ESM 2011: Stoney Run

Past Extreme Stream Makeovers

Blackwater Creek 2009 Extreme Stream Makeover

From October 19-22, volunteers from the Lynchburg area participated in the James River Association’s Extreme Stream Makeover 2009:  Blackwater Creek.  This year’s makeover encompassed the entire Blackwater Creek watershed, reaching into parts of the City of Lynchburg as well as Bedford and Campbell Counties.   Volunteers worked on a variety of projects including building rain gardens and BayScapes, buffer planting, a detention pond retrofit, streambank stabilization and trash collection.

Over the course of the week, we worked with 396 volunteers including 294 students from 7 schools ranging in age from 4th grade to college.  We completed 7 projects in 4 different locations and planted a total of 1857 plants.  Our projects in the City included a stormwater pond retrofit project at a shopping center, the construction of a rain garden and buffer planting at Peaks View Park.  In Campbell County we completed a major streambank stabilization project.  This project included the grading and replanting of 75 linear feet of stream bank.  Our Bedford County projects included the construction of a BayScape and educational garden at Jefferson Forest High School. 

Funding for the Blackwater Creek’s project was provided by Altria, the Center for Watershed Protection, The Easley Foundation, Honeywell, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, The Royal Bank of Canada and Waste Management.   Our partners on this year’s project included the City of Lynchburg, Bedford County, Campbell County, Lynchburg College, and the Center for Watershed Protection, as well as numerous local businesses, contractors, developers and landscapers that provided much needed in-kind support for the project.

Horsepen Branch 2008 Extreme Stream Makeover

Having heard about the Extreme Stream Makeover that took place in Colonial Heights in 2007, local garden clubs expressed an interest in completing a similar project in an area lying west of the Boulevard in Richmond. Horsepen Branch, a tributary of the James River, was selected due to its classification as an impaired or dirty waterway and easy access to potential project sites. Over the years, the bank of Horsepen Branch has eroded or worn away and the number of plants along the bank has decreased. Rain water runoff and pollutants from commercial & residential development, combined with the accumulation of large amounts of trash have contributed to its steady decline. However, this effort to restore the health of the stream and the surrounding watershed will make a meaningful difference, both to its short- and long-term health.

The goal of this project is to improve the water quality of Horsepen Branch and increase awareness about the importance of stream health as part of the overall water quality of the James River.

Extreme Stream Makeover Horsepen Branch came to a close on Saturday, October 25 and was a huge success. Over 700+ volunteers came out from local organizations, schools and businesses to help us with this worthwhile cause. Below are some of the achievements that marked this extraordinary week-long project:

• Engaged more than 700 volunteers
• The project was truly a community wide event engaging 4 garden clubs, 25 businesses, 8 schools, 3 local government agencies, 1 church and 3 other nonprofit organizations
• Completed 13 projects at 7 sites
• Planted over 2,500 trees, shrubs and flowers
• Restored 1.8 linear miles of streamside buffers
• Cleaned up trash along 1 mile of stream
• Installed 5 rain gardens and bioretention areas to filter stormwater pollution
• Installed 972 square feet of permeable pavement
• Educated 230 students on their connection to the James River
• Trained and equipped 35 homeowners for installing rain barrels at their homes
• Made over 640,000 impressions to people in the region through more than 20 media reports, announcements and newsletters
• Invested over $150,000 in restoring a degraded neighborhood stream that will also benefit the Chickahominy River, James River and Chesapeake Bay

Oldtown Creek 2007 Extreme Stream Makeover

Oldtown Creek runs from Chesterfield County, through Colonial Heights where it meets up with the Appomattox River. Historically, the creek has been susceptible to flooding due to an excessive amount of stormwater runoff. Extreme Stream Makeover is a series of demonstration projects that addresses the runoff issue by reducing the amount of rain water that collects within the banks of Oldtown Creek and its tributaries, as well as water quality.

Oldtown Creek was selected through a complex process involving geographic information systems (GIS) modeling and on-the-ground assessments of activities occurring within the creek as well as what was occurring in the surrounding watershed. After many days of exploring the Oldtown Creek watershed, the James River Association developed a list of 69 potential restoration projects. Extreme Stream Makeover projects were evaluated for feasibility, cost, community interest, land ownership, & influence on water quality improvement. (See the Vulnerability Analysis for more information.)

The majority of the projects will take place within the City of Colonial Heights during the week of April 16 - 21, 2007. Individual projects range from trash clean-ups, constructing rain barrels to collect rooftop runoff, planting native grasses and shrubs along the banks of the creek and its tributaries, and constructing pollutant-reducing bayscapes and rain gardens.

Funding has been provided by the Virginia Department of Conservation, Philip Morris, Waste Management, and Home Depot. Our list of “on-the-ground” partners has been growing to include the City of Colonial Heights, Friends of the Lower Appomattox River, Crater Planning District Commission, Home Depot, Sam’s Club, and Philip Morris.