1 of 3
Team Streams volunteers cleaned up trash at Bryan Park during the 2021 Conservation Games.
2 of 3
A Team Forests volunteer drags away bush honeysuckle at an invasive plant cleanup during the 2020 Conservation Games.
3 of 3
Team Fields volunteers harvested fall vegetables at Shalom Farms during the 2020 Conservation Games.
When this old world starts getting you down, one way to cope is sliding on the gardening gloves and getting your hands in the earth or grasping invasive plants while putting in others more conducive. If this calls to your nature, you can register for free and join in the Capital Region Land Conservancy’s third annual Conservation Games, Sept. 30-Oct. 16.
During this 17-day event, volunteers join three teams of interest: fields, forests or streams. Points are assigned for specific activities, ranging from field work to fundraising and participating in educational activities in person and online. The winning team picks up a gold medal at the closing ceremonies. But it’s about more than going for the gold.
The nonprofit CRLC formed in 2005 with the specific goals of conserving and protecting the natural and historic land and water resources of Virginia’s Capital Region for the benefit of current and future generations.
According to CRLC Director Parker Agelasto, the 260 participants in 2021’s Conservation Games accumulated more than 350 volunteer hours, 125 hours of learning and $30,000 in funds raised for land conservation.
This effort has assisted the organization in the green-lighting of recent and ongoing projects.
One done deal, says Agelasto, is the transfer of more than 370 acres at Malvern Hill Farm to the National Park Service, which completed a years-long effort to protect a working farm and shore up park and historic battlefield lands. “It’s all formally protected, and this is a total of 875 acres, part intended by Henrico County for a future park, and that’s under Department of Historic Resources easement protection, and land slated for the NPS. The James River Association is putting a public canoe/kayak boat launch into Turkey Island Creek. So we don’t need to raise money for that.”
In August 2021 the group secured from the Conservation Foundation 5.2 acres along Dock Street, both to assure public access and further protect “The View That Named Richmond.” In past years the prospect loomed of high-rise residential towers blocking this bend of the James River as it turns toward the city. The reluctant city founder William Byrd II took stock of this panorama and recognized its resemblance to a similar sensual curve as viewed from Richmond Hill outside London.
“We’re within $750,000 of the $5.2 million we need for the acquisition,” Agelasto explains, “and we have a new Cabell Foundation challenge grant for $250,000, so for every dollar we raise, it’ll be matched 1 to 1, and we can get there fairly quickly.”
1 of 4
“The James from Libby Hill” (2002) by Camden Whitehead, among the prints donated to the Capital Region Land Conservancy to assist in its fundraising efforts to protect this view in Richmond by acquiring acreage along Dock Street
2 of 4
“The Thames from Richmond Hill” (2002) by Camden Whitehead
3 of 4
“James River, Morning” (2002) by Matthew Todd Robins
4 of 4
“The Thames at Richmond, Evening” (2002) by Matthew Todd Robins
An aspect of raising funds to secure the property for public access in perpetuity is the sale of prints of original art by artists and architects Camden Whitehead and Matthew Robins. They exhibited their work in London 20 years ago in a show dedicated to mark the centenary of an act passed by Parliament protecting the view of the Thames from Richmond Hill. This became the first phase of the Thames Landscape Strategy. This effort holds a resonance to the CRLC’s efforts here.
“Our donation of these prints expresses our optimism that the CRLC is taking effective steps to assure that the view and the land within that view will be secured and protected for current and future generations,” says Whitehead, recently retired after 37 years of teaching in Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Interior Design. “The CRLC and Scenic Virginia are working persistently and diligently to also educate property owners and land stewards of the need to identify and protect properties, waterways and viewsheds that hold our history and, more importantly, express our values.”
Agelasto says, “Our goal is to transfer the property to the city and the James River Park System by the end of the year.”
The preservation of this property dovetails with the creation by the CRLC and the James River Association of the James River Center.
The CRLC is also seeking to shore up the lands within the New Market Heights Battlefield site. Here, during Sept. 29-30, 1864, Union forces collided with Confederates in an effort to puncture the Richmond defenses and distract from Federal operations around Petersburg. New Market Heights, or Chaffin’s Farm, is notable for the participation of the United States Colored Troops, where 14 members received Medals of Honor. One of those recognized for his action in that fight was 1st Sgt. Powhatan Beaty, born into slavery in Richmond. The lands include the 28 acres of Four Mile Creek Farm, donated in July to the CRLC by Howard C. Eberly III, whose family lived and worked the land for 133 years. Four Civil War battles roared near and on the property.
Other achievements of the CRLC include the clearing of the way by City Council for donation by a landowner to the group of 3 acres adjacent to the Boulevard Bridge and Westover Hills Boulevard. “It’s had an access trail for six, seven years,” Agelasto says, “but it’s still codified by the city as private land, and we’re working to acquire it for donation to the James River Parks.”
The CRLC with its partners embraced the preservation of 40 acres near Ettrick and Virginia State University to become Chesterfield County parkland. That endeavor comes at the end of a 30-year effort to create a trail along the Appomattox River to connect the canals and historic mill sites involving Petersburg and Ettrick’s industrial past. This project entailed the complicated tracing of title deeds and water rights dating to the 18th century and the surveying of 20 islands in the Appomattox River. “You don’t think much about water rights here in the East,” Agelasto muses, “that’s more something you hear about out West.”
And guess what? You can participate in furthering these goals by signing in and showing up. Enjoy your Conservation Games.
