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Generous sponsors,
unbelievable volunteers and a creative ERP staff met the challenges (and
there were many) to accomplish this latest piece of the Paradise Creek
restoration plan...a promising new rain garden to purify runoff into the
creek from a major highway.
 Thirty
volunteers gathered with ERP board members, staff and guests of staff on
December 18 to put in the final layer—-a planting of
*
,
,
species.
“These volunteers were so good at what they were doing that we finished 2
hours ahead of schedule!” said Lyle Jackson, project manager. Staff member
Robin Dunbar added an enjoyable, hands-on educational dimension to the
project so that volunteers could understand the long-term impact their work
would have.
The $90,000 project at
old Craddock High School involved excavation of 300 cubic yards of soil (26
loads), and replacement with layers of sand, gravel and other material that
will filter runoff from busy George Washington Highway before it reaches the
Paradise Creek tributary to the Elizabeth River.
The project is the
latest in a series of efforts to restore the environmental quality of
Paradise Creek by 2007, as a model for improving the Chesapeake Bay--one
creek at a time.
Major sponsors of the
rain garden are Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation,
the City of Portsmouth and Portsmouth School Board, and four
civic groups that have agreed to maintain the site weekly for a year! They
are S.N.E.H.A. (Student National Environmental Health Association) of
ODU, Cradock Helping Hands, the Cradock Civic League, and the
Cradock Lions Club. “This is the most maintenance work ever committed
for one of our plantings,” said appreciative ERP staff member, Amanda Ackiss.
Congratulations and
kudos to all the sponsors, volunteers and ERP staff!
If you’d like to take
part in these exciting and worthwhile projects, contact Lyle Jackson at
(757-399-7487). Just think…each year, you’ll be able to see your efforts
grow. How cool is that! |
