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LEFT: A great egret rests on a tree stump at Caledon during the conservationists' tour.
ABOVE: Interpreter Kim Boshela looks
A zebra swallowtail butterfly rests on the banks of the Potomac |
When Save Crow's Nest, a fledgling conservation group, needed help getting the word out about its efforts to protect the Stafford County peninsula from development, organizers called Battlefields Sierra Group for help.
Likewise, when Friends of the Rappahannock pushed for a conservation easement on thousands of riverfront acres owned by Fredericksburg, it enlisted BSG's foot soldiers.
Over the years, BSG has backed candidates for local offices, logged hundreds of volunteer hours at meetings and public hearings and weighed in on virtually every conservation concern here of note, from sprawl and traffic concerns to water quality.
"The key is building consensus giving people the opportunity to give and receive information about the environment, working together and agreeing to disagree," says Doris Whitfield, a founder and former chair of the group. The King George County resident now heads up the organization's political activities.
Born as hiking club, Battlefields Sierra Group has nearly 500 members. The Fredericksburg chapter is one of 12 Sierra Club chapters in Virginia, and is one of the more active groups, said Michael Town, state director.
Many other clubs are bigger, but BSG members "are very active in their community in a host of different issues--and what they are able to do with their volunteers is amazing," Town said. Their activities include getting people out to hearings, sending letters to policy-makers and picking up trash.
He noted that challenges in the Fredericksburg area are growing. "You have a lot of development pressures, and you're in between two metropolitan areas."
Transportation, water and air-quality concerns and how sprawling development is hurting the environment are high on every state chapter's agenda, Town said.
Town said the upcoming presidential election looms large on the Sierra Club's radar screen.
"The biggest issue at the state and national level is to educate the public on what the Bush administration has done on environmental issues the last four years. Their record, I think is a lot of smoke and mirrors," he said, referring to water and air-quality initiatives.
Much work to doLarry Gross, co-chair of BSG, sees a dual role: supporting the organization's national efforts, and working hard locally "to be a voice for those who care about air and water and the environment, while making sure you are not so far out in front that you've left them behind."
There's much work to do, he added, in an area with 250,000 residents, of whom polls say 70 percent care about the environment.
"We try hard to identify the issues that are important to the citizens and to be the voice for the environment in those areas," Gross said.
Smart growth and preservation are two key issues.
"You want to have growth, but figure out the things you ought to be keeping as you go forward. That's one side," he said. "The other side is air and water quality. Are you going to be able to preserve the things that are important and that define who we are in the region?"
It's a big job.
More people are needed to do the work, he said, on a tight budget. BSG takes in several thousand dollars a year from membership fees and fund raisers.
Crow's Nest is one example of how a local environmental group can help advance conservation interests.
Last fall, negotiations between the state and the owner of nearly 4,000 acres on the peninsula between Potomac and Accokeek creeks, fell through. The state had intended to acquire the property and maintain it as a natural area. The land is home to virgin forest, some rare and endangered plants, Civil War-era sites and a large heron rookery.
Early this year, when Stafford residents formed Save Crow's Nest to lobby for protection of the land, BSG pitched in as it did on previous efforts to preserve the tract.
"They have come forward and spoken at meetings and also have been a good sounding board in terms of planning strategies and our campaign in general," said Patricia Kurpiel, one of Save Crow's Nest organizers.
Kurpiel said Whitfield "got one of my first e-mails and dived right in," getting members to lobby the Board of Supervisors to buy and preserve the land.
'No hesitation'Lisa Guthrie, executive director of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters in Richmond, said local advocates are critical because they know the issues, the political landscape and whom to contact.
They've worked together on elections to support conservation-friendly candidates.
BSG members "are outspoken and they are going to stand up for what they believe in. There is no hesitation, whether it's politically incorrect, or to further an agenda. They truly are an advocacy group and they are going to follow their mission," she said.
John Tippett, executive director of Friends of the Rappahannock, said while BSG has a broader agenda, there's plenty of common ground.
"We've worked together on issues associated with state regulations, such as [Department of Environmental Quality] permitting and pollutant discharge issues," Tippett said. "One of their strengths is a strong local grassroots component."
That, combined with the Sierra Club's national clout, helped Friends of the Rappahannock promote the proposed conservation easement on Fredericksburg's riverfront land. City Council is still examining the proposal drawn up by FOR, the Virginia Outdoors Foundation and the Nature Conservancy. It would permanently protect more than 4,000 acres along the Rappahannock.
In June, BSG hosted a picnic and trail walk in Alum Spring Park in Fredericksburg. The group "adopted" the park three years ago as an improvement project. Last weekend, members gathered at Caledon Natural Area in King George to pick up trash in one of the state's premier bald eagle habitats.
Taking charge
Whitfield, 71, has been a fixture in the organization. She grew up in Fredericksburg and later attended James Madison University and Mary Washington. She taught school and lived around the country before moving back to the area from Raleigh, N.C., in 1993 to look after her parents. Whitfield and her husband, John, live in Fairview Beach.
She was a member of the Triangle Sierra Club Chapter in Raleigh. One highlight there, she said, was arranging nature education and outings for inner-city youth.
"We were introducing children to the outdoors and the environmental values that I had, growing up here in Fredericksburg," she said.
At that time, there was no local Sierra Club chapter. The nearest one was in Richmond.
So Whitfield joined Friends of the Rappahannock, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Nature Conservancy and the Lake of the Woods hiking club.
The club became affiliated with the Sierra Club and the meetings were moved to Fredericksburg. The name was changed and BSG began its evolution.
Gross said Whitfield has worked tirelessly to bring the organization up to speed.
Guthrie added: "Doris is active in everything."
"We wanted to be an active environmental organization and to pull in more people," Whitfield said. In a little over 10 years, membership has grown from about 40 to 480.
BSG's growth, she said, had to do with the realization among area residents, "that Virginia wasn't stepping up to the plate and preserving what's left of its natural resources. That's particularly true in this region with its growth, lack of planning in the past, and the current focus on wanting to plan better."
ON THE NET: Battlefields Sierra Group: virginia.sierraclub.org/bfg
To reach RUSTY DENNEN: 540/374-5431 rdennen@freelancestar.com
