Several members of the community have formed a committee under the Rockfish Valley Foundation to investigate a Rural Historic District designation for their area. It has been designated the South Rockfish Rural Historic District.

A rural historic district is a geographical area recognized for its historical significance by formal listing on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places. Listing an area as a Rural Historic District is an honorary designation that has real benefits in bringing communities together to protect their unique cultural, historic, and natural assets. It provides limited protection from certain Federal actions for buildings or landscapes in the district, as well as the possibility of tax credits for major building renovations.

The Virginia Department of Historic Resources recommends submission of a Preliminary Information Form (PIF) for consideration before preparation of a full nomination. This is so the staff at VDHR can review and advise on the proposed historic district. The nomination will need to include a map with the proposed district boundaries as well as photographs of the primary resources that comprise the district.

Download the Preliminary Information Form (PIF) here

Download proposed district boundary map here

TIM HODGE, MARSHALL FAINTICH, PAUL DAVIS, and BILL AND PAGE KAMPMEIER as Volunteers for the Rockfish VAlley Foundation are along the trails most mornings. Feel free to ask them questions. Marshall will be taking 100s of photos each time he is there. There is a link to his website in the BIRDING SECTION of this website. TIME HODGE is now a freshman at Liberty University but can be found early on weekends along the trail. usually in his camouflage fatigues. Tim will conduct BIRD WALKS on the first Saturday of each month beginning in October. Meet at the Rockfish River Trail Head at the historic HURRICANE CAMILLE Marker at 7:30 AM. Walk normally lasts until 9:00 AM or so.

SEPTEMBER 25TH EVENT WILL BE SPECIAL. This is the 5th anniversary of the VA BIRDING TRAIL SYSTEM IN VIRGINIA. It is being celebrated with an event that begins at DEVILS BACKBONE Restaurand and Brewery on Friday September 25th at 8:00 AM. Meet at the Brewery and then select to join Tim Hodge and Marshall Faintich for birding along the Rockfish Valley Trails or a bird walk within Wintergreen. At the conclusion of these walks, return to Devil’s Backbone there will be speeches and refreshments. It should be a wonderful day. thanks to Jeff Trollinger, Steven Living and others from VA DGIF who have organized this and to Maureen Kelly from Nelson Tourism and Danna Quillen from Wintergreen for promoting it. Particular thanks to Tim Hodge and Marshall Faintich for sharing their knowledge of birds and birding along the trail system.

Peter Agelasto

We are very pleased to announce that the Rockfish Valley Foundation is undertaking to create a travel opportunity and informational text in Nelson County which we have called the NELSON SCENIC LOOP.

The research, writing and website development are underway. We are pleased to have Jesús Najar, an Urban & Environmental Planning Masters candidate at the University of Virginia School of Architecture working for us this summer as lead developer. He is assisted by M.H.LA Liz Sargent, one of our very committed volunteers and a part time resident of Beech Grove. In addition we are working with Bluewall the website developer and social network creator run by Sara Pope and Peter Agelasto IV. Their intern Samantha Ashley is a valued member of their team for the summer.

You may follow the progress of the NELSON SCENIC LOOP at www.nelsonscenicloop.com.

It is a 50-mile auto and bike tour that follows four scenic byways and features Nelson’s bounty of natural, cultural, and historic attractions. There are a number of spurs that lead from it as optional discovery trails. Please let us have your comments.

Nelson Scenic Loop Goals

The Loop will:

• Promote the intrinsic natural, scenic, recreational, historic, cultural, and archeological qualities of Nelson County.
• Offer an authentic meaningful rural experience that will enrich the lives of visitors by highlighting connections between cultural activities and the natural world.
• Suggest opportunities for heritage tourism through regional branding and cooperative marketing, including Nelson County, in communities along the Loop.
• Encourage visitors to appreciate, respect, and experience Nelson County’s unique cultural landscape.
• Promote and enrich the Blue Ridge Parkway experience.

• Create a rural tourism model that can be replicated in other parts of Nelson and throughout rural Virginia.

Peter A. Agelasto III
June 1, 2009

Also at 7:30 AM Tim Hodge will lead a bird walk from the Trail Head.

Enjoy

7:30 –9:00 AM
Early Bird walk in the Rockfish Valley. Meet at Rockfish River Trail head with Tim Hodge and Marshall Faintich.

9:00 AM – 3 PM
Hike and bring lunch. Walk on Crawford’s Knob with Chip Morgan. Moderate to difficult. Circumnavigate the hill via Turkey Scratch Trail from the Walnut side. To quote Chip: “it is a great walk, good stuff to see …and good exercise”.
Sign up requested. 434 361 2251. Space limited to 20.

6:00 PM – Barnyard tour
Rockfish Valley Farm barn yard tour with the Rockfish 6. LILLY, Stormy, Billy Goat, Blackie Goat , Seymour and Juilet as well as chickens, ducks and barn cats will welcome you.
Sign up requested. 434 361 2251. Space limited.

ROCKFISH VALLEY FOUNDATION
ARBOR DAY Celebration. Friday, April 24, 2009

9:30 – 11:30 AM
Trail walk and conversation with Martha Warring, Forester with the Department of Forestry in Nelson County; tree identification and discussion. Tree planting. Discussion of Riparian plantings. Unveiling of plans for Camille Memorial Park at Rockfish River Trail Head;;.. First 20 registered receive copy of theimportant new DOF tree book. DOF booklets and materials available for everyone. Bring your questions. Easy walking, Practical applications. Sign up requested. 434 361 2251.

Support provided by:
• The Community Foundation of the Central Blue Ridge
• BAMA Works
• Charlottesville Area Community Foundation
• VA Dept of Highways and Transportation
• VA Dept of Environmental Quality
• VA Dept of Conservation and Recreation
• Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund
• Individual donors, volunteers
  and
• The Agelasto Familly

MISSION STATEMENT

The Rockfish Valley Foundation seeks to enrich the lives of the community and visitorswith a rurall-tourism experience in the Rockfish Valley. It Seeks to preserve the natural, historical, ecological and agricultural resources of the Rockfish Valley and to encourage recreation, an appreciation of nature and ahelathy lifestyle in the Rockfish Valley and elsewhere.

All about you is the magnificent Blue Ridge Mountains and the picturesque Rockfish Valley. You will discover here the impact of Hurricane Camille and the significance of the Rockfish VAlley Fault and plate tectonics as well as the geologic history if this beautiful place. You will find this a spectuacular place to bird watch, walk and picnic.

We welcome your donations, volunteer support and enjoyment of this place.

www.rockfishvalley.org P O Box 235 Nellysford, Virginia 22958

In 2010 Virginia will be celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway, one of America’s favorite scenic drives. The parkway is the most visited unit of the National Park System and winds its way through the highest mountains in the East. Incredible vistas, lush mountain backdrops, hiking trails, overlooks, endangered wildlife and an abundance of flora and fauna have greeted visitors here for generations. Look for special events along the Parkway as 2010 approaches.

Information on the Spring Course is below:

The Central Blue Ridge Virginia Master Naturalist Spring Training Program 2009 – The next training session will be held on Saturdays on eight weekends from March through May, including a full weekend at Nature Camp. There is a $125 fee to cover course materials and chapter organization costs. Applications available at the Virginia Master Naturalist website or from the Nelson County Cooperative Extension office in Lovingston. Application deadline is February 16, 2009.
For more information, contact Michael Lachance at 434.263.4035 or email cbrvmn@gmail.com

MORE ABOUT THE VIRGINIA MASTER NATURALIST PROGRAM

The Virginia Master Naturalist Program is a statewide corps of volunteers providing education, outreach, and service dedicated to the beneficial management of natural resources and natural areas within their communities. Interested Virginians become Master Naturalists through training and volunteer service.

The process for becoming a certified Virginia Master Naturalist typically takes 6 to 12 months. One starts by completing a 40-hour basic training course offered by a local chapter of the program. An additional 8 hours of advanced training are also required. An important part of the certification process is the required 40 hours of volunteer service.

Chapters are in development across Virginia. In an area where there is no existing chapter, several interested people and an advisor from a sponsoring agency can start their own.

The Virginia Master Naturalist Program is jointly sponsored by

• Virginia Cooperative Extension
• Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation
• Virginia Department of Forestry
• Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries
• Virginia Museum of Natural History

It is based in the Department of Forestry within the College of Natural Resources at Virginia Tech.

Please listen to the event using the audio player below.

Dedication of a Historic Marker honoring the victims of Hurricane Camille

Everyone is invited to attend the dedication of the Hurricane Camille historic marker located at the Rockfish River Trail head on Rt 151 at the bridge over the S. Fork of the Rockfish River. The dedication will occur at 2 pm on August 19, 2008 which is the 39th anniversary of Hurricane Camille in Nelson County. The devastating rains fell in the evening of August 19 and early morning of August 20.

The program will consist of brief remarks by Nelson County officials, representatives of VA Dept of Historic Resources, VA Dept of Transportation, the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, Cliff Wood , former Nelson County Supervisor and others to be announced. Cliff was involved in the Camille marker placed at Woods Mill in 1971. The additional marker is a replica of that and states:

ON AUGUST 20, 1969, TORRENTIAL RAINS, FOLLOWING REMNANTS OF HURRICANE CAMILLE, DEVASTATED THIS AREA. A RAINFALL IN EXCESS OF 25 INCHES LARELY WITHIN A 5-HOUR PERIOD, SWEPT AWAY OR BURIED MANY MILES OF ROADS, OVER 100 BRIDGES, AND OVER 900 BUILDINGS. 114 PEOPLE DIED AND 37 REMAIN MISSING. THE DAMAGE TOTALED MORE THAN $100,000,000 AND VIRGINIA WAS DECLARED A DISASTER AREA.

This second marker is located on the site of the home of Mr and Mrs Ed Ewing who were swept away by the flood and perished on the evening of August 19, 1969. A total of 125 persons died or were lost in Nelson County which at the time was more than 1% of the population.

Light refreshments will be served. Please call 434 361 2251 for further information.

From Frances Fitzgerald’s house along the Tye River in the tiny town of Tyro, in Nelson County, Virginia, there is a soul-stirring view of The Priest. The bony, forested crest of this old knob rises to just over four thousand feet, making it one of the highest peaks in these parts. In the twilight, The Priest and its companion peaks The Friar and Three Ridges seem to march into infinity, and into a seemingly infinite color-series of blues and grays and blue-grays — an ever-shifting palette only faintly suggested by their name, the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Spread out below these towering mountains is a lovely, flower-spattered meadow, which in the autumn is scattered with great round hay bales that look like immense loaves of golden bread. The fields are borded by lazy, wandering hedgerows that follow the streambeds, marked by a meandering line of sycamores and oaks and willows and mountain ash. It’s God’s country, some of the prettiest, most pastoral landscapes on the East coast.

The Priest is a thing that smites even the dullest of hearts with its sheer loveliness — yet to view this landscape simply with ones’ heart is to almost completely miss it. Because standing here in this pretty valley, overshadowed by mountains lifted off a scenic calendar, you are ringed by danger and by death, and the tangible record of catastrophe is everywhere. Above you, there are places where the mountainsides have been raked bare and now stand raw and exposed as open wounds. Scattered in the foothills below, there are immense boulders, some of them as big as boxcars. How did they get there? What cataclysm brought them down?

The Priest is beautiful, but looked at in a more ominous way it is also a great, broad blade almost a mile high, that rakes water out of the sky. In scientific terms, its steepness and height create an “orographic effect,” lifting moisture-laden air masses up into higher elevations, where they cool, condense, and fall as rain — sometimes not gentle rain but fierce, relentless, murderous rain. The very height and drama of these mountains is the source of their danger. The towering crags and ridges form a steep watershed or catchment area, a gigantic basin or a bowl, which gathers water from a vast area and sends it cascading down into narrow streambeds. And the meadow around you, it now becomes obvious, is actually a vast floodplain that has been repeatedly inundated by water and by mud. There have been times when this lowland has become the valley of the shadow of death, and no birds sang.

Then there is the non-obvious matter of Nelson County’s location on the globe. Its particular latitude (about 38 degrees north of the equator) maximizes the chance that disintegrating hurricanes coming up from the distant Gulf but still loaded with almost unimaginable cargoes of water will unburden them in these mountains. That’s why the soporific Tye River, chuckling over its bed of round stones through this peaceful valley, is actually a ravenous beast, the mythological dragon of the human imagination, only temporarily asleep.

We may know these things rationally, but we don’t really know them deep in our hearts, down in the fearful realm below thought.

Part of the reason all this danger is hidden is that we are trapped in human, psychological time. We’re inclined to measure everything against the sixty or seventy or eighty years most of us will be given. Anything that occurs less frequently than this tends to be invisible to us — it vibrates on a slower pulse. Yet even the longest human life on record is so brief it’s akin to the shadow of a bird passing across a wall. Compared to geological time, compared to the rocks and hills around us, a human lifespan is indistinguishable from that of a mayfly, which is born and dies in a single day.

But there are moments — extraordinary moments — when human time comes into direct conflict with geological time. When the implacable inhumanness and grandeur of these great processes rises up around us, like a sleeping monster, and eats us alive.

Such an event occurred here in the mountains of central Virginia on the night of August 19th, 1969, when the remnants of Hurricane Camille collided with a complex system of water-laden air currents in the middle and upper atmosphere. Almost completely without warning, and within the space of eight hours, one of the heaviest rainfalls ever recorded on earth — billions of tons of it — cascaded down these mountainsides, turning these lovely crags and streambeds into a terrifyingly effective drowning machine for all life below. Humans, animals, dogs and cats, trees, boulders, houses, cars, barns and everything else were swept away in a fast-moving slurry of molten soil, a kind of deadly earth-lava that buried everything in its path. The bodies of many people, asleep in their beds when the avalanche smashed into their houses in the night, were never found. The next morning, when Frances Fitzgerald climbed down out of the hole in the ceiling where she and her husband had fled to escape the flood, she saw drowned, half-naked bodies hanging from fences and trees around her house.

“We were encircled by death,” she said.

The rainfall was so cataclysmic that the Office of Hydrology of the Weather Bureau (now the National Weather Service) later estimated that the rainfall “approaches the probable maximum rainfall which meterologists compute to be theoretically possible.” People had to cover their mouths even to breathe. Birds perched in trees simply drowned. A team of geologists, after calculating how much soil would be stripped off the mountainsides due to normal wind, water and weather, concluded that about two thousand years of erosion had taken place in a single night. Other scientists later attempted to calculate just how unusual an event this was. The hydrology office estimated that an event of this magnitude “occurs, on average, only once in more than 1,000 years.” Another researcher, at the University of Virginia, pointed out that such catastrophic events were so rare that one had to look beyond human history and instead study the geologic record of ancient “paleofloods” imprinted in the rocks and soil. Using radiocarbon dating of these ancient sediments, he calculated that the hardest-hit area (the Davis Creek basin) had probably not seen such an event in the previous three to six thousand years — since before the building of the pyramids at Giza.

But whatever metrics one uses, what occurred in Nelson County, Virginia in the last days of August, 1969 — and, a few days earlier along the Mississippi Gulf coast — was an event out of the nether regions of mathematical probability, out of an entirely different scale of time than the one to which humans are accustomed. After it was over, when the mountainsides collapsed in a deafening, continuous roar, people marvelled at the smell that hung in the air, a pungent, earthy smell, the smell of rock and soil that may not have been exposed to air and light in thousands of years. It was the smell of deep time.

It was as though, on an ordinary day in August, in an ordinary place, time itself had been ripped open and laid bare.

This is the story of a collision between human and geological time.

It’s the story of the fragility and unknowableness of everything we think is predictable and secure.

It’s the story of what people do when the worst that could possibly happen, happens.

For many, it became the story of the end of the world.

Roar of the Heavens by Stefan Bechtel was published in 2006 by Citadel Press. It is available as hard back and soft bound. ISBN 0-8065-2706-4

Please imagine that the slide scars represent the headwaters of the S. Fork of the Rockfish River up near Wintergreen Mountain Village above elevation 3500. The torrential rains loosened the soil, the shrubs and trees. That debris began to wash down the mountain, pulling with it rocks and any other thing in its path. As the flow became larger and reached the upper valley at Beech Grove, it broadened out (represented by the debris chutes) and tore a 40 foot deep trench into the earth where Rt 664 now exists. The build up of water, material, animals, automobiles and everything in its path continued to travel under gravity into the Valley Floor at elevation 1300 and began to fan out to cover the valley (represented by debris fans). This occurred in the middle of the night which found the occupants of the one story house in the flood plain at elevation 900 located beside the river at the existing Rt 151 Bridge asleep in their house. Many people thought the roar of the debris flows was thunder as the sky was filled with lightening. It was not. It was the roar of rocks hitting rocks. This debris flow can be estimated to have travelled at a speed of over 40 miles per hour when it reached the South Rockfish Valley you are looking at. The home, located where you are standing, of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Ewing was destroyed and their bodies recovered nearly 1/2 mile down stream. The Charlottesville Daily Progress printed adjacent photo showing the steps remaining to the house, the roof of the house on the bridge and the devastation of the site. The historic marker located beside Rt 151 recognizes the loss of lives and the devastation wrought by Hurricane Camille in the State of Virginia. It is hard to imagine the loss to the Ewing family. A brother lived in the house across the road and three siblings at ELK HILL, the home on the hill. Each woke the morning of August 20^th to see the ghastly site of debris filled, flooded fields and an empty space where the Ewing family had lived and perished.

Please be respectful of this site and honor their memory along with those others lost in the storm of August 19-20, 1969. Thanks you for your visit. To obtain more information, please see the website www.rockfishvalley.org or read the introduction reproduced here from the book entitled Roar of the Heavens (2006) by Stefan Bechtel, a Charlottesville author, which is considered the best presentation of Hurricane Camille.

We are indebted to the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation (www.cacfonline.org) for its support of this exhibit and the duplication and installation of the Hurricane Camille marker.

++Camille Flow Diagram prepared and available through the courtesy of David Spears, Geologist, Virginia Department of Mines and Minerals.

Peter A. Agelasto III
Chairman
Rockfish Valley Foundation
434 361 2251
P O Box 235
Nellysford, VA 22958

Other books on Hurricane Camille
Torn Land by Paige and Jerry Simpson 1970
Hurricane Camille – monster storm of the Gulf Coast by Philip D. Hearn 2004
Category 5, the story of Camille by Ernest Zebrowski and Judith A Howard 2005
Roar of the Heavens by Stefan Bechtel 2006

Scenic Virginia Viewshed Photo Competition

Scenic Virginia wants your beautiful photos of the Commonwealth’s breathtaking vistas for our 2008 Viewshed Photo Competition.

The competition is open to all. We are seeking viewshed photos in the following five categories:

• Coastal /Chesapeake Bay
• Mountains
• Open Space/Farmland
• Rivers/Waterways
• Urban Landscapes.

It’s easy to enter. For full competition rules and regulations, visit

our website and click on the link next to the camera on the Home page.

NOTE: The deadline for photo entries (to be submitted online via Flickr™) is Monday, September 1, 2008 (Labor Day) at 5:00 pm.

Questions? Call (804) 643-VIEW

July Event: The Rockfish Valley geology event was postponed on account of welcomed rain from June 3 until 3 PM July 14 with a rain date of July 15. The public is welcome and our guides/speakers will be Brett Waller, a recognized authority on our area and John McClain who was project engineer for the river restoration. We have a list of persons who signed up for the earlier date and will post some notices as well.

August Event:

Nelson County Life story: areas to be discussed.

Kiosk

Enhancements at Spruce Creek Park

Rockfish Valley Farm

We at Rockfish Valley Foundation participate in a number of programs that preserve and protect land resources. What follows is a listing of our commitments and links to sites where you may learn more about such opportunities. We invite you to visit and see the ongoing efforts to protect and enhance land in the South rockfish Valley that was first settled by Scotch Irish immigrants from Pennsylvania in the 1740s.

Virginia Outdoor Foundation conservation easement
CREP riparian easement
DGIF trails
VDOT river restoration and easement
Adopt a Stream
Adopt a Highway VDOT 2 miles Rt 151 and 2 miles Glenthorne, School house road
Virginia Master Naturalist Chapter with partners:
Chesapeake Bay Wildlife Found warm season grasses
UVA Dept of Environmental Science student projects, geology, ecology
VA Dept of Historic Resources recognition at VA and Dept of Interior historic buildings and farm
VA Tech Extension Service education, practices, environmental science
Virginia Blue Bird Society Trail and monitoring
Stream Monitoring DEQ, DCR
10 Primitive Campsites
Nelson County High School, FFA and environmental science
Star Gazing
Kite flying event
Valley loop trail events Spring Summer and Fall with larger trail

• 1. Biggest success of 2007 – we were the initiating partner in creation of Central Blue Ridge Master Naturalist Chapter. (Both Betsy and I graduated in the first class of 20 people. It is already a success. It would not happen without the efforts of Michael Lachance and Charlotte Rae. Charlotte has agreed to become something of the organizational leader for the foundation contributing a few hours each week. More about that later.
• 2. Biggest surprise – it is a tie: receipt of two significant individual and unsolicited gifts which are being used for trail head development and birding trail development and the chairman being asked to serve on the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation Board.
• 3. Biggest disappointment: grant rejection by VA Department of Conservation and recreation. Propose to reapply and we may be in a far better position.
• 4. Biggest challenge – organizing and implementing invasive plant project to begin this spring. More than ½ dozen volunteers from Master Naturalist program. All have taken a workshop. VDOT has a commitment but no plan. They will adopt our plan if we have one. Resources include Virginia DCR, DEQ as well as VDOT, Ruth Douglas and others from Ivy Creek, books, pamphlets etc. We need a plan.
• 5. Biggest investment: VDOT completion of river work – field remediation from equipment compaction and stream edge planting. Also Nelson county Service Authority restoration of 40 acre pasture – you will see winter wheat growing. Spreading of biosolids has been terminated. Field requires extensive work over 12 moths to restore and balance the field to acceptable level of hay production.
• 6. Most exciting current project: Update of map and master planning opportunity. Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission employee, Cory Anderson, is creating a new map and has also been retained on a piece work basis by RVF. He and Charlotte will be participating in the visit by McKee Carson landscape planners from Charlottesville. If that goes well I shall ask them to make a presentation to the board. Goal: successful grant from VA DCR to be filed in January 2009 and to other grant makers in the region for such things as permanent Farmer’s Market Home and community pavilion. Budget undetermined.

Current Calendar of projects and events:

1. Completion of funded grant projects and reporting, 2007 tax reporting and various government filings; annual budget and treasures report.
2. Earl Swift conversation and book signing: Partnership with Nelson County Historical society, Oakland Museum. March 28 – Nelson Center; March 29 at 10 AM ELK HILL.
3. ELK HILL Cemetery project – VA Foundation for the Humanities grant application for $2500 in discretionary funds to cover cost of Sweet Briar College research project starting April 3.
4. Stream and highway clean up… Waterways and roads are adopted. Volunteers are working. Spring action item.
5. DEQ Rockfish monitoring workshop…late spring. We applied to be a studied site for 2008 and were successful. To partner with master gardeners and CBR Master Naturalist Chapter. Spring action item.
6. Starry Nights Program May 16, 17. Partnership with CBR Master Naturalist Chapter and Charlottesville Astronomical Society. Music, sing-a-log and camp fire cookout.
7. Camille anniversary recognition and dedication of VA Dept of Historic Resources Marker – Tuesday, August 19.
8. Dog Agility Park steering committee formed – to be named Louie’s Place and requires a neighborhood capital fund drive for matching funds. Budget: $25,000.
9. People Agility station trail – after dog Agility Park; budget $15,000.
10. Croquet Court committee formed, court laid out, investigation continuing.
11. Web site update – project of Bluewall LLC. Budget – in part donated.

FUTURE PLANS

1. Undertake a county wide Environmental workshop – desired partners: Rural Nelson, Friends of Rockfish Watershed, VA Master Gardeners, Central blue Ridge Chapter VA Master Naturalist Chapter,VA Chapter The Nature Conservancy and Virginia Conservation Network.. Secure a professional facilitator, grant support. Outcomes: impact citizen awareness and channel energy for ordinance support in Nelson County. I have been asked to speak on opportunities for environmental outreach on May at the roundtable luncheon of grant makers May 6 at 11:45 PM for 20 minutes. Other part of program will be a presentation by Oak Hill Fund.
2. 2. Create S. Rockfish Historic District to be recognized by state and federal agencies. Hope to enlist help of Bob Carter recently moved to the county, employee with VA DHR. Agency has already given verbal support.
3. Obtain extended Scenic River designation – to extend the area of scenic designation already given to the rockfish to include area within S. Rockfish.
4. Data Base building and preparation for late fall “first annual giving campaign”.
5. Spring Fling Kite flying family day. Partnered with state and national kite flying organizations. Spring 2009.
6. Plein Air Paint Out Fall 2009; planning committee identified

Grant prospects

Berkeley foundation – Dog Agility Park
Nelson Fund – people exercise stations – People Agility Park
Oak Hill fund, CACF and others – Environmental workshop

I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce Charlotte Rea, a retired Army Colonel.. She and I became acquainted when she volunteered at the concept phase to help organize theCBR MN Chapter. We went thru the class together with her literally creating it and the chapter from A-Z. I believe if the RVF is to realize its potential we need to do two things – have a person to guide us organizationally and make sure we have the right Board of Trustees. Charlotte has agreed to attempt the former and I will be nominating Paul Davis, Chip Morgan and Hank Gibb as additional Trustees bringing the total to 12.

I firmly believe we are moving from the entrepreneurial phase of a one man show to the development phase of this organization. Our Mission is clear and our opportunity pretty good. At the meeting we will consider instituting active committees and considering goals for an annual campaign. The Foundation’s 501c3 permanent public status review is Spring 2009. If only money grew on trees!

CONTACT: Paula K. Jones (434) 856-8176 Sept. 6, 2005 paula.jones@VDOT.Virginia.gov

ROCKFISH RIVER RESTORATION MOVING FORWARD

LYNCHBURG – Along two miles of the South Fork of the Rockfish River in Nelson County, the land appears scarred and barren but things are, as we know., not always as they seem. The dump trucks, backhoes and bulldozers that have rumbled through this mostly peaceful area since early June are, in reality, there to make things better.

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has been helping this stretch of the South Fork of the Rockfish River to return to a more natural state. In addition, the work has been done to offset damage done to several streams in Amherst County during the construction of the U. S. 29 Bypass of Madison Heights, as is permissible by regulation.

The goal of the approximately $1.4 million project is to lengthen and slow down the stream and to bring it back into one single channel. Over years the stream has been changed through various human actions and acts of nature. To improve what time has caused, crews have been busy laying back the slopes along some sections of the 11,000-foot project. In addition, vanes of large rock have been erected at various spots to create pools. These pools will help in times of flooding and serve as home for native fish.

Once this initial work is complete, VDOT and its contractor will prepare for the planting of about 22,000 native tree seedlings along the river banks to help stabilize the ground further and create a more natural area.

Over twenty area property owners participated in the program by allowing conservation easements. Many of the residents have taken an active interest in the project and have looked forward to seeing the changes that are creating the “new” river.

The Friends of the Rockfish Watershed and the Agelasto Family are offering tours of the Rockfish River restoration project on the Agelasto property and Phase One of the Rockfish Valley Loop Trail. The public is invited to join them at the intersection of Route 151 and the South Fork of the Rockfish River (1.5 miles south of Nellysford) in Nelson County on Saturday, September 17 between 10:00 a.m. and Noon or Sunday, September 18 between 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.

END

STREAM RESTORATION PROJECT FACT SHEET

Design & Construction Management: VDOT Stream Team

Prime Contractor: Allegheny Construction Company, Roanoke, VA

Sub Contractor – Rock: Cedar Mountain Stone, Culpeper, VA

Sub Contractor – Compost Applications & Tubelings: RSG Landscaping, Rustburg, VA

Sub Contractor – Compost: Royal Oaks Farm, Evington, VA

Construction Time: 4-months @ 50-hour weeks

Approximate Project Cost: $1.4 million

Restoration Length: 11,000 linear feet

Channel Dimensions (at riffle): 32’-34’ wide & 2.2’-2.5’ mean depth

Maximum Pool Depth: 7.5’-8.0’

Reason for Project: To mitigate stream and wetland loss resulting from the construction of the Madison Heights Bypass.

Project Goals: To restore a stable dimension, pattern, and profile to the SF Rockfish River; to provide floodplain access to the river for the 1.5-year return interval storm event; to improve aquatic habitat, to restore riparian buffer, and to minimize livestock access to the river.

Number of Rock Structures (cross vanes & j-hook vanes) & Function: 42 – structures constructed to provide grade control, stream bank protection against erosion, and enhanced aquatic habitat.

Riparian Buffer: Approximately 22,000 tubelings, representing 18 species of native trees and shrubs will be planted. The stream bank will be planted with willow, silky dogwood, viburnum, and elderberry to provide stream bank protection. Further back on the floodplain and on the adjacent terraces will be planted with red maple, green ash, willow and pin oak, black gum, spice bush, sycamore, river birch, and winterberry.

Monitoring: VDOT has a mandatory 7-year monitoring requirement.

Approximately 15,000 linear feet of stream bank has been protected by placement in permanent conservation easements. Several thousand linear feet of stream bank have been removed from livestock access.

The area around the river has been seeded with riparian plants. Soon 10,000 native trees and shrubs will be planted along the banks. VDOT is required to maintain and monitor the section for 7 years to ensure it naturalizes correctly.

The river restoration project has recieved a 2005 Scenic Virginia award for Most Creative Scenic Improvement.

The Rockfish Valley Loop trail will provide public access to this stretch of river. Visit often to watch this project unfold over time!