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Officer Lee Sillitoe, watershed property manager, patrols the city-owned land along the Rappahannock River.
Sillitoe is not against gold panning per se, but miners who dig out stream banks
Officer Lee Sillitoe walks past a litter-strewn campsite on the bank of the Rappahannock River in Stafford County.
Sillitoe finds everything from shotgun shells, bullet casings and rolling papers to makeshift toilets on his river patrols.
Sillitoe follows ATV tracks on land in Stafford, part of 4,200 acres he's charged with protecting. Preserving the riverbank is largely about educating the public, he says.
Sillitoe has full police powers. His 'cruiser' is a white pickup truck that he uses to patrol riparian land in five counties. |
By RUSTY DENNEN
On a small stream draining into the Rappahannock River in southern Stafford County, there are holes and mounds of dirt piled up along the bank.
Lee Sillitoe, Fredericksburg's watershed property manager, points out spots where someone has dug into the shore with shovels.
The diggers were modern-day gold prospectors, looking for remnants of gold belt running through parts of Fauquier, Stafford and Spotsylvania counties.
Earlier this year Sillitoe found a sluice box--a slotted wooden container resembling a ladder, used for separating gold from gravel--and other tools hidden under brush nearby.
Sillitoe, who keeps watch over 4,200 acres of city land flanking the Rappahannock and Rapidan Rivers, has no problem with gold mining per se. But he does have a problem with people who are crossing private property onto city land and adding to the rivers' serious sediment issues.
"They may be finding some gold, but they're rearranging these little tributaries," Sillitoe said on one of his patrols last week. Silt and mud from the digging flow into the river, reducing water clarity and affecting aquatic life.
Landowner Roberta Sharp called Sillitoe after seeing a small SUV entering the property. Sharp lives on a back road, knows her neighbors and knows who's not supposed to be there.
Her land abuts the acreage Fredericksburg purchased from Virginia Electric and Power Co. in the 1960s and placed in a permanent conservation easement three years ago.
'A LOT OF NERVE'
Sharp said she first noticed several gold panners about 10 years ago. "I had walked down and there were three guys in the creek doing their thing."
Then, this spring and summer, she saw the SUV going in and out. A couple in the vehicle told her they had permission from a property owner.
Sharp said she's upset by the digging and the potential environmental damage.
"I feel like that's my river. They have a lot of nerve going down there and doing that."
Sillitoe said the pair "knew they were crossing private property" to access city land where it is forbidden to drive any vehicle, dig, cut trees or alter the landscape. Passive uses such as camping, hiking, hunting and canoeing are allowed, though the city is working on a new management plan to address some of the use and access issues that are cropping up.
Jack Wyatt, president of the 200-member Central Virginia Gold Prospectors club headquartered in Dillwyn, west of Richmond, said, "One of our rules is that the only way to go on private property is to get permission first." Members must have a written OK from landowners.
The club leases the land where its prospectors pan for gold or use sluice boxes or small hydraulic dredges, according to its Web site.
As for digging along streams, "If you dig under the bank, you can be terminated. That, you don't do," he said.
Wyatt said members do find gold on their outings--typically small amounts. Nobody's getting rich.
"I don't do it for the money," he said. "You spend more money on this hobby than you make."
ALL ABOUT EDUCATION
Hired for the unusual conservation post 21/2 years ago, Sillitoe has full police powers. His "cruiser" is a white Ford pickup with the city's blue police emblem on the side and a canoe on top. In the back are a four-wheeler and a chain saw.
He spends a lot of time on the land spread across the five localities, talking to landowners and occasionally handing out warning tickets to those who break the rules.
Word is getting out, he said.
All-terrain vehicles were tearing up portions of the riverbank, but local riders now know they're apt to get a ticket if they're caught on the easement land.
Still, "You always get that 1 percent who want to push the limit," Sillitoe said.
Trash is a growing problem.
"It's concentrated a lot in the paddling areas and camping grounds near the confluence" of the Rappahannock and Rapidan.
During a patrol last week, Sillitoe found one spot on the Stafford side near the confluence littered with Bud Light cans, liquor and soda bottles and the remnants of a crudely made lean-to.
On the riverbank was a rustic toilet fashioned from river rocks positioned over a hole in the ground. Whatever was in the hole had washed into the Rappahannock.
"It saddens me," Sillitoe said, noting that the land is intended to preserve a rare riparian buffer while creating a permanent natural area that people can enjoy.
Once people know what's out there, and that the land is being cared for, attitudes will change, he said.
"It's all about education."
John Tippett, executive director of Friends of the Rappahannock, which helped create the conservation easement, said some adjoining landowners are continuing to use the easement land as their own.
"The city has been very generous to allow public use of this land, but the public has to realize that in exchange, the land is for low-impact use only and [adjoining] landowners cannot cut trees and remove vegetation" or erect structures.
Rusty Dennen: 540/374-5431
Email: rdennen@freelancestar.com
Fredericksburg City Council in 2006 approved a permanent conservation easement on 4,232 acres running 25 miles upstream through Spotsylvania, Stafford, Culpeper, Orange and Fauquier counties. It includes bald eagle habitat and a number The Nature Conservancy, the Virginia Board of Game For information or to report a violation, contact Lee Sillitoe, watershed property manager, by e-mail at S1459@pd.fred ericksburgva.gov or by cell phone at 540/847-1162.
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A new management plan is in the works for Fredericksburg's riverfront conservation-easement land. City staff, easement holders and the Friends of the Rappahannock are heading up the effort. That committee has met individually with groups such as hunt clubs and canoe outfitters. There was a public information meeting in March. John Tippett, FOR's executive director, said the aim is to balance use and access. "We're looking at each type of recreational use to address the more detailed aspects of managing the property that the conservation easement does not address." Another public meeting is planned in February for the committee to discuss recommendations. The plan would go to City Council in March. --Rusty Dennen |
