THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 31, 1995 TAG: 9505270211
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
A special natural wonderland in the middle of Kempsville will open as a city park with a ceremony at noon on National Trails Day Saturday.
The Elizabeth River Nature and Canoe Trail, a 30-acre mix of woods and wetlands off Challedon Drive in Carolanne Farm, will be the first all-natural park in the city. The park also is one of the first projects in the new Virginia Beach Outdoor Plan which emphasizes natural areas.
A wide, 3/4-mile-long hiking path, carpeted in soft wood chips, meanders through the park down to the shores of the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River where there's a canoe launch. Soon a marked 2-mile canoe trail will follow this narrow portion of the river where tall cordgrass and other marsh grasses stand as sentinels on the shore.
An old farm pond, once part of the original Carolanne Farm, has gone its natural way and now features freshwater marshes where showy marsh hibiscus is about to burst into bloom. Residents have named the little body of water Turtle Pond, said Clay Bernick, administrator of the city's Environmental Management Center.
On a beautiful day recently the reason for the name was apparent. Water turtles of all descriptions were lined up on a big log in the middle of the pond. They dozed lazily in the sun their legs stretching out behind them to absorb the warmth.
Plans call for a fishing platform at the pond where park visitors can sit in the sun, do some fishing and be a little lazy themselves.
Wild blueberries, although still green, are growing larger by the minute. They'll soon be a tasty feast for myriad songbirds that live in the woods. Lizards scurry off the trail where they were sunning, too, and into the security of the greenery.
Osprey often soar overhead, Bernick said. The habitat along the Elizabeth is well suited to the big fish hawks and there are the plans to erect osprey nesting platforms in the marshes across the river from the park.
There's a stand of old growth woods in an area where the ground is a little higher and the air is made a little cooler by the tall shade trees. Wild azaleas bloomed there in the spring, Bernick said and ferns grow in abundance.
The piece de resistance, a large stand of mountain laurel, is in full bloom now. As you come upon the laurel around a bend in the trail, the shrub's mounded clusters of white blooms against a background of shiny green leaves take your breath away. They form a dense stand in the middle of the return loop at the end of the hiking trail.
The mountain laurel is truly a special feature. Bernick has only seen one other stand of mountain laurel in the city and that was back in Little Neck. Naturalist Vickie Shufer also has seen one in an area off Virginia Beach Boulevard and old Great Neck Road. But she hasn't seen any laurel in Seashore or False Cape state parks or in Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge where the public can see it, too.
A member of the heath family, mountain laurel is a cousin of the wild azalea that blooms nearby in the spring and also of rhododendron, cultivated in gardens. Growing as tall as 20 feet, mountain laurel is an evergreen shrub.
Oddly, many parts of this beautiful plant are poisonous. It would have poisoned livestock at Carolanne Farm if they ever grazed on it. And, Shufer warns, campers shouldn't use mountain laurel branches for cooking marshmallows or hot dogs, for fear their poison would contaminate the picnic.
Bernick is putting the finishing touches on a nature identification guide that will match numbered posts along the trail, ending at the mountain laurel. The guides will be available for pick-up at the Kempsville Library next week.
The park was built with a $15,000 in Coastal Zone Management grant, matched by city funds and in-kind services. Community volunteers participated in plantings and trail building.
Bernick has been extolling the glories of this special place for some time but it was hard for me to believe how any area that natural and unspoiled could be in the middle of populated Kempsville.
But seeing is believing.
P.S. SATURDAY'S A BIG DAY FOR NATURE LOVERS. First Landing/Seashore State Park will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the designation of the park's Natural Area as a Registered National Natural Landmark on National Trails Day, too. The festivities start with a bird walk at 8 a.m. and continue throughout the day with nature walks and canoe tours. A ceremony will take place at 2 p.m. Call 481-4836. MEMO: Where have you seen mountain laurel in Virginia Beach? Call me on
INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter category 2290. Or, send a computer message to
my Internet address: mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
Mountain laurel, a cousin of the wild azalea and rhododendron, is a
stunning feature of the new Elizabeth River Nature and Canoe Trail
in Kempsville.
by CNB