Happy Earth Day!

On Sunday, I tabled an Earth Week event on the downtown mall in Charlottesville.  It was called the Charlottesville Eco Fair!  There were a lot of other environmental groups tabling as well, so it made for a fun and informative day.

showing off the cool Rivanna River maps - waterproof and tearproof!

We got a number of visitors at our table, most of which had heard of the Rivanna River... though we also had a few who did not even know that a river ran through the middle of Charlottesville!  That always amazes me.  But, we did our job and informed them.

 It was a bit cloudy, but warmed up by noon!  The other funny thing was how many politicians were there to schmooze the non-profits.  They were all about saying hello, handing out those cards, and being friends with the environmentalists.  It's always surprising how many offices and positions there are even in local government.  Some of the positions these folks were running for I had never even heard of!

We also got a fair number of high school students from Charlottesville H.S. who were getting extra credit in their science class to visit tables at the Eco Fair!  They were on their cell phones the whole time, but good for those kids, getting out to learn a little something!  All in all, it was a nice event and a great Earth Week in C-ville.  I got to talk to people and practice my awesome merch skills on the table again...

interactions with teens

Rivanna Sojourn!

I'm a little slow getting these posts out, but it's been a busy week and weekend with RCS!  It's Earth week, so there was a lot going on in Charlottesville.
On Saturday morning was the Rivanna River Sojourn, sponsered by RCS.  We had about 20 people come out for the sojourn, even though the weather was a bit iffy!  It was cold and overcast the whole morning, with some sprinkles and then rain in the afternoon.  Not the perfect day to be out on the water, but it sounds like every weekend has been rainy down here lately, so it was about as good as it gets!

some of the boats RCS provided!

Marcy enjoying a donut as people arrive

some sojourn participants filling out waivers!

Robbi led an intro about RCS and the sponsors of the sojourn and included a little shout-out to Patagonia for lending me out to help for 6 weeks this year!  We had a lot of beginners (including me) on kayaks and canoes, and a few very experienced paddlers.  Ethan, from Blue Ridge Mountain Sports gave us a little safety clinic, but we spent the morning on the Rivanna Reservoir, so there were no rapids or difficulties to deal with.  Very good pace for beginners!

After the UVA crew team had cleared out of the reservoir, we were ready to go!

view from the river as everyone boards their boats!

on the Rivanna!

We all brought a trash bag and gloves, to keep an eye out for any trash we spotted along the way.  RCS joined 1% for the Planet in the fall after I shared the website with them, and now they have a new partner through the program, Plow and Hearth!  Plow and Hearth came out on Friday and did a big river clean up, so we didn't find too much on our trip up the river.  NBC 29 News came out and took a little video of us, you can see the back of me on a canoe for a second!!!  29 News short on RCS  They seemed to think that our event was a clean up rather than a paddle trip, but it was good advertisement! 

I shared a canoe with Marcy, the Deputy Director of RCS.  We had so much fun trying to stay in a straight line as we rowed up the river!  My arms were sore the next day!  On our trip, we saw a heron, another weird bird that we didn't know the name of, and then a cute little beaver swimming along next to us with some long grass!  It was so quick, I didn't get a picture, but he was a cute little guy.  Why don't people go for canoe trips on the Rivanna all the time?  It was wonderful.  

check out my official hat!  

Blue Ridge Mountains

The drive from Boston to Charlottesville takes me 11 hours almost to the minute!  With the rain and storms this week, I was expecting a long drive, but when I got into PA, things cleared up.  Everytime I enter Virginia, I feel like the mountains and clouds welcome me home in all their glory.  It could be a perfectly clear, blue bird day or, as it was this trip... there could be storm clouds to my left in Shenandoah with half rainbows appearing over the mountains and then beautiful blue skies, marshmallow clouds, and sunshine to my right.  Virginia is the most beautiful hometown state there could be.

view of crazy clouds from I-81 South

I love driving through Virginia, and especially as you cut over into Charlottesville and get to cross over the Blue Ridge Mountains.  I had to stop at one scenic view to take pictures... 

It smelled of fresh rain and though you can't see it well in this picture, everything down here is vibrant green.  It's almost like a highlighter green, it's so bright!  Maybe it's also seeing spring growth after being in Boston where the snow has finally melted and we can finally see the brown, soggy grass.  Spring is in full bloom here, leaves on the trees, grass, bloomed and flowering trees.  Ok, well here's a quick view from the front yard!

on the left you will note a rubber snake hanging from the tree branch, c/o Mr. Johnny Mayo

I'm right back to work with RCS, which is fun.  This is an exciting week for the staff, as 2 of the part timers are in finals week, and RCS is hosting it's Rivanna Sojourn on Saturday morning.  This is a paddle on the river, led by RCS staff with kayaks, paddles, and lunch provided.  I missed the Fall Sojourn, so I'm excited to see what the turn out is like.  

On Tuesday, I got the chance to table for RCS at an event at Blue Ridge Mountain Sports (BRMS).

I think my time as Merch point person really paid off here

This corner of the store usually holds Kayaks, but doubles as an event space!

The event was a "Lunch and Learn" hosted by the Rivanna River Basin Commission.  The RRBC invited two speakers for the talk, one from Scenic Virginia and a representative from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).  There were a lot of representatives from local organizations focused on preserving natural resources, as well as some folks from Senator Warner's office and other local branches of government.  It was an interesting turn out and there was a lot of mingling and networking that happened...

folks start trickling in

I got a whole page of additions to the RCS email list!  *Patagonians may recognize a fjord flannel behind me

Though the speakers acknowledged that they were "preaching to the choir" at this presentation, it seemed like everyone got energized by the event.  For my first tabling ever, I thought it went well, and I learned that I can use my customer service skills in many different settings!  I may not know the answer to everyone's questions about RCS and the Rivanna, but I know how to redirect and satisfy them enough to be interested in what the group is doing, and maybe even get them on the email list!  It was a lot of fun!
Now it's back to the office for me today.  We're expecting another storm this afternoon, which will likely cancel my plans to paddle down the river with one of the RCS River Guardians today.  We were planning to kayak through town a little, but the water levels are pretty high from the rain over the past few days already.  So, I may have to delay my first paddle experience on a river until Saturday's event.  That's all for now!

Well, I am gearing up to head south again!  The weather is warming up, which means the river is coming alive again after the long winter.  RCS will be hosting it's annual Spring Sojourn next Saturday, April 25, where the community will join together to paddle the Rivanna Reservoir.  I'm excited to get back to the river and be able to help RCS with this major event of the year for them.  I'm also nervously(?) excited for my first time kayaking on a river!! I've been in plenty of boats/kayaks/canoes before on lakes, even on a sailboat on the Charles River in Boston, but never like this: in a single person kayak, on a moving river.  Luckily the Rivanna doesn't seem to be a terribly rough river to navigate, as it's a bit smaller than it's larger tributaries, such as the James River.  I should make it through the experience safe and sound... but I'll keep you posted and take pictures!  My baggies and quick-drying fabrics will definitely come in handy this trip. :)

See you in beautiful, blooming Charlottesville, Virginia in just a couple of days!

Board of Director's and Mr. Wal-Mart

There is a lot of paperwork involved in running a non-profit organization... a lot of of reports, letters, proposals, and more reports on progress of those previous reports, letters and proposals.  I got to attend the RCS monthly board meeting recently, which was a neat way to go behind the scenes of the group.  The oddest part of the meeting was that we met at the Wal-Mart distribution center!  They switch up the meeting location each month so that the same members are not having to travel the same distance every time.  This one was about a 40 min drive out of Charlottesville, closer to a few of the board members homes.

It was such a strange juxtaposition to be at the meeting of an environmental group working to preserve a local river, surrounded by these weird pictures of Sam Walton (Wal-Mart founder) all around the conference room...
Thank you, Sam.  I trust you and your advice on success.



One of the board members works at the distribution center, so he signed up to use the conference room for the evening.  It is a distribution center, so there were a lot of interfering sounds coming from the warehouse throughout the evening.
The meeting was pretty interesting to observe.  It was fairly formal, following the normal structure of such meetings:  old business, new business, budget report, executive director's report.  One of the big topics of discussion was an appeal letter for hopefully Major Donors.  This has apparently been a topic of discussion for many months, and the hope was to finally settle on the wording of the letter.  It was pretty funny to watch the Exec Dir handle the discussion so similarly to how we handle a lot of situations at Patagonia... the customer is always right!  Our reality is not always their reality, so we can end up talking in circles a lot!  One board member had a very strong feeling for including a dollar amount in the letter, just to make it a clear invitation to donate.   By the end of the discussion the same board member suggested not including a dollar amount, just to make it clear because as board members, they would be the ones signing a lot of these letters to acquaintances.  The Exec Dir. handled it all so well, especially watching the conversation go in a complete circle from the same board member!  It was funny.  I think we ended up coming to a decision, and will be getting those letters finalized and printed this week!
RCS is a lot like running the store.  You have to communicate with a lot of different people, like we do with corporate, regional managers, the Reno distribution center... and you have to keep your donors and board of directors happy, just like we do with our customers.
We got a little bit of rain this week, which will help the water levels for anyone out for a paddle on the river.  RCS has a big event on October 18, the Rivanna River Sojourn, so we're keeping fingers crossed for more rain so that it's more of a paddle than a wet hike!

10th graders are SMART!

I had a super fun day on the river with about 40 10th graders!  RCS does a lot of education events with local schools, so I tagged along on one with 2 sophomore science classes learning about their local watershed...

First of all, their science teacher was amazing!  I wish my science teachers had been that fun and great with students.  I might have liked science better.  We headed down to Sandy Beach on the Rivanna River, in Palmyra.  This was an all day event for the kids, so they all packed lunch and dressed for being outside.

There were 4 stations that the kids rotated through, led by volunteers - mostly retired science teachers! We led the station on Water Quality and talked to the students about the meaning of a watershed and the importance of water quality for sustaining life.  We had them test the 4 parameters of water quality: pH, dissolved Oxygen, Temperature and Turbidity. 

The amazing thing was how engaged the kids were through the whole lesson!  They answered most of our questions with the right answer, or made really great guesses.  I was always shy in school and was so nervous about giving the wrong answer in class, so it was neat to see how open they were.  

The other stations covered GPS and Geo-caching, river bug identification, and land management...

collecting river bugs!

sorting the bugs

some good findings!

It was a really fun day and I not only learned a lot, but felt like it was encouraging to see young people understanding and caring about their river.  They got to be there, touch it, and will remember this day their science class spend the day at the river.  We also got to see some of the RCS River Stewards and other volunteers on their way down river with 60 tires they had pulled out that day!  

These are the last of about 150 that were found in one area of the river this month.  Hopefully the publicity that RCS got for removing the tires will discourage citizens from disposing of their spare tires in the river!  It costs about $15-25 per tire at local recycling facilities, so you can see both sides of it.  Many of these tires had been under water for a loooong time.  It was a great time to pull them out, while the water level has been low.  There are 2 giant tractor tires still left to get out, but they will need a strong team in place to try and get those to budge.  My favorite day of internship so far!!

Still Meadow and the River Anna - sounds like the title of a novel!

One thing that has caused the most reflection for me is reading about the history of the Rivanna River.  Growing up in Virginia, we would take school trips to Jamestown every year.  There is a lot of history in here in general and especially connected to these rivers.  It’s certainly not all happy history, but it’s a part of who we are today and you can see so much of it in these natural areas.  It kind of makes me want to watch Disney’s Pocahontas, even though it’s pretty much a fictional cartoon story. Fun fact: The Rivanna River was named after Queen Anne, River Anna!

A nice historical summary of the river, from the RCS website:

Rivanna

“The Rivanna River, the largest tributary to the upper James River, was named for Queen Anne, as it was the custom in early Virginia history to name streams for royalty. Its headwaters originate in the Blue Ridge Mountains of central Virginia, in both Albemarle and Greene Counties. The river meanders through the City of Charlottesville and stretches south through Fluvanna County, joining with the James River at Columbia. The confluence of the North and South forks, just upstream from Darden Towe, forms the Rivanna’s mainstem, a total of 50 miles in length. The 766 square miles of watershed is home to a variety of terrestrial and aquatic species, including the rare and endangered James Spinymussel (Pleurobema collina). Remarkably, sixty-five percent of the Rivanna Watershed is forested, which helps retard pollution.

Historically, the banks of the Rivanna River were home to the Monacan Indian Tribe. And, with the establishment of the European settlements, the Rivanna became an essential resource for early agricultural activity. Thomas Jefferson enhanced the river’s usefulness by improving navigation, in large measure to accommodate the transport of wheat and tobacco from Monticello and other regional farms.”

I’ll try to get a picture of the James Spinymussel to share!!

My own history of the Rivanna was growing up so close to it. 

My brother and his friends would go out to play around the train tracks and in the river, as boys do.  And I would tag along, as the annoying little sister, exploring and endlessly entertained by the wonders of nature.  As a child, I never thought about the preservation of these spaces but simply enjoyed them, and as I’ve grown, the Rivanna has remained a special childhood memory.  Coming back here and learning about river conservation in relation to my river has been very surreal.  I’m thinking of it so differently this time.  It’s funny that I’m very aware of other environmental issues in Boston and other places, but not so much in my hometown, where I grew up and spent so much time.  I guess it was just never on my mind as a child, so even as an adult, the childlike mentality remained. 

Fields behind Still Meadow

  Our neighborhood has developed a lot in the past 15 years.  There used to be a farm behind our house where the Still Meadow development now stands. They have made a nature trail that’s a little easier to follow around the edge of the river, rather than our old tiny trails through the woods.  Another memory that comes to me is of cutting back through the farm and fields of hay bales to the train tracks and river.  There are less hay bales now, but still some fields and corn crops!  The area has been maintained very well by the farmer who still lives in the same house, though his backyard is Still Meadow now.  He keeps the grass mowed on a trail that follows the river, and even has a playing field mowed out in the middle of the open space.  It’s a really nice resource for the people in this area, and for my dad, who loves to run.  I know I’d rather run through an open field than on pavement.  So, with the bad there has been some good! 

My dad and I went on a walk the other evening to take some pictures.  The water level is low right now, so we’re hoping for rain soon.  Again, not something I ever would have thought about 

until this trip.  I sort of miss the childlike wonder of just enjoying it for what it is and not thinking about the water levels or following a cut path down to the river, but just finding my way in! 

can you spot the deer?  he spotted me while I was taking this!

The walking path in Still Meadow

There's one of those hay bales I mentioned. A creek connecting to the Rivanna

locally grown corn!  you actually don't want to eat this.