THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996 TAG: 9606210272
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COVER STORY
LENGTH: 161 lines
THE EASTERN BRANCH of the Elizabeth River, a ribbon of water bordered by marsh grasses bending in the breeze, snakes along the western edge of the city.
Residents in places like Arrowhead, Elizabeth River Shores or Fairfield are acquainted with the river because it is part of their neighborhood boundaries, but most folks in Virginia Beach haven't met this little tributary or worse, don't even know it exists.
So Virginia Beach, introduce yourself to the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River and discover why this small, quiet stretch of salt water and marsh in the middle of Kempsville could be the linchpin in reclaiming the grand dame Elizabeth River from the grip of pollution.
You'll find the Eastern Branch headwaters at a dam, separating it from a borrow pit that was dug to build the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway's Witchduck interchange. Then the river curves through Kempsville, meanders by Chesapeake and ends in Norfolk where it meets the mighty Elizabeth River, mother of not only the eastern but also the western and southern branches.
Depending on your perspective, the Eastern Branch joins, or separates, Virginia Beach from both Norfolk and Chesapeake in places. With its many fingers, the whole river system manages to touch all cities in South Hampton Roads.
You can greet the Eastern Branch from afar when you cross a bridge on Princess Anne Road just beyond Witchduck Road. You also can salute her when you cross Interstate 64's Twin Bridges or in several places along South Military Highway where the river comes close to lapping the road.
But to get to know this hidden treasure well, go to Carolanne Farm Neighborhood Park, where Challedon Drive and Gainsborough Road meet, and explore the Elizabeth River Nature and Canoe Trail. Newly printed trail guides are due at the Central and Kempsville libraries this week.
There, shaded by a grand old oak tree, you can dabble your fingers in the water at the canoe launch. Red-winged blackbirds with crimson shoulder epaulets, glinting in the sun, fly from marsh grass tip to marsh grass tip.
An exotic looking yellow-crowned night heron flies down the river's watery path, lands in the shade of a tree on the shore and spreads its blue-gray wings to cool. A white egret stands motionless, an erect finial on a canoe trail sign, and an osprey soars overhead with a fish in its talons.
This is the Elizabeth River as it may have looked once across the region.
``You can get a sense of what it used to look like,'' said Clay Bernick, the city's environmental management administrator, ``yet within a 5-mile radius, there are 150,000 people.''
Many more people than that live close to the Elizabeth River in South Hampton Roads. For centuries, the river has been good to the area, providing a rich livelihood for citizens in the cities whose shores are washed by its fingers.
Now the river is a victim of its own prosperity. Its depth changed by dredging, its width altered by silting from development and its purity severely damaged by pollution, the Elizabeth River is considered ``one of the more seriously degraded urban rivers in the United States,'' according to an Elizabeth River Project report.
The Elizabeth River Project involves a group of citizens who have been studying the river since 1991. Their planning came to a culmination at a conference Friday when they presented an 18-point action plan to restore the river.
Bernick has been involved with the project only peripherally as part of his job with the city. On the other hand, he knows the Eastern Branch well because the Elizabeth River Nature and Canoe Trail was created in part with a Coastal Zone Management grant administered by his office.
Another river intimate is J. William ``Bill'' Cofer. With the Virginia Pilots Association since 1979, Cofer has guided many a ship down the Elizabeth River, but not many into the shallow Eastern Branch, which is no more than 5 or 6 feet deep at high tide.
``That's good for the river,'' Cofer said. ``It keeps the boats out and it's too shallow for jet skis. There really is nothing but canoes up here.''
Although Cofer doesn't travel the Eastern Branch as a pilot, he has traipsed its shoreline as a photographer. Many photos of birds and pristine marsh grasses that he took along the Eastern Branch, unlike more industrial shots taken on the main river, were part of a slide show presented at the conference.
``When you think about the entire Elizabeth River, Virginia Beach has very little of it,'' Cofer said, ``but it has a very critical part, the part that has the potential for creating the base to restore the rest of the river.''
The main body of the river is almost all bulkheaded, whether at the Naval Base, around Waterside, at an industrial site or a marina. But in Virginia Beach, the river is still largely bordered by marsh grasses. These grasses are the nursery grounds for young fish and shellfish that someday will grow up to populate the rest of the river, Cofer explained.
``What we do here is going to affect the entire river,'' he said. ``The more abundant the life is here, the more life the whole river will have.''
Virginia Beach residents can do their part for the restoration action plan by using fertilizers and pesticides judiciously and cleaning up animal wastes on their lawns to prevent these pollutants from entering the river in stormwater runoff, Cofer said. Today, runoff is how 80 to 90 percent of new pollution enters the river.
``I don't think that people who live on these streets realize the impact they have on the river,'' he added. ``The bottom line is stewardship.''
Increasing public access to increase citizen appreciation for the river and its restoration is part of the Elizabeth River Project action plan, too, and the Elizabeth River Nature and Canoe Trail is a good example. Now Virginia Beach is looking at the possibility of developing other public areas along the water's edge on other city property, at the end of dead-end streets or on streets that exist only on paper, Bernick said.
Bernick said public access areas, like the nature and canoe trail, can be a real asset not only to people but to wildlife. He's been surprised at the diversity of birds he's seen in the 30-acre park, a mixture of woods and wetlands. The oasis of green is a haven for wading birds, raptors and songbirds, he said.
``These spots have a real critical role, like little stopovers on the river corridor,'' he said. ``As the area develops more and more of these little islands, they will become more and more valuable.''
Carolanne Farm Neighborhood Park is on the site of the neighborhood's old sewage treatment plant, Bernick explained. Before that, the park land really was part of Carolanne Farm, one of many farms along the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River in an earlier time.
As early as the 17th century, folks settled along the Eastern Branch (and the Lynnhaven and North Landing rivers) for its transportation. Historic Pleasant Hall, now a funeral home on Princess Anne Road, was once a stately river mansion.
Both Newtown and Kempsville were ports and served as county seats at one time. Kempsville, once known as Kempe's Landing, was a tobacco warehousing site and the Eastern Branch was deep enough and wide enough for large sailing ships to travel upstream to load the valuable commodity.
Vegetation in the neighborhood park includes plants that may have been growing on the shores of the Eastern Branch when the settlers arrived. Among them are ferns, wild blueberries and a luscious, abundant stand of mountain laurel. Mountain laurel used to grow all along the rivers in Virginia Beach but much of it has disappeared to make way for expensive waterfront homes.
The old farm pond, now dubbed Turtle Pond, still exists. Although man-made long ago, it has reverted to a natural state and with its plants and animals, could be an example of the kind of freshwater backwater often found behind saltwater tributaries.
Buds on rose mallows growing in the shallows are about to burst into big white showy blooms. On logs, freshwater turtles, big as dinner plates, lazily stretch out their heads and legs to catch as much of the warmth from the sun as they can.
Bullfrogs and tree frogs break the silence with their calls. Blue herons and egrets fish in the pond and then with no more land to fly over than a reed-covered berm, they test the waters of the Eastern Branch itself.
Virginia Beach, this is a river to get to know. If you do, you're apt to find a friend for life. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos, including color cover, by D. KEVIN
ELLIOTT
On logs, freshwater turtles, big as dinner plates, lazily stretch
out their heads and legs to catch as much of the warmth from the sun
as they can.
Clay Bernick, the city's environmental management administrator,
stands by a trail sign in the Carolanne Farm Neighborhood Park,
where Bernick says citizens ``can get a sense of what it (the
Elizabeth River) used to look like.''
Ducks swim across a tributary of the Elizabeth River near Arrowhead
Elementary School. Such neighborhoods as Arrowhead, Elizabeth River
Shores and Fairfield are bounded by the river.
Map
JOHN CORBITT/The Virginian-Pilot
KEYWORDS: ELIZABETH RIVER by CNB