Open fires are prohibited throughout the park from midnight to 4 p.m. through April 30 per the 4 p.m. Burning Law. This includes wood and charcoal. Gas is permissible. Campground fires are allowed during the restricted time if a camp host is on duty and signage to that effect is posted in the campground. Failure to observe the 4 p.m. Burning Law can result in a fine. Contact the Park Office for additional information.
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Virginia Service and Conservation Corps Kick-off
Virginia State Parks and AmeriCorps, a national service organization, have a long standing partnership in service. In late 2014, we entered into another partnership.
This time the program, the Virginia Service and Conservation Corps (VSCC), is based on another historical program, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). In the 1930’s the CCC was developed to create jobs during one of our nation’s darkest times. Those jobs included building the nation’s first state park system in Virginia. Six parks at locations throughout Virginia opened consecutively in June of 1936.
In 2015, we are excited to have three VSCC crews in Virginia State Parks helping parks move forward. The groups are working on projects that will increase trail sustainability and emergency preparedness. All the while, the next generation is learning to preserve our greatest resource, our land.
AmeriCorps crews continue to help in VA State Parks
Each of our VSCC crews have a defined work plan pertaining to the parks they are assigned. Groups are based out of Hungry Mother, Leesylvania, and Pocahontas.
Hungry Mother State Park
The five person team, Bailey McDade (crew leader), Ian Dacey, Megan Gray, Kenneth Good and Shay Wilson, based at Hungry Mother is made of members from Virginia, West Virginia, and Louisiana. They will be working in the parks located in Southwest Virginia. Those parks include Claytor Lake, Douthat, Grayson Highlands, Hungry Mother, Natural Tunnel, New River Trail, Smith Mountain Lake, Southwest Virginia Museum, and Wilderness Road. The crew will be completing training in areas of pesticide applications, chainsaw, and prescribed fire. They will be working on stabilizing trails, rebuilding trestles, and storm debris removal.
Park staff works with VSCC members to help them understand why their work is so important
The four member VSCC team will be working throughout the state parks in the North, Central and South Eastern parts of Virginia. Parks include Leesylvania, Mason Neck, Widewater, Westmoreland, Caledon and Lake Anna. They will also be working at Kiptopeke, Belle Isle, Sky Meadows, Shenandoah River, and Seven Bends. George Herandez-Meija, Ian Lookabaugh, Jamie Jefferson, Robert McVay .
The team will be completing a wide variety Resource Management projects from trail work to working with live animal displays! Recently on a cold snowy day they installed flagstones in a historic barn located at Sky Meadows State Park.
Clearing the trails provide safer trails for our visitors
The Central Virginia crew is made up of eight members, all but one was already living in the Richmond/Chesterfield area of the state. The members include Daniel Wisnowski (crew leader), Tiquann Bruce, Andi Clinton, Brian Doliber, Shaina Hyman, Rachel Kyle, Linnea McCarty, Kerry O’Neill.
This crew will be focusing their energy on tasks such as trail building and maintenance, removal of invasive species from historic boxwood, fire line clearing, tree planting, & park boundary marking. They will be working with Bear Creek Lake, High Bridge, Twin Lakes ,Holliday Lake, Staunton River Battlefield, Pocahontas, Powhatan and Sailors Creek Battlefield State Parks.
The VSCC crews will be given the opportunity to experience many different park settings
If you are visiting one of our parks and see these crews working hard, please stop by and say hello. They are working hard so we can all play hard in our parks.
If you have read the article and have a question, please email nancy.heltman@dcr.virginia.gov.
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