We got a lot of activities going on over the next month - hikes, our monthly meeting, gardening, Clean the Bay Day, and architectural tours. There's something for everyone and we hope you come out partake in the fun. We do particularly need volunteers of our Adopt-A-Spot gardening on May 23rd and Clean the Bay Day on June 6th. Come on out and help make our community better!
On
Saturday, May 16th, from 9:30 am to 11 am, there will be a
guided hike along the nature trail and through Indian River Park. Meet at the park entrance at Rokeby Ave. and Main St. (2001 Rokeby Ave.) and learn about the history of the park, the native trees and plants in this century old forest on the Indian River flood plain, and its value to maintaining the health of local butterfly, bird, and wildlife populations.
Thursday, May 21st, 7 pm is our next regular meeting at Oaklette United Methodist Church; Jackie Shannon from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation will be telling us about
Oyster Gardening and Oyster Restoration along our Eastern Branch. As always, there will be light refreshments and door prizes after the presentation.
On
Saturday, May 23rd, from 9:30 am to noon, come out and help with our
Adopt-A-Spot gardening around the Indian River / Oaklette Bridge, including the area around the last year's tree plantings. We'll be putting in a few new plants, doing weeding, and putting down mulch. Meet at Oaklette United Methodist Church. Please wear closed-toe shoes, a hat and bring work gloves. If you can, bring any gardening tools such as like cultivators, and shovels that are helpful in planting. Participants under 18 years of age must have adult supervision.
We also need on-going volunteers who will be willing to "adopt a corner" routinely go out and check on the bridge gardens and do some routine weeding and watering. Contact us at info@friendsofindianriver.org if you are interested and we'll discuss the details!
Saturday, June 6th is
Clean the Bay Day and we'll be doing our cleanup at Indian River Park from 9 am to Noon at the park entrance at Rokeby Ave. and Main St. (2001 Rokeby Ave.). We will be working along the stream buffer in Indian River Park, the headwaters of the Indian River. This will help to spruce up the area and collect trash that will otherwise get washed into the river and impact wildlife. The city will provide garbage bags. We'll have water and snacks available. Please wear closed-toe shoes, a hat and bring work gloves and other items that may be useful. There is also trash to be collected from the flood plain of the creek, which is wet; bring rubber boots if you can help in this area. Participants under 18 years of age must have adult supervision. We will have a picnic after the cleanup around noon. The Friends of Indian River will provide hot dogs, burgers, and drinks. We invite folks to bring a side dish like dessert, chips, pasta salad to share. To help our planning, please RSVP to info@friendsofindianriver.org if you know you will join us. (Last minute volunteers are still always welcome).
And on
Saturday, June 13th, we organizing a
tour the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's new Brock Environment Center at Pleasure House Point in Virginia Beach. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation's
Brock Environmental Center, now open at Pleasure House Point in Virginia Beach, is one of the most energy efficient, environmentally smart buildings in the world. The Brock Environmental Center is designed to meet the strictest environmental standards in accordance with the Living Building Challenge™ and is the first in the nation to embrace energy and water independence. Come see this cutting edge architectural example. The tour is at (corrected time) Noon but we may meet before hand to carpool, stay tuned for details. Space is limited so you MUST RSVP to info@friendsofindianriver.org
What a great Clean the Bay Day at Indian River Park today. With gorgeous weather over 90 volunteers from around the city came to the park to remove trash and debris that sullies our natural area and would otherwise slowly get washed into Chesapeake Bay. We had participants from Cub Scout Packs 42, 700, and 800, the Junior Master Naturalists, the Oscar Smith High School National Honor Society, Capital One Bank, local residents, and of course, our core volunteers from the Friends of Indian River. Dozens of cub scouts and their families fanned out scouring the main trails, other teams headed out to the far reaches of the park, while the undaunted students from Oscar Smith headed out into the muddy flood plain to retrieve being washed downstream by the storm runoff.
Actually, the park trails were in excellent shape with little trash, allowing us to focus our efforts on the flood plain. By the end of the morning, our hardy volunteers had hauled out 38 consolidated bags of trash, a tire, a fire extinguisher and a muddy, soggy mattress. All in all, we estimated that we removed 850 pounds of trash, which was about 20% less than last year. The most common items were beverage containers - cans, bottles, cups - and food wrappers. The largest item of the day was the mattress. The most interesting item was an old Red Ryder BB Gun (with a warning about the risk of possible eye injury). 
