
DATE: Friday, October 24, 1997              TAG: 9710220189

SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER      PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: COVER STORY 

SOURCE: BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE, CORRESPONDENT 

                                            LENGTH:  121 lines

PRESERVING THE GREEN SEA DESPITE VERY DAMP CONDITIONS, BEACH AND CHESAPEAKE CELEBRATE THE MUTUAL BENEFITS OF THEIR WATERSHEDS

MOTHER NATURE dampened the attendance at her own party Oct. 18 at Northwest River Park.

That's where Chesapeake and Virginia Beach celebrated their watersheds - natural drainage systems - at the first Green Sea Festival.

The sparse crowd walked from tent to tent. Some listened to music, others ducked under canopies to avoid raindrops.

``I'm going to cry,'' said festival organizer Cindy Butler, looking at the offending clouds. ``But I guess it's important to water the watershed.''

The southern watershed, named the Green Sea by William Byrd, is between the Great Dismal Swamp and the Atlantic Ocean. The northern portion is undergoing rapid development; the southern area, which stretches into North Carolina, contains mostly rural wetlands where some development has grown amid the swamps, marshes and farms.

These areas of the watershed are centered around Back Bay, the North Landing River and the Northwest River. The areas are drained by the river system.

``It's a drainage base,'' explained Eric J. Walberg of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission. ``This (festival) helps make people aware of what a watershed is, and hopefully it will grow to include eco-tourism issues.''

The cities sponsoring the Green Sea Festival are working with the Planning Commission and the Coastal Program, which links localities in conserving natural resources. Since the cities depend on these waterways - for instance, Chesapeake draws much of its water supply from the Northwest River - they created a foundation to monitor the watershed.

They will also alternate hosting the Green Sea Festival. The Beach will have it next year.

Both cities have agricultural histories, Walberg noted, and both face development pressure. The group urges conservative and informed growth, and focuses on issues such as run-off and displacement of natural resources.

Robert L. Simmonds, a 29-year-old fisheries biologist, manned a gaming table stocked with pamphlets on boating and hunting safety. Simmonds explained that there is no small patch of real estate in Hampton Roads where the cities aren't connected by waterways.

``Even if we're cleaning up a project in Chesapeake, it has net benefits for the whole area,'' he said. ``The main thing is to get people thinking of the entire area.''

Preserve what we have, agreed members of the Nature Conservancy.

The group attended the festival, and shared a tent with a Girl Scout troop. While the Girl Scouts made first-aid kits out of plastic film canisters, Band-Aids and safety pins, Natalie J. Kruse explained why the Conservancy wants the public to care for the plants and animals within ``Southeast Virginia's most significant wetlands.''

There are freshwater marshes here, she explained. There are also Atlantic white cedar swamps, canebrakes and shrub bogs.

There were a few canebrakes - the plant, not the snake - behind the Girl Scouts.

``This plant here,'' Kruse said, touching one of the reed-like stalks of green. ``They're relatives of bamboo. They used to cover this whole area from North Carolina on up.''

Also known as ``switch canes,'' they have played a unique role in generations of commonwealth discipline.

``Switch cane,'' Kruse said. ``You know, like switching someone.''

Some have said that they are even the reeds that inspired William Byrd to call this area the ``Green Sea'' in 1728, when there were hundreds of miles of them.

``There are 60 (miles) now,'' Kruse said.

At one table children played ``Turtle Hurdles,'' a game in which a roll of the dice determined whether a green sea turtle lived or fell at the hands of man or nature.

An informative, yet depressing game.

Betsy Goode watched her children Oliver, 7, and Mary Ann, 4, navigate their turtle through a series of adventures. Roll a one and the turtle was eaten by a predator. Roll a three the egg doesn't hatch. By rolling anything other than a six, the turtle, in effect, rolled a seven.

It showed the life cycle of a sea turtle, and the effects of such things as pollution on the ecology.

Goode said her children are already learning about the environ-ment.

``He's in a class studying ecology,'' she said.

The festival and such games reinforced what he learned there, she said.

Butler, the Green Sea Festival organizer, said visiting places such as Northwest River Park and the swamp is a reminder of Virginia's natural resources.

``A lot of people, I don't think, have been out this way to see the beautiful park,'' she said. ``If more people just came to the park once, they'd come back.''

Butler hopes the weather will smile on the Green Sea Festival next year, and the following year when it returns to the park.

People such as Natalie Kruse, who came here from Idaho to intern with the Nature Conservancy, plan to be there, rain or shine.

``This is a pretty special place,'' she said of Virginia. ``There are still plants and animals that are rare here, that are being protected. Places are being saved.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos including color cover by GARY KNAPP

Pam Miller of Knotts Island and her daughter, Brittany, 5, examine

the displays inside the Virginia Marine Science Museum's mobile lab

at Northwest River Park.

Natalie J. Kruse, an intern with the Virginia chapter of the Nature

Conservancy, manned an information booth and explained why the

Conservancy wants the public to care for the plants and animals

within ``Southeast Virginia's most significant wetlands.''

Anne Miller of Chesapeake and her daughter, Elizabeth, 8, exit the

mobile marine lab, which had several live fish displays and a touch

tank.

Stephine Covate, 14, of Virginia Beach and other members of Girl

Scout Troop 193 made first-aid kits out of recycled items.