http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler stories of landscapes, conservation, and people in and beyond the Rivanna Watershed Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:11:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 © lmiddleton@embarqmail.com () lmiddleton@embarqmail.com() stories of landscapes, conservation, and people in and beyond the Rivanna Watershed lmiddleton@embarqmail.com No no http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/powered_by_podpress.jpg http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler 144 144 http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2009/02/03/119-fernbrook-natural-area-hosts-winter-landscapes-and-much-more/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2009/02/03/119-fernbrook-natural-area-hosts-winter-landscapes-and-much-more/#comments Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:53:12 +0000 admin http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/?p=176 http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2009/02/03/119-fernbrook-natural-area-hosts-winter-landscapes-and-much-more/feed/ 0 4:49 January 15, 2009 Fernbrook Natural Area in northern Albemarle County near Stony Brook is host of images of death, decay, and resurrection in the flora and ... January 15, 2009 Fernbrook Natural Area in northern Albemarle County near Stony Brook is host of images of death, decay, and resurrection in the flora and fauna of the Piedmont woods. The January cold spell has arrived ndash; always a harsh reminder, especially here in Virginia ndash; of the intractability of winter.nbsp; Being from New England, it feels welcome, like a patch of remnant habitat ndash; familiar and necessary for my survival.nbsp;nbsp; The bite of cold when I first leave the house for my walk, the peeling back of layers as heat of my body meets morning chill. The knowledge of light that has come with experiencing over half a decade of Januarys, as the skies are brighter, the days are longer, but still, somehow, muted by the cold.nbsp; My need to be outside is greater at this time of year than others --against the inertia that a warm house foster, an urgency tugs at me as the voices of the winter landscape are calling. I went to feed this winter hunger last weekend at Fernbook Natural Area, thenbsp; 63-acre preserve owned by The Nature Conservancy in northern Albemarle County near Stony Point.nbsp; This time of year, it is a palette of earth tones, rich with every shade of brown, red, yellow, orange, and black.nbsp; Green pokes up here and there: running cedar emerging from the layer of leaves, the rhododendron on the northern slopes; and the ever-reliable, Christmas fern, though sagging from the weight of wingter, it is still standing, ready to be counted. The trail slopes down through a tall stand of red oak, hickory and yellow poplar towards a small stream that drains the ridge.nbsp; Only the beech trees and few oaks still hold their leaves, browned now, quaking in the slight wind.nbsp; The late afternoon light is mediated by clouds, occasional patches of blue lingering before a darkening sky. This winter in particular, I am attuned to disintegration and death, and a forest like the one at Fernbrook is as good a place as any to find it.nbsp; Decay is everywhere:nbsp; dense downed logs along the trail are scuffed by travelers' boots into light tufts.nbsp; The bark of Virginia pine still standing, is pocked by holes that spiral round the trunk marking the drill of the downy woodpecker.nbsp; A cavity higher up could be home to a pileated.nbsp; These are some of the larger agents of change in the forest, foraging for a meal beneath the bark of host trees giving way slowly to insects. Still on the branches of beech trees, are black clumps of sooty mold.nbsp; A hunk the size of my fist has dropped to the ground at the base of a beech, and I pick it up ndash; light as a sponge, this is final stage for the mold that is unique to the beech tree.nbsp; Scorias spongiosa, as a species of sooty mold that grows below colonies of beech woolly aphids, whose honeydew ndash; or excrement ndash; provides nourishment through its life stages.nbsp; In January, these aphids are long gone, but when I pry the mold apart, I find shiny black ants feasting on the spores. Cleared in colonial days for timber, Fernbrook was abandoned sometime after the Civil War.nbsp; But here and there, the pencil-sharp snags of Virginia cedar point skyward, and from time to time, the slope is anchored by a mound of rocks that marked perhaps the corner of an old field.nbsp; The small stream has the characteristic steep banks of our Piedmont streams that have been cut vertically during the years of high erosion when no protective measures stemmed the flow of topsoil from newly logged acres. Just as surely as I am looking at death and decay, I am also witness to rebirth, in everything from the defiant fist-like buds of the dogwoods in understudy, to the delicate, cigar-shaped twist of the beech bud.nbsp; Each soggy, rotten log hosts its own ecosystem of fungi, bacteria, and insects, thriving in dark spaces, drunk on the nutrients they release back to the cycle of life. Through the bare trees I can see upward to the sky, anoth... Albemarle,County,,Climate,,Ecology,,History,,Natural,History,,North,Fork,Rivanna,,Sediment,,Trails,and,Footpaths lmiddleton@embarqmail.com no No http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2009/01/08/118-you-me-and-stormwater/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2009/01/08/118-you-me-and-stormwater/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:00:17 +0000 admin http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2009/01/08/118-you-me-and-stormwater/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2009/01/08/118-you-me-and-stormwater/feed/ 0 5:34 January 8, 2009 The City of Charlottesville, along with Albemarle County, UVA, and PVCC, are all submitted renewal applications for the Virginia Stormwater Management Program (VSMP) ... January 8, 2009 The City of Charlottesville, along with Albemarle County, UVA, and PVCC, are all submitted renewal applications for the Virginia Stormwater Management Program (VSMP) General Permit for Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4's).nbsp; The permit describes how these entities will manage stormwater in their jurisdictions, but much of the management really rests on you and me and how we manage the stormwater that we create because of our modern lifestyle. Chilling, cold, welcome, seasonal.nbsp; These words could all describe the precipitation of the last couple of days.nbsp; Cold and chilling, as temperatures hovered below freezing, icing roads and dusting the Blue Ridge white.nbsp; Welcome, and seasonal, since we rely on wintertime precipitation to keeps our rivers and wells flowing, our groundwater replenished, our reservoirs full and to hold off the press of drought. But this water ndash; mostly clean as transits from clouds to earth ndash; becomes something else once it hits our streets, yards, and houses.nbsp; It becomes storm water ndash; and it is hardly benign.nbsp; Rather than infiltrating the soil as it does in the forests, stormwater rushes to creeks and to the Rivanna, carrying litter, oils, pet waste, and dirt, rushes in such volume and velocity that stream banks are continually scoured and the Rivanna runs brown after even a modest rain. Environmental professionals characterize water pollution sources as either "point" or "non-point."nbsp; Point sources are discrete - water from a single point or conveyance, such as the waste treatment plants at Moores Creek, Camelot, Lake Monticello, discharges from which are highly regulated with increasingly stringent controls. Non-point sources are simply the opposite ndash; pollution that enters our streams from a diffuse or general area, such as excess water that travels across agriculture or playing fields transporting pollutants such as excess fertilizer or manure.nbsp; Rainwater that traverses urban parking lots and roads into storm "sewer" systems might be considered non-point because it is a collection of water (and all that is carried with it) fromndash; my yard, my street, my neighbor's yard, the street around the corner. But the Clean Water Act defines this kind of stormwater also as a point source ndash; because it is conveyed through separate storm sewer systems (such as maintained by Charlottesville or Albemarle County in the urban areas) ndash; and through ditches and channels that direct the water, untreated for the most part, before it enters the river. And as a point source, it too is regulated by the Clean Water Act, with permits required by the state of Virginia for urban areas, industrial sites, and construction activities.nbsp; In the second phase of permitting, since 2003, Charlottesville, Albemarle, UVA, and PVCC are defined as operating Municipal Storm Sewer Systems, or MS4s.nbsp; The five-year reapplication process is underway right now ndash; applications in which these entities show how various programs are reducing the discharge of pollutants from areas and facilities under their jurisdiction to the maximum extent practicable. Now, I have read the permit application from the City of Charlottesville, and it includes descriptions of how the City will maintain structural controls, such as curb inlets and retention basins; and how it will maintain public roads (and try to minimize pollutants coming off of them).nbsp; I've read how Parks and Rec. will minimize use of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers.nbsp; How the City will permit and monitor erosion and sediment control practices on construction sites.nbsp;nbsp; But the bottom line is this:nbsp; much of the pollution that ends up in stormwater results from how we citizens live our day-to-day lives.nbsp; After all, you'd have to keep a fleet of street cleaners busy 24 hours a day to keep most of the street wastes out of the storm sewer system ndas... Albemarle,County,,Charlottesville,,Education,,Neighborhood,,Rivanna,River,,Sediment,,Stormwater,,Water,Quality lmiddleton@embarqmail.com no No http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/12/11/115-south-fork-rivanna-reservoir-stores-our-dirt-too/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/12/11/115-south-fork-rivanna-reservoir-stores-our-dirt-too/#comments Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:00:51 +0000 admin http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/12/11/115-south-fork-rivanna-reservoir-stores-our-dirt-too/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/12/11/115-south-fork-rivanna-reservoir-stores-our-dirt-too/feed/ 0 5:23 December 11, 2008 There's a lot of different ways to look at our diminishing resources -- running out of clean water, clean air, and .... good ... December 11, 2008 There's a lot of different ways to look at our diminishing resources -- running out of clean water, clean air, and .... good dirt?nbsp; We might do well to look past the problem of the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir filling up with dirt -- and try to understand the causes of -- and consequences of losing dirt from the landscapes upstream. This show originally aired on December 11, 2008nbsp; on ldquo;The Rivanna Rambler,rdquo; a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net. There is slow steady winter rain thatrsquo;s keeping temperatures hovering around forty degrees and the skies dark with winter gloom.nbsp; But the rain is good -- for our groundwater, for our reservoirs, and it is good for the plants and animals that need this most essential resource to survive.nbsp; This rain is also filling our rivers ndash; and I would wager ndash; sending a good amount of water into the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir, along with a healthy amount of dirt. Now, that dirt is slowly but surely filling the reservoir ndash; each year, decreasing its capacity from 1 to 5 per cent since it was completed in 1969.nbsp; In another example of our human short-sightedness, like many public works installations of the era, the design life of this reservoir was only fifty years, at which time the reservoir would be filled to over 50% of its capacity. This was the "water supply plan" back then ndash; and it is, in part, this plan that has us where we are today, scrambling to find a way to maintain the usefulness of a reservoir that was poorly situated with an uncharacteristically large watershed from which to drain --nbsp; and one that, in the conventional wisdom of the day, was always expected to fill up with sediment.nbsp; Hence, the current discussions about dredging. Since the cost of disposal of the dredge material is generally agreed to be the most expensive part of any dredging operation, this got me thinking about the value of the sediment itself and whether we are, once again, missing the mark in the way we think about our natural resources ndash; letting the pocket book drive the decision without consideration for other factors that, because they are ecosystem benefits and difficult to quantify, don't often get put into the cost benefit analysis. There have been some creative responses by contractors interested in dredging the South Fork Reservoir ndash; and in most cases, we donrsquo;t know the ultimate destination of the sediment, it's just part of the economic equation upon which the offers are being built.nbsp; They range from a method of opportunistic, selective dredging of just sand and gravel when market makes it economically profitable ndash; to more complex projects proposed, including using the fill to extend the Airport's runway ndash; or to fill a nearby quarry, presumably for reuse later on. The US Army Corps of Engineers has been thinking about the use of dredged materials for years.nbsp; Charged with keeping our waterways clear for navigation, the Corps promotes the use of dredged materials for creating wetlands and improving fish and wildlife habitats, as well as the construction-related kinds of uses, such as land creation for runways, buildings, and other human strudtures.nbsp; And dredge materials can also be used to improve the soil structure of poor agricultural lands, creating topsoil or serving as the base structure for soil amendments. Dr. David Montgomery is a geo-moprhologist and a 2008 MacArthur Foundation Fellow, who has spent his career looking at the complex relationship between rivers and the soils that they transport ndash; historically tone of the primary land changing processes. His recent book, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilization, provides a sobering description of the consequences of squandering "good dirt" ndash; the topsoil in which we grow our food, the topsoil that takes generations to create.nbsp; Montgomery's book look... Albemarle,County,,Charlottesville,,Geology,,Headwaters,,Ivy,Creek,,Rivanna,River,,Sediment,,Uncategorized,,Water,Supply lmiddleton@embarqmail.com no No http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/10/16/107-south-fork-rivanna-reservoir-task-force/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/10/16/107-south-fork-rivanna-reservoir-task-force/#comments Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:24:26 +0000 admin http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/10/16/107-south-fork-rivanna-reservoir-task-force/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/10/16/107-south-fork-rivanna-reservoir-task-force/feed/ 0
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6:03 October 16, 2008 The South Fork Rivanna Reservoir, built in 1966, is continuing to silt in from upstream erosion.nbsp; The South Fork Rivanna Reservoir Task Force ... October 16, 2008 The South Fork Rivanna Reservoir, built in 1966, is continuing to silt in from upstream erosion.nbsp; The South Fork Rivanna Reservoir Task Force is examining the condition of the reservoir and is seeking public input regarding its uses and fate. This show originally aired on October 5, 2006 and as an encore on October 9, 2008nbsp; on ldquo;The Rivanna Rambler,rdquo; a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net. Almost twice a month for the last couple of months, a small group of citizens and representatives of various stakeholders has been meeting to discuss the fate of the South Fork Ravenna Reservoir.nbsp; The members of this task force represent the variety of uses and benefits that the reservoir now affords this community. Built in 1966 to augment the storage capacity at the Ragged Mountain Reservoir, it now also provides miles of flatwater for varsity and community rowers.nbsp; Fishermen come from surrounding counties to launch jon boats at all times of day and night.nbsp; Novice canoeists learn their first skills on its calm dark waters.nbsp; The upper reaches of Ivy Creek consistently offer sightings of beaver, green and great blue herons, turtles, and, sometimes even bobcats. The reservoir also provides an immutable kind of pleasure and solace that only an expanse of water can do ndash; one that can be appreciated looking upstream or down while crossing its bridges, or for the fortunate few who live along its shores, from livings rooms and decks.nbsp; Out of sight ndash; and out of the minds of most ndash; is what lies beneath, the remains of a small but thriving African American community at Hydraulic Mills which was vacated and submerged when the waters rose after the dam construction. The aesthetic, recreational, and ecological benefits were never the primary purpose of building this reservoir, but as the community contemplates its future, it is these very benefits that the Task Force has been asked to consider by the four chairs ndash; two of them elected, Charlottesville's Mayor, Dave Norris, and the Chair of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, Ken Boyd ndash; and two appointed, the Chair of the Albemarle County Service Authority Board, Don Wagner, and the RWSA Board Chair, Mike Gaffney. The Task Force has been asked to determine what would happen to the reservoir if nothing is done to maintain it hellip; and to make recommendations about whether or not to maintain itndash; presumably by dredging.nbsp; And finally, if dredging is to be recommended, for what purpose?nbsp; Retain the ecologic benefits?nbsp; The recreational benefits?nbsp; The guidance was clear to the Task Force ndash; With the approved water supply as a given, lets turn our attention to the South Fork Reservoir. It may seem to some a no-brainer that, of course, we would maintain this piece of aging infrastructure ndash; one that in the 1960s was actually designed for a useful life of only fifty years.nbsp; That's the way it was done back then ndash; and we are not alone in this community in grappling what to do now that hindsight has caught up with us and our infrastructure, including dams, now demand attention. And you'd think that dredging the South Fork should obviously become the centerpiece of any future water supply plan ndash; but somehow, it didn't in this last go around.nbsp; How could that be so? There are a variety of reasons, some regulatory and some practical.nbsp; Foremost is the fact that simply dredging to the original volume will not get this community to the 50 year need, based on growth and water use predictions.nbsp; And there are other issues:nbsp; dredging requires permits from the Army Corp of Engineers, who carefully regulate all land-disturbing activity on river bottoms and who are especially watchful over the wetlands that provide multiple ecologic benefit. And the water supply plan must address other aspects of aging... Albemarle,County,,Charlottesville,,Headwaters,,Ivy,Creek,,Moormans,River,,Rivanna,River,,Sediment,,South,Fork,,Water,Supply lmiddleton@embarqmail.com no No http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/09/04/101-mud/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/09/04/101-mud/#comments Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:40:58 +0000 admin http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/09/04/101-mud/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/09/04/101-mud/feed/ 0 00:01:01 September 4, 2008 A trip down to Rivanna Mills and the James after a high flow gives an opportunity to experience ... September 4, 2008 A trip down to Rivanna Mills and the James after a high flow gives an opportunity to experience this first had (or first foot, one might say). This segment originally aired in the first season of the Rivana Rambler (July 2006) and has been updated with current information. This show originally aired in September 4, 2008 on ldquo;The Rivanna Rambler,rdquo; a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net We were warned that the launch is really muddy. ldquo;You may want to wait a couple of days,rdquo; the landowner tells me the night before our trip down to the Rivanna Mills sampling site. Last night I'd checked the river level online ndash;itrsquo;s come down from a high of 1600 cubic feet per second during last weekrsquo;s rains to a mere 500. Worry about a little mud? I think not. My friend Becky and I drive our cars across the fields at Hells Bend Farm to drop off the canoe. The river is a light chocolate brown, moving along smartly, and holding unknown tons of sediment it has dragged from banks upstream during the high waters. The slope down to the river is caked with mud, already dry and cracking open in the rising heat of what promises to be a scorcher of a day. As Becky carefully steps down, her foot, then ankle, then calf, disappears in muck. We rig a 100-foot climberrsquo;s rope from the truckrsquo;s tailgate to the waterrsquo;s edge, giving us a handhold to climb back out. This works well enough. And, not surprisingly, when we leave the truck at the public boat launch on the James six miles downstream at our take-out, we find the same scene. During the flood, the James has deposited a slick, deep load of mud on the paved ramp. But wersquo;re committed, and one expects to get a bit dirty doing river work, so we drive one vehicle back to the put in, and take giant, sliding, mucky steps down to the water, shake the load of mud from our sneakers, and depart for our sampling site. No one knows for sure the source of the sediment in our Piedmont streams. Sediment transport is, to some degree, a natural and important function of rivers ndash; over the slow time scale of centuries, one expects water to work on the land, to cut away at the mountains, to broaden floodplains, to bend straight, fast rivers into meandering streams. Unfortunately, like the startling climate changes that are now irrefutably linked with our human activities, increasing sediment loads in our rivers have the same source ndash; us and how we live and have lived on the land the last couple of hundred years. During the 17 and 1800rsquo;s, much of our region was cleared of trees to make way for farm fields and pastures right up to waterrsquo;s edge. The erosion from this time was extraordinary and massive amounts of topsoil simply washed downstream. While better land use practices in recent decades have slowed this type of erosion, the volumes of water continue to cut away at banks already steep and exposed. Those studying the problem in the Rivanna basin are beginning to think that the quantity of water entering streams from overland sources is as much of an issue as the polluting substances it carries. Our paddle down to the sampling site is swift ndash; though the water is only a foot deep in some places, it is opaque, and we only know where the bottom is by feel. Therersquo;s a good flow over the riffles at Rivanna Mills ndash; stoneflies, mayflies, and dragonflies are in abundance, a sign that this stretch has weathered the storm, for now. Along the way back to Columbia, we see the high water line of the flood, leaves coated with a layer of dried mud, twelve, fourteen feet over our heads. A towering sycamore has toppled into the river, its root exposing a bare bank, a casualty of this most recent storm The Rivanna perceptibly slows in this lower stretch, and we have to work to keep moving. We hug the slender shadows of the bank... Fluvanna,County,,History,,Rivanna,River,,Sediment lmiddleton@embarqmail.com no No http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/08/21/99-restoration-on-the-north-fork/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/08/21/99-restoration-on-the-north-fork/#comments Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:04:27 +0000 admin http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/08/21/99-restoration-on-the-north-fork/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/08/21/99-restoration-on-the-north-fork/feed/ 0 00:01:01 August 21, 2008 Landowners along the North Fork take advantage of VDGIF's Landowner Incentive Program to restore a section of stream bank and habitat for the ... August 21, 2008 Landowners along the North Fork take advantage of VDGIF's Landowner Incentive Program to restore a section of stream bank and habitat for the James Spineymussel.nbsp; This show originally aired in August 21, 2008 on ldquo;The Rivanna Rambler,rdquo; a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net On a still, hot morning, I head out of town to visit some friends who are transforming their own corner of heaven in northern Albemarle County. Vickie and Mark Gottlob live in a house they finished building four years along the North Fork of the Rivanna.nbsp; It sits on a wooded slope of Buffalo Ridge, named for the mammals that once roamed these parts.nbsp; The Gottlobs are working with Louise Finger of the Virginia Department of Inland Game and Fisheries to help restore habitat in the river for another species rarely seen here: the Jamesriver Spineymussel. This is my third visit to the site. Before Louise and her team of heavy equipment operators arrived earlier this week, I had come up to visit the river "before" so I could better appreciate the changes "after".nbsp; I had donned appropriate river wading gear and dropped down into one of the deeper holes.nbsp; With cooling water up to my waist, I could see the bank slumping steeply into the stream and showing the signs of instability even an untrained eye could see.nbsp; The Gottlob's small floodplain pasture was being eaten away by storm flows and gravity, and all this dirt was settling in the river and clogging the very life out of it.nbsp; But there were solid gravel bars, mounded here and there with piles of small cobble left by chub and other nest-building species.nbsp; It had the potential to be good habitat for the spineymussel if it could be stabilized. The Jamesriver Spineymussel is a rarely seen mollusk in our parts ndash; but its influence has been felt for years ndash; it's presence blocked the building of the Buck Mountain Reservoir, a memory that runs deep with planners and residents.nbsp; Today, on its behalf, federal money is directed into a program that Louise Finger manages for the state that restores stream habitats for species that are endangered or at risk.nbsp; What makes it possible for the Gottlobs to undertake this $15,000 restoration job is that 75% is paid for by the Landowner Incentive Program ndash; so they pony up 25% of the costs ndash; and sweat equity counts. And how did they come to this choice?nbsp; Well, a picture can be worth a thousand words hellip; The Gottlobs walked daily down to the river and over time could see the changes wrought by the erosion. On night, Surfing the web for all things Rivanna, Vickie saw before and after pictures of a similar project nearby on Welsh Run. A few phone calls, an on-site assessment by Louise, and the project was scheduled using some of the remaining funds set aside for the Rivanna watershed. Today, talking down the path through the woods, I hear the earth moving equipment before I see it.nbsp; As the field opens up before me, it looks like a giant is playing a rugged game of dominoes.nbsp; There are thick gray rocks are strewn across the field near the curve in the river.nbsp; Yesterday, the backhoe removed tons of dirt, and the tractor spread it in an upland corner of the field near the woods to be planted.nbsp; The once unstable bank is now a gentle grade that slopes easily into the field.nbsp; Closer to the water's edge, Louise in full chest waders is directing her backhoe driver through the arduous process of selecting and placing just the right rock for just the right spot in the river as they build the structure that will sustain the new geometry of the bank. These flat rectangular hunks of rock are ideal for building the vanes, weirs and sills that are the hardscape tools of the stream restoration specialist.nbsp; Louise been at this for five years, and the Gottlob project is number 35 or so ndash; she's lost count ndas... Albemarle,County,,Ecology,,North,Fork,Rivanna,,Sediment,,Wildlife lmiddleton@embarqmail.com no No http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/05/16/88-questions-about-the-water-supply-plan/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/05/16/88-questions-about-the-water-supply-plan/#comments Fri, 16 May 2008 23:19:54 +0000 admin http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/05/16/88-questions-about-the-water-supply-plan/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/05/16/88-questions-about-the-water-supply-plan/feed/ 2 00:01:01 May 15, 2008 This show originally aired on May 15, 2008 on ldquo;The Rivanna Rambler,rdquo; a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. ... May 15, 2008 This show originally aired on May 15, 2008 on ldquo;The Rivanna Rambler,rdquo; a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net. The community water supply plan that is under question has been permitted, as it must be, by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality on February 11, 2008. That plan was approved unanimously by the City Council and Albemarle County Board of Supervisors in 2006. Because our area is not blessed by natural reservoirs, nor rivers whose flows are adequate at every time of the year to yield water for human use even at our present population, we rely on reservoirs to store water for times of scant rainfall and low flows. When our urban population was smaller in the late 1890's and early 1900's, the City of Charlottesville set aside land to create the first, and then subsequently expanded, Ragged Mountain Reservoir. This reservoir is unlike the South Fork in that it is not filled by a running river but rather by aging pipeline from the headwaters of the Rivanna, the North and South Forks of the Moormans River, now impounded by the Sugar Hollow dam. The Ragged Mountain reservoir has a watershed that is relatively small and does not appreciably contribute to the supply impounded in the reservoir. In addition, its slopes are completely forested except for I-64, which bisects the western portion of its watershed. The South Fork Reservoir was built in 1965 with no planning for periodic removal of sediment captured from upstream sources by some form of dredging. It is indeed a very good thing that the community is now waking up to a fact that residents adjacent to the South Fork, boaters and fishermen on its impounded waters, and watershed planners have long known: we have lost about a 1/3 of the storage capacity of this reservoir ndash;and annually this number is increasing and the storage capacity is decreasing. Mudflats impede UVA and community rowers in upstream bends in the river, every rain event brings another wedge of sediment laden water from up-watershed, attempts to travel up Ivy Creek by canoe from the Woodlands Road bridge can only take you so far before you are walking through soft mud. So people are asking ndash; why not just dredge the reservoir and restore its function to store the drinking water that we need? The answer depends upon whether or not you think that cost estimates from eager dredging companies are accurate enough on which to base a water supply. On whether or not you think that it is OK to chop down or inundate trees on land already set aside for the very purpose of storing water ndash; and that was timbered for profit by the City of Charlottesville as recently as the 1950s. Or whether or not we have any obligation to restore natural flows to the Moorman's River, a pristine, headwater stream known for its diversity of aquatic habitat. Or whether you question the numbers ndash; developed by engineers and planners and endorsed by the State of Virginia -- used to project human water usage for the next 50 years. Or whether you believe that dredging should be considered a maintenance task like the nutrient removal upgrades required for Moore Creek Treatment Plant, or other upgrades needed for O-Hill and South Fork water plants. Or whether you think ndash; or hope ndash; that our still growing population will find, collectively, the political and moral will to use water more smartly, and less, in the years to come, regardless of unpredictable changes in rainfall patterns wrought from climate change. Or whether perhaps this time ndash; some 50 years after the South Fork was built, we are entering a time of investment, much as our forebears found it necessary and unavoidable to do, and must plan for our and our children's future ndash; and knowing that it will be costly, we are still willing to bear that cost because it is the right thing to do. Albemarle,County,,Charlottesville,,Moormans,River,,Rivanna,River,,Sediment,,South,Fork,,Water,Conservation,,Water,Supply lmiddleton@embarqmail.com no No http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/05/01/87-legacy-sediment/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/05/01/87-legacy-sediment/#comments Thu, 01 May 2008 23:35:31 +0000 admin http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/05/16/87-legacy-sediment/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/05/01/87-legacy-sediment/feed/ 0 00:01:01 May 1, 2008 This show originally aired on March 7, 2007 and then again on May 1, 2008 on ldquo;The Rivanna Rambler,rdquo; a weekly public affairs ... May 1, 2008 This show originally aired on March 7, 2007 and then again on May 1, 2008 on ldquo;The Rivanna Rambler,rdquo; a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net. Itrsquo;s the time of the year when rivers run high and brown here in Albemarle County. Some well-placed rain events, brought water levels to seasonal highs. Sediment from surrounding floodplains and other sources colored the water various shades of brown, from slick and bubbling chocolate during the first flush, to a steely brown that mirrored the gray March skies. I find myself wondering, again, where does all that dirt come from? It turns out that here in the Rivanna Watershed, as elsewhere, the answer to that question is not as obvious as it might seem. It is clear that some of the earth is washed into the river from adjacent lands ndash; sheet flow traveling over fields, lawns and parking lots picks up soil that is not firmly rooted. Construction sites, whose bare earthen slopes are theoretically protected by black and orange plastic woven silt fences, are another source especially in severe rainfall, no matter how conscientious the contractor. But there is another source of sediment in the rivers that scientists are just starting to quantify ndash; and this is called legacy sediment. Legacy sediment has its origins in the earliest days of European settlement of the colonies. With few restrictions save the terms of the Land Grants, settlers immediately set to work clearing the Piedmont hills to make way for pasture, row crops, and especially, tobacco. At the same time, rivers and creeks of all sizes were dammed to provide hydropower and to aid in navigation. The Rivanna River was, by 1840, a series of long flat impoundments between dams built in key locations: coming up from the James, a traveler would come first to Rivanna Mills, then Palmyra Mills. There were mills at Bernardsburg, now called, Crofton , at Stump Island , and at Shadwell, to name a few. The present day dams at the Woolen Mills and on the North Fork at Advance Mills are remnants of that time gone by. US Census figures reveal that by 1840 there were 65,000 water-powered mills operating in the eastern United States. That this happened at the same time as widespread removal of trees meant that massive amounts of sediment from hillsides cut bare washed down, across fields and into the rivers. And much of that sediment was trapped behind the dams, occasionally washing downstream in floods. And though a good many of these dams have been removed, their legacy is layers of sediment, sometimes 2 to 4 feet thick spread out across the floodplains above the site of the dam. Now a riverrsquo;s job, some would say, actually is to move dirt. If you take the long view ndash; the one over centuries and eons ndash; we can thank water and its erosional power on the landscape for the layers of sand and clay that ultimately form sandstones and other sedimentary rocks. And it is the river bursting out of its channel in high water and rain that spreads sediments, fine and rough, downstream to build floodplains, wetlands, and marshes on out to the deltas of rivers as they reach into the ocean. And it is precisely when we disturb this normal flow by damming the river or by forcing it into concrete channels and between floodwalls in our cities, that the river becomes disconnected from its floodplain. And lacking the floodplain to absorb the excess volume of water in peak flows, the river cuts stronger and deeper into its channel. Itrsquo;s a vicious cycle and one that is now being studied to learn whether sediments layered across floodplains in colonial times are actually the source of much of the sediment in our now unbridled rivers as they slice through steep river banks such as we find here in the Rivanna Watershed. Add to the equation, stronger flows, augmented by high velocity runoff from our urban and suburban developments, ... Greene,County,,History,,James,River,,Rivanna,River,,Sediment,,Trails,and,Footpaths,,Tributaries,,Water,Quality lmiddleton@embarqmail.com no No http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/02/28/78-the-reluctant-gardener-faces-non-native-dilemma/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/02/28/78-the-reluctant-gardener-faces-non-native-dilemma/#comments Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:07:12 +0000 admin http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/02/28/78-the-reluctant-gardener-faces-non-native-dilemma/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/02/28/78-the-reluctant-gardener-faces-non-native-dilemma/feed/ 1 00:01:01 The winter garden starts to beckon at this time of year. Now is a good time to think about whatrsquo;s native, and whatrsquo;s ... The winter garden starts to beckon at this time of year. Now is a good time to think about whatrsquo;s native, and whatrsquo;s not, and how to make amends for ignorant landscaping choices of the past. This show originally aired on February 28, 2008 on ldquo;The Rivanna Rambler,rdquo; a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net. February 28, 2007 I am a reluctant gardener. The seasons conspire against me here in Central Virginia. In the winter, when I should be planning the vegetable garden, pruning shrubs, and tidying the lawn, I crave the quiet of indoors where I hibernate, in between bursts of outdoor activities that take me into the woods or by the river or to the tops of the ridges. Much the same happens to me in the springtime rush, a time of not enough time ndash; when I am called by the waters to paddle rivers bursting with green while the weather is still tolerable. For sure, when spring emerges, I do spend a few days tethered to lawn and plants ndash; affirming my environmental responsibility to this City acre and my good fortune for having land at all. Summer, when vegetables want thinning and harvesting and weeds go to seed, Irsquo;m retreating to any place removed from heaviness of the humidity. By the time fall rolls around, I vainly try to make up for lost time, tidying and raking in anticipation of the winter. This is a roundabout way of saying that I have not yet done anything about the invasive plants in my yard that I boldly named a couple of summer s ago on this show: the English ivy and bamboo I inherited when we bought our home, and the others that I actually planted before becoming enlightened to the issue of natives versus non-natives. My yard boasts not one, but two, firebushes, that I planted, now over seven feet tall, their little green buds forming round and ready for spring as I speak. And the large and small leafed privet ndash; whose fragrant blossoms provide a welcome olfactory memory of summers on Cape Cod ndash; well, we actually planted more to balance the ones already there. Folly, I now see, as sprigs emerge uninvited amidst the quince and holly. Irsquo;m resigned to periodically pulling the ivy from its ascent up tree trunks and pulling the privet from where it is not wanted. I will, with time, find replacements for the butterfly bush -- also not a native to our region. And, I will continue to cope with bamboo roots running underground webs across the upper lawn. But what is really troubling me this season is that I now realize that the sediment that smothers the life our of river and its tributaries comes not just from fields, or pastures, or construction sites ndash; it also comes from city lots like mine, where the lawn has become patchy, or the piles of sand and mulch from an old garden project lie open to spring downpours, or the border of the driveway reveals a gash of red Virginia clay ready to become runoff. There is the slope of land between at the front of our house lawn and street, where I spent our first years of living here painstakingly removing the English Ivy and the poison ivy, to give room to periwinkle, whose sweet blue flowers and lush evergreen seemed to tidy our yard and match our cottage home. But I now know that this, too, is a non-native ndash; an imported ornamental that is hearty precisely because it has found in our climate optimum weather and minimum ecological constraints. The irony is that, while the poison ivy would not have been easy to live with, its white berries are food for many species of birds ndash; one of the best reasons for choosing native over non-native plants. So my quandary is this hellip; I want to replace the vinca with a native groundcover, but I know that doing so will expose a slope of soil that is rich and poised to wash right into the storm drains on its way to the river ndash; and to prevent this will require from me careful planning, silt fencin... Charlottesville,,Native,Landscaping,,Rivanna,River,,Sediment,,Stormwater lmiddleton@embarqmail.com no No http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2007/09/06/6/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2007/09/06/6/#comments Fri, 07 Sep 2007 03:30:00 +0000 admin http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/?p=6 http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2007/09/06/6/feed/ 0