Stream team targets Blackwater Creek

This week, hundreds of volunteers will fan out and dig in to help improve area waterways.

Blackwater Creek is the target of this year’s Extreme Stream Makeover, a project sponsored by the James River Association.

The idea? For volunteers to spend one week doing projects along or near streams that ultimately will improve water quality.

How to help
Volunteers still are needed for projects every day except Tuesday. If you would like to help, go to the temporary office at the Wards Crossing shopping center in front of Barnes and Noble. You will be asked to register and fill out a few basic forms, and then you will be taken in vans to the different work locations. Wear sturdy shoes and clothes you don’t mind getting dirty. James River Association will provide tools and gloves.

Lunch will be provided to morning shift volunteers and full-day volunteers. Snacks and water will be provided to all. Registration for morning and full-day shifts is from 8 to 8:30 a.m. and for afternoon shifts from 12:45 to 1:15 p.m.

Projects include:
• Planting stream buffers along Ivy Creek at Peaksview Park
• Building and planting a rain garden at Peaksview Park
• Planting stream buffers along Rock Castle Creek at Wards Crossing West shopping center
• Picking up trash along Wards Road
• Building and planting a rain garden at Jefferson Forest High School
• Improving a storm-water retention pond at the Wards Crossing shopping center

Those volunteers will help restore stream banks, pick up trash and even plant rain gardens to filter out pollutants from storm water before it enters waterways. Projects are planned at places including Jefferson Forest High School, Peaks View Park and along Wards Road.

Between donations and in-kind volunteer work, the Lynchburg-area project is estimated to cost about $280,000. And compared to other Extreme Stream Makeovers done in Richmond and Colonial Heights, Lynchburg’s project has brought out the most response for free labor, said Michelle Kokolis, watershed scientist with the James River Association.

“I was incredibly surprised by how willing the local companies were to donate their time and labor for these projects,” she said. “We’ve gotten a lot of response for volunteers and people willing to sell material or work at cost, but we’ve never had so many people come out and say ‘we would be willing to do major work for you for free.’”

Among the laborious jobs already under way are grading down steep stream banks along Rockcastle Creek as it flows past Wards Crossing West shopping center and the basic construction for a large rain garden at Peaks View Park, Kokolis said.

Tuesday, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and cabinet members will be at Peaks View to help plant a buffer along Ivy Creek.

Project sites were chosen for numerous reasons, including how big an impact work would have on local water quality and visible the site would be, Kokolis said. Organizers chose high profile places with the goal of educating and inspiring the public, she said.

All major streams in the Blackwater Creek watershed are considered impaired by the Depart-ment of Environmental Quality because of high levels of e. coli bacteria. However, the streams also bear scars from large amounts of storm water rushing through after rain and other impacts from development.

The idea of an intensive weeklong project focusing on one stream basin was hatched a number of years ago and was modeled after the ABC TV show Extreme Makeover, Home Edition, said James River Association president Bill Street.

A 2005 study conducted by the organization examined the 10,000-square-mile James River watershed, and results helped organizers select project sites, he said.

The first event, in 2007, was in Colonial Heights and last year, Richmond was selected. Lynchburg was chosen for 2009 because numerous studies by Lynchburg College were completed on the Blackwater Creek watershed and there was a lot of community support, Street said.

Lynchburg environmental reviewer Erin Hawkins, who helped plan the event, said the projects may be a drop in the bucket for regional water quality, but the biggest impact will be public education.

“We know the importance of this, but by bringing in volunteers and encouraging people to participate, it creates that awareness in the community,” she said.

“These are small projects, but when you are tackling a watershed of this size, it’s small steps. Maybe in the future we can do projects on a larger scale, but you have to start somewhere.”