Be Nice to Our Parks

Our office is spread across the Commonwealth of Virginia. We do work from the mountains of Southwest Virginia to the Atlantic Coast of Virginia Beach, and from the very Northern parts of our state to the border with our North Carolina friends. Our OFFICE office, however, is smack-dab in Richmond.

We’re pretty lucky to call Richmond our home port. We’re convenient to many of our State Parks, can be on Skyline Drive in under two hours, and are about that far from dipping our toes in the Ocean. In addition, Richmond is cut with the mighty James River. As it courses through town its banks are lined with the James River Park System. As it passes the Governor’s Mansion, it features a series of Class IV rapids. You can be in the Federal Courthouse, grab a kayak, and experience the best urban whitewater in North America in about 15 minutes. Pretty cool.

BelleIsle-29A highlight of this stretch of the James is Belle Isle. It was explored in 1607 by Captain John Smith. Yes, THAT Captain Smith. Over the centuries it has hosted a village, a nail foundry, a power plant, and more. During the Civil War it was the unfortunate home to over 30,000 captured Union Soldiers. The island is also a great place to bike, hike, and experience the James. There are numerous pools and eddies around the rapids that provide a great place to slip into the water and cool off as rafters and kayakers stream by. Take a look at this link from RVANews to see what the scene looks like.

Recently, though, we saw a video of some young people arguing and fighting as they left the area. It was ugly, and we won’t share it here. It was followed by a Letter to the Editor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch from Eric Johnston. He decried the party atmosphere that had seemed to overtake Belle Isle, and particularly the amount of trash that the revelers decided to leave behind.

Our final 30 in 30 Grant this year went to Bear Creek Lake State Park. While smoking is banned at various points around the park, there still are some areas where it’s allowed. A vast number of smokers, for some reason, feel as if the best course for ridding oneself of a smoldering butt is to toss it off into the woods. Not only is this simply litter, it’s a fire hazard. And put this into perspective: A cigarette filter is made of cellulose acetate. It takes decades to decompose. There are around 5.6 trillion cigarettes smoked every year. Bear Creek Lake is using their grant to spread cigarette urns around the park and keep them out of the woods. And they were one of several 30 in 30 winners who will use their grants to combat litter in our natural spaces.

We think that one small behavior has little to no effect on our environment. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation recently organized 6,000 volunteers at 275 sites across the Commonwealth to clean over 530 miles of shoreline – from our tributaries into the Bay and on to the Atlantic. In a single day they collected about 125,000 pounds of trash and debris. 125 THOUSAND. That litter didn’t get there overnight and it wasn’t from one person. Much like the disturbing video we saw, what has happened at Bear Creek and what the Chesapeake Bay Foundation uncovered comes down to a simple behavoir – disrespect. For our environment and for each other.

The next time you venture out to appreciate the beauty that Virginia offers, be nice to her. She’s the only one you’ve got.