Novemberfest
For the last two years, local legend Tim Barry has helped organize a weekend of music and community service in Richmond, called NovemberFest.
Tim is an internationally renowned musician, having toured for years and built a strong following of folks up and down the East Coast. So when he assembles a great team of musicians to come together, fans show up.
We see Tim on the trails all the time - if you’re a regular runner or rider you’ll see him at least once a week if your schedules align. His love of the James River and the Riparian park spaces that protect it run deep - so with his annual show setlist comes a bigger drive: two days of community service in our parks systems and a food/diaper drive for local nonprofits that help distribute to families in need.
Tim partnered with the JRPS trail crew and Keep Virginia Cozy to draw volunteers for two big workdays: a three-part trail project on one day and a huge litter removal task force on the next.
To kick off the weekend, a brave crew of FIFTY volunteers pulled up to Oregon Hill in the rain to help collect years of abandoned trash along a corridor the trail crew had identified for a new “alt-line” along Northbank trail. In addition to the compacted fine rock dust and gravel pathway that currently exists, the crew had a vision for a slightly more technical line in the elevation above.
We hear constant stories of trail user conflict, and beyond advocacy efforts and asking users to recognize etiquette in shared public lands, giving folks a way to spread out, safely pass each other, and take stabilized and sustainable alternate routes is always on our minds. We hoped to create just this exact kind of space.
Our plan was to focus on three different tasks at hand:
-bag and remove the trash and restore the natural environment
-smooth and shape the new trail
-identify and remove invasive plants in one of the largest ITF projects in JRPS
After the crew roughed out a path and moved some of the nastier debris in the weeks leading up to the workday, volunteers set out with heavy trash bags and grabbers to collect it all and lower bags down to folks waiting on the path below. The parks team ran a circuit up and down the service road as volunteers loaded up the big rock bucket of the skid steer, ferrying huge loads of trash to a waiting dumpster.
No joke, y’all - we FILLED that huge dumpster.
Other volunteers started at the eastern end of Northbank moving westward - some heading to remove trailside Ivy, Kudzu, and Privet - while others grabbed a tool of their choice from the stack (thanks, Richmond Tool Bank!) and hit the trail to properly bench cut, smooth, and shape the face of the new alternate line. Keep in mind, folks, it was RAINING for this entire workday…but our volunteers are pretty much THE BEST and stayed the course: avoiding backtracking along the smoothed trail to not damage the already vulnerable surface and working their way toward the wooden bridge below Hollywood Cemetery where the alt line joins the existing trail.
We were so proud of the show of hands and huge work everyone accomplished, and in WAY less than ideal conditions for a workday. As the trail surface stabilizes and dries, the crew will continue to smooth it with a plate compactor and it should be a GREAT new rolling line to take along a busy corridor.
For Sunday’s workday, you’ll have to head to the Keep VA Cozy social media - but volunteers assembled at the 22nd Street Corridor and worked together to remove 1,000 pounds of trash. You read that right - ONE THOUSAND POUNDS! Absolutely incredible.
