|
On some summer weekends, Keith Wynn and his family will take a break from water skiing and climb a small bluff that overlooks the confluence of the Chickahominy River and Morris Creek.
"We just kind of recreate what our forefathers saw when John Smith first came down the river," said Wynn, a member of the Chickahominy Tribe. "It is a beautiful landscape there, just the views. But imagine standing on the bluffs and actually seeing that happen."
Much of the view of expansive tidal marshes seems little changed since the first encounter between Smith and the Chickahominy in 1607. Parts are so remote, Wynn quipped, that it "almost gets a Jurassic look to it."
Whether it looks that way in another four centuries may hinge on decisions made in the next several years by federal, state and local agencies working with nonprofit organizations and businesses to craft plans that protect landscapes and promote tourism.
The lower James River, along with the Chickahominy which flows into it, will be among the first testing grounds for the evolving partnership-based approach to help conserve large swaths of land.
"There is strong support in the local area. There is a terrific National Park Service presence. There is a terrific presence by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service," said Charlie Stek, chairman of the nonprofit Chesapeake Conservancy, which promotes land preservation and public access around the Bay. "So you already have a lot of elements in place."
The efforts stem in part from a federal action plan released last year in response to President Barack Obama's 2009 executive order which called for stepped-up and coordinated federal actions to protect the Bay. Among those actions was the call for a new Chesapeake Treasured Landscape Initiative to develop partnerships that protect landscapes and to target conservation dollars to those areas.
The idea was bolstered in February when the Obama administration released its America's Great Outdoors report, which calls for stepped-up efforts, and funding, to preserve land and engage the public in outdoor recreation.
The grand hope is that federal agencies, state and local governments, and others can create a vision for the Lower James and its recreational, natural, historic and cultural resources. Ideally, that vision would ensure those resources are conserved for the future while educating the public and boosting the economy, largely through tourism.
It's a vision proponents hope diverse groups will share, whether they want to learn about Native Americans, look for sturgeon jumping out of the water and eagles soaring through the air, or simply enjoy a day paddling through the marsh.
That vision is sketched in the National Park Service's comprehensive management plan for the 3,000-mile Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. The plan, released in September 2010, was developed with extensive public involvement throughout the Chesapeake region.
Through expanded public access, new interpretive and educational programs, and heritage tourism, the plan would provide visitors with new means to experience Smith's journeys as well as how native peoples lived at that time.
It also calls for preserving landscapes along rivers evocative of the time Smith explored so visitors can get a sense of the scenery that the explorer and American Indians experienced.
"People with different interests can learn about Smith, or learn what this place was like, what life would have been like 400 years ago, or what the Indians who lived there were like," said John Maounis, the park service superintendent for the trail. "As people experience these places, there are going to be more people to care about them, and therefore preserve them."
Details about how this will happen on particular rivers will evolve as the Park Service collaborates with communities and partners to develop plans for each of the trail's 10 management segments.
The first segment on tap for a plan covers the James and Chickahominy, rivers. Over the next 10 months, the Park Service will develop the plan with local governments, state agencies, Indian tribes and organizations such as the James River Association, the National Geographic Society and the Chesapeake Conservancy.
Such partnerships are essential, Maounis said, because unlike Yellowstone or Yosemite, the federal government will never own much property along the trail.
"What we have done is draw a line and defined a corridor that is 'the trail,'" he said. "It is really up to everyone along the trail, if it is important enough, to help develop and sustain that. So it is a much more complicated business which is as much about tourism and education and recreation as it is about history and preserving places."
There seems to be local interest in river-based recreation. Since James City County opened Chickahominy Riverfront Park near the mouth of the river in 2002, visitation has risen steadily according to Park Supervisor Amy Fiedor. She noted that when the county developed a park master plan recently, "citizens of the county wanted more access to all of the water that is available in this area.”
Others are working along the James as well. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is in the early stages of developing a conservation plan for the James River, patterned after the model used by the Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge. That refuge owns a few small tracts that protect the most sensitive sites, but attains most of its conservation objectives by working with local governments and nonprofit organizations to protect land through tools such as easements and zoning.
This approach "will result in a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts," said Mike Slattery, Chesapeake Bay coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "The James River watershed is our first and highest priority for test-driving that."
While much of the Park Service emphasis is on landscapes and sites of cultural and historical importance, the Fish and Wildlife Service would focus on migratory corridors and areas important for waterfowl and other species.
The ecological significance of the river is already highlighted by the presence of two small refuges, James River National Wildlife Refuge, which is important for bald eagles and migratory birds, and Presquile National Wildlife Refuge, which is important for waterfowl. The river itself is an important migratory corridor for shad and river herring. And it is the only river in the Bay watershed thought to have a self-sustaining population of Atlantic sturgeon, an endangered species that was common in John Smith's time.
"Our priority is going to be the ecological resources, the species and habitats that we are trying to conserve in that area," Slattery said.
But the vision only works if it attracts support from other partners, he said. "We can't have it any other way. We would expect that our physical footprint would be small."
Opportunities for that type of planning and preservation have already been lost in many places. Wynn recalled meeting two awestruck men from Annapolis while floating down the Chickahominy one Fourth of July weekend.
"They were telling me it was a breath of fresh air to come down and see a river with just a limited amount of development," Wynn said. "Where they were from, it was pretty much inhabited everywhere. That is what really struck them most about the river, the limited amount of development and the unspoiled parts of it as well."
Distributed by Bay Journal News Service
|
locations
Comments