volunteer hours and spoke with over 19,000 visitors to the AT in 2019.

“The whole community has really rallied around this location, and it’s been wonderful to see,” Downs notes. “Everyone is stepping up with a message of preservation.”

VOF opens $1.875 million grant round for open-space projects

The Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF) is making $1.7 million available from its Preservation Trust Fund program and $175,000 from its Get Outdoors Fund for grants that protect open space for public use and other public benefits.

Preservation Trust Fund grants for the fall 2023 grant round will prioritize projects that result in significant public access, but funds may also be used for projects that protect exceptional conservation values such as water quality, historic and cultural resources, wildlife habitat, and high-quality farmland and forestland. A real estate interest must either be acquired by a local government or conveyed to VOF to be eligible for funding, and protection must meet the requirements of Virginia’s Open-Space Land Act.

Get Outdoors Fund grants may be used to fund projects that create, protect, expand, or enhance access to open space in underserved communities. Proposals up to $25,000 may be considered.

The Get Outdoors Fund requires pre-applications to be submitted through VOF’s online grants portal by 5 p.m. on July 17, 2023. Invitations to submit a full application will be issued within one week of pre-application receipt.

Full applications for both programs must be submitted online by 5 p.m. on August 7, 2023. Eligibility requirements, sample applications, a timeline, and other materials may be found online at https://vof.org/ptf and https://vof.org/go.

VOF encourages potential applicants to contact staff prior to applying to discuss eligibility and seek guidance on producing a successful application. Contact grants@vof.org with questions or for information on how to apply. To schedule a short meeting with grant program staff to discuss project ideas, use https://doodle.com/bp/emilynelson/time-to-talk.

Blue Ridge Discovery Center, Smyth, Grayson and Washington Counties

Founded in 2008, the Blue Ridge Discovery Center (BRDC) used to spread the word about the natural beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains by taking its educational programming on the road, holding events at various outdoors locations throughout southwest Virginia. That changed in 2017, when BRDC received the gift of the Konnarock Training School (KTS), a historic building on 5.21 acres at the foot of Whitetop Mountain. The gift changed everything, says Lisa Benish, BRDC’s executive director. “Now we’re a point on the map. When people get lost, they come to us to ask for directions.”

A 2022 grant from the Virginia Outdoors Foundation’s Preservation Trust Fund “helped get the doors open,” she adds, by funding renovations to the old building, once listed by Preservation Virginia as one of the Commonwealth’s most endangered historic sites. Built by the Lutheran mission to the Appalachians in 1925, the boarding and day school taught children from isolated mountain families everything from reading, writing and mathematics to canning food. It also had a health clinic and hosted gatherings, becoming part of the social glue that held Konnarock together after the loss of the lumber industry. KTS closed in 1959, and the building remained underused, changing owners several times before being gifted to BRDC.

Before tackling the building renovations, however, BRDC began its residency by rehabilitating the grounds and restoring many of the habitats on the property, including a wetland complex, riparian corridor, wildflower meadows, and a northern hardwood cove forest. They also installed a rain garden. A 2021 grant from VOF’s Get Outdoors Fund made these areas accessible by enabling the construction of an accessible interpretive trail that loops around the campus, giving visitors of all abilities the chance to explore these areas.

The two VOF grants have helped BRDC reestablish the campus as an educational center and community gathering point, with the historic building acting as an events venue and base camp for school and group field trips, a summer camp, immersive youth residential programs and the Mount Rogers Naturalist Rallies—seasonal events that feature speakers, programs and excursions to celebrate the natural beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Work on the campus is ongoing, with a master plan that envisions a visitor center with ADA-compliant facilities for campers, a butterfly house, an amphitheater, and more trails. BRDC is currently raising funds for the visitor center. “We need more grant funding or an amazing donor,” she states. “But it will be a very quick build because the skeleton is already there. That will be huge for us because it will be right on the road, the gateway to our entire campus and to Mount Rogers.”

In the meantime, BRDC remains caretaker of the school’s history, says Benish, adding that they recently hosted the 89^th birthday of a woman who had attended KTS as a girl. “She walked in, saw her whole family there and started crying,” Benish remembers. “It was such a great thing to see. We want to reach out to more alumni for reunions and other gatherings where they can relive old memories and make new ones.”

BRDC is also extending the school’s legacy, and creating its own, through its educational programs. “We’re especially focused on getting the local youth out on the trail so that they can see the assets that they have, right where they live,” Benish states. “If you take someone and show them that there are things out there worth protecting, they become stewards of the land. That’s how we meet our mission.”

14 projects awarded first grants from Coastal Resilience and Tree Fund

Wetlands Watch and the Virginia Outdoors Foundation recently announced that $91,195 has been awarded to 14 projects from the first round of the Coastal Resilience and Tree Fund (CRTF).

Achieve increased resilience to flooding, sea level rise, and extreme weather events in Virginia’s coastal communities.
Increase tree canopy in the Coastal Zone and raise awareness of the value of trees as a best management practice and component of resiliency.
Raise public awareness about the role of nature-based solutions in improving community resilience.
Enhance the ability of organizations and government agencies to plan and implement resiliency projects within the Coastal Zone.

VOF provides funding for CRTF and Wetlands Watch administers the grants. Learn more at https://wetlandswatch.org/coastal-resilience-trees-fund.

Project titles, descriptions, and award amounts are detailed below.