February Newsletter and Events

• Upcoming Events
• Saturday, Feb 15: Great Backyard Bird Count Hike @ Lake by Indian River Civic Campus
• Saturday, Feb 22: Adopt-A-Park - Invasive Species Workshop
• Weed Warrior Wednesday @ Indian River Park, Feb 5, 12,19, 26
• News
• River Star Businesses Recognized
• January Recap

Upcoming Events

Saturday, Feb 15, 2025: Great Backyard Bird Count Hike @ Lake by Indian River Civic Campus

• From 8:30 am to 10:30 am
• Location: Meet at the Indian River Community Center, 2250 Old Greenbrier Rd.
• It's the weekend of the Great Backyard Bird Count, a worldwide effort to identify the distribution of birds; as part of this we'll be leading a guided bird walk around the lake between the Indian River Community/Rec Center and the High School.
• Previous years we've been treated with seeing Bald Eagles, Great Blue Herons, Ospreys, Bluebirds, various species of woodpeckers, and a large variety of waterfowl on the lake.
• We'll have some binoculars and a spotting scope, but do bring your own if you have some!
• Please pre-register at https://forms.gle/eTANAGvRtnqkims86 (suggested but not required)

Saturday, Feb 22, 2025: Adopt-A-Park - Invasive Species Workshop

• 
  From 9:00 am to Noon.  
• Location: Indian River Park entrance at Rokeby Ave. and Main St. (2003 Rokeby Ave.) which is located just south of Military Highway, i.e. across Military Highway from the Fire Station.
• Learn to identify various invasive plant species that threaten Indian River Park and natural areas across the Tidewater region.  Those found in the park include English Ivy, Chinese Privet, Multifloral Rose, Linden Viburnum, and others.  
• Then we'll have a work effort to clear some outbreaks of the English Ivy. The more volunteers that come out the more that we can accomplish! 
• Please wear closed-toe shoes, long pants, a hat and bring work gloves. We'll be working both to remove Ivy on the ground and on trees.  Bring pruning clippers, loppers, screwdrivers (which are amazingly useful in prying ivy off tree trunks) and/or pruning saws if you have them.  We will have water and snacks but we also always encourage folks to bring their own water in reusable bottles to minimize use of plastic bottles. Participants under 18 years of age must have adult supervision.
• Please pre-register at https://forms.gle/jjQ5gAaFToyTit9V8, suggested but not required.

Weed Warrior Wednesdays, Feb 5, Feb 12, Feb 19, Feb 26 

• 
  From 1 pm to 3 pm each Wednesday  
• Location: Indian River Park entrance at Rokeby Ave. and Main St. (2003 Rokeby Ave.) which is located just south of Military Highway, i.e. across Military Highway from the Fire Station.
• We are teaming up with Parks, Recreation and Tourism (PRT) to do Weed Warrior Wednesday at Indian River Park, weather allowing, every Wednesday from 1 pm to 3 pm.  Our focus will be to deal with invasive Linden Viburnum and Chinese Privet infesting the park. Please come out to help for one or more of these dates if you are available.  PRT will provide hand tools to those who sign up, but please bring your own loppers or pruning saws if you’d prefer. 
• Please wear closed-toe shoes, long pants, a hat and bring work gloves and bring water in reusable container.  
• Team size for these events will be limited, so please sign up at the PRT Sign-Up Genius at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040c4aacae2eaaf58-fall#/

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News

River Star Businesses Recognized

The Elizabeth River Project held their annual River Star Business Recognition Luncheon in January and several local organizations were honored at the event.  Wickers Crab Pot got top honors for advancing to the Model Level for their educational support of the ERP Learning Barge and their solid environmental practices at the restaurant on Indian River Road.

Also recognized Chesapeake Parks, Recreation and Tourism (PRT) for Sustained Distinguished Performance at the Model Level and the Rivercrest Condominium Association for Sustained Distinguished Performance at the Achievement level.  The Elizabeth River Project highlighted the opening of Blue Heron Landing Park in recognizing PRT achievements.

Congratulations and thank you to all the River Star Businesses for making environmental stewardship the business standard on the Elizabeth and Indian Rivers.  Would you like to become a River Star Business or River Star Home?  Email us for more information. 

January Recap

At our annual meeting in January we discussed on-going efforts for 2025 and held elections for our board and officers.  We also had a briefing from Hampton Roads Transit on their Connecting Chesapeake study.  This study looks at options to bring Express Bus, Bus-Rapid Transit, or Light Rail to Chesapeake.  They've narrowed the study to four route options, two of these coming down Indian River Road.  They took our feedback on some of the design concerns.  Learn more about the project at Winter 2025 Updates — Connecting Chesapeake

We had an excellent turn out for our Invasive Species Workshop at Indian River Park in January.  A big thank you to the 13 volunteers came out and cleared the ground of an entire section of English Ivy.  This was an important exercise to help contain the outbreak.  We'll be back in the park on Saturday, February 22 to work on another section of Ivy and working with PRT to tackle Linden Viburnum on Weed Warrior Wednesday in February.  See above for all the details. 

In January, PRT and other stakeholders met to discuss trail signage plans for Indian River Park.  The trail network in the park is extensive, it developed organically, and coming up with a trail signage plan has been more involved that one may imagine.  But hopefully new signage will start to be installed in the coming months. 

We also met with the Public Works Department to get an update on plans for safety improvements along Indian River Road.  We were told that a speed limit study was completed and they were kicking off studies to look at crosswalk design options and bike lanes installation.  We emphasized that the safety issue will become critical for Blue Heron Landing Park when temperatures warm up and urged them on the need to implement solutions in the coming months. 

Have an idea for an article for our newsletter?  Send your submission, max 250 words, to us at info@friendsofindianriver.org along with a photo and we'll consider it for our next edition.