Dear Friends of the James River Park

In just a few weeks we are wrapping up another fiscal year, and I will be celebrating three years at the helm of this organization. My time with FOJRP so far has been incredibly rewarding, and I am grateful for the community we are building around supporting the Park. All of our work can be broken down into the three areas of our mission- Protect, Expand, and Enhance. Here are some of the ways we used the funds we were given to make a difference in the Park this year:

Protect-

Throughout the entire year, and for a few years in a row now, we have been funding the Invasive Species Management team through a grant from the Virginia Department of Forestry. We administer those funds that allow a team of four part-time employees to work throughout the Park to remove and prevent the spread of invasive plant species. That team also works with volunteers regularly, which amplifies their capabilities. We are working right now on a plan to make that team full-time in the new fiscal year.

In April we kicked off the year-long process of developing a Natural Resources Management Plan for the Park. At the end of that process, we will have a fuller understanding of the natural resources in the Park, what areas are most important for conservation, and what projects we can start doing now to ensure long-term sustainability. This was one of the goals laid out in the JRPS Master Plan, and is some of the most important planning work we could be doing right now. We are really excited about how this plan will shape the future of our work. This is also being paid for by a grant from the Virginia Department of Forestry.

This month we are working on more volunteer projects, and starting our Summer 2024 anti-graffiti blitz. We are hiring two part-time staff who will spend their Summer documenting, removing, and covering graffiti in the Park. We hope that these efforts will have a positive impact on the volume and types of vandalism we see in the Park.

So far this year we have been able to leverage thousands of volunteer hours to keep our parks cleaner. These events generally involved us working directly with teams of volunteers from local businesses who take time out of their workdays to join us. I suppose it is sad that we need to do that work so often, but I am grateful that we have such a strong community that can turn up and help.

We continue to support River Safety efforts in the Park through our partnership with WRIC. Together we work to deliver relevant content related to river conditions throughout the year, and provide daily updates as part of the on-air weather reports from April through October. We also keep in close contact with other river safety partners to ensure consistent messaging. The long-term goals of this work are to reduce the number of accidents requiring rescue and to develop a broader culture of awareness about river safety issues.

Expand-

In the Spring we supported the addition of the “Brander Street” parcel to the conservation easement and James River Park System. This patch of land houses a large section of the Richmond Slave Trail, and was formerly railroad property. We provided a $30,000 matching grant to Capital Region Land Conservancy to help close the funding gap to make that land acquisition possible.

This month also marks the official opening of the new Dock Street Park. This parcel of land was added to the JRPS in 2022 as part of the deal that made James River Association’s new River Education building possible. FOJRP funded the design work that made the initial opening of the Park possible, and the JRPS ops crew and trail teams did the work.

We continue to work with partner organizations to identify opportunities to expand the Park. The next planned expansion of the Park will be when Mayo Island is opened as a Park in a few years. Our friends at the City of Richmond are planning that project now and we stand ready to help however we can.

Enhance-

At the start of the year, last Summer, we were putting the finishing touches onto the Reedy Creek Bypass Trail. This 800 foot section of access road was designed to route park user traffic away from the vehicle traffic in front of Park HQ at Reedy Creek, and has largely been successful. I still occasionally see a renegade cyclist that still wants to do it the old way, but for the most part, people took to this change well and it has greatly reduced the likelihood of an accident in that parking lot. We also did a planting project in the Fall to start the process of creating a green barrier between the new trail and the shop area.

In the Fall we also replaced the old broken Tool Cat that we bought for the Park several ears ago. This new piece of equipment is used by the operations and trail teams for a wide variety of tasks throughout the Park.

In October we received a grant through the Community Foundation to support the purchase of a new bike trailer for the JRPS Education Team. This custom trailer can hold a lot more bikes and will expand the Park’s bike program capacity.

In March we enabled the rebuilding of the North Bank Trail Boardwalk. The work was done by local contractors, and overseen by Park staff. Our friends at CSX made a $10,000 gift to support the project and your donations to FOJRP paid for the rest.

We have also been working hard to define and refine our vision for the future of Belle Isle. We feel there is a need for a few strategically placed amenities that would help support better management of that Park without compromising the conservation value of the island. These projects are focused on activating certain areas of the island for more recreational use without taking away from the natural feel people love about Belle Isle. You can read more about those projects at this link.

FOJRP Operations Updates-

This year we raised and spent more than $750,000 in service to our Mission. Those funds came from a mix of government grants, and gifts from individuals, corporations, and foundations. Most of our contributions come from Park users, like you, who want to help us build a stronger JRPS.

In September we hosted our inaugural fundraising auction event for the Park, Camera to Canvas. Hundreds of you joined us in person or bid online to support the cause. Together we raised nearly $75,000 to support the Park. We are currently working to plan the 2024 version of that event.

We hosted another iteration of the Wood River Run this year. This annual memorial race and fundraiser helps us raise awareness about the Park, and this year we saw more than 250 participants and raised nearly $36,000. The revenue generated from this event is used to fund the Christian Wood Scholarship Program at Passages Adventure Camp, and FOJRP’s general operations.

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I hope this gives you a good idea of what we do, who we are, and why we work so hard to take care of the Park. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions, and thank you for considering supporting the James River Park System again this year.

See you in the Park!

-Josh