Dear Friends of the James River Park

I hope you are all finding some time to get outside and enjoy the Park this week. Between the high water and the incoming snow, there are certainly some interesting sights to see. Please view the flooded river from a safe distance, and remember to not abuse muddy trails.

On Friday we received word from our partners at the Virginia Department of Forestry that all Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) related grant payments are being paused, and that all programs funded through these grants should be paused as well. In our case, we receive funding through the BIL and the IRA for our Invasive Species Management (ISM) Program, and to pay for the Natural Resources Management Plan (NRMP) that we are currently working on.

These are reimbursable grant programs which means that FOJRP, as the grantee, commits the resources to work on a project and is reimbursed in phases as work is completed. This means that every quarter we report on our activities to show the work is being done, and then we are paid back for the work we did. In the case of the ISM program, we are using that money to pay for staff salaries to manage invasive species removal efforts. We employ four people to do that work and they coordinate directly with the Park staff.

The NRMP is a $250,000 project that will define the future of conservation work in the Park. We are paying a team of consultants to work closely with us on that plan. We pay them as we complete each phase of the plan, we share the updates with the grantors to prove that the work is being completed, and then we get paid back.

That is the agreement we entered into, in good faith, with the State and Federal Government. It is no different than the agreements that hundreds of other nonprofit organizations signed when their projects were approved for these grant programs. These are funds that were allocated by Congress and passed on to state agencies to administer. Being backed by the guarantee of the US Government, it never occurred to me that this funding was anything other than rock solid. All we had to do was deliver good work, which we are doing.

In the short term, we are out a bunch of money that was meant to be reimbursed to us. Right now we don’t know if or when those funds will come through. We will need to work to mitigate the impact that has on this year’s budget.

In the long term, this is going to impact the things we are able to support in the Park over the next few years as we adjust funding to cover the missing grant funds. This will ultimately impact our ability to support trail improvements, equipment purchases, river safety initiatives, capital improvements, and all of the other things we do to help improve the JRPS.

All of that is just an explanation to help people understand what this “grant pause” is and how it impacts us at the local level. We are not pausing the work that was funded by these grants. Both the ISM program and the NRMP will continue to operate using other funding sources. Both of these programs are very important to the protection of the James River Park System and we are fully committed to keeping them alive and thriving. This is about making sure the JRPS is around for future generations to enjoy.

One of the ways that we will get through this is by raising more money. We are already working with local foundations and corporations to shore up additional conservation-focused funding for this year. We will also call on people like you, dear reader, to make an additional donation this year to support JRPS conservation efforts. We know that not everyone is in a position to support us right now, but if you love the JRPS, and you can swing it, there is no better way to directly support the Park.

You can make a donation to support the ISM program and the Natural Resources Management Plan by visiting our website at jamesriverpark.org/donate. If you are affiliated with a foundation or corporation that might want to help you can contact me directly at josh@jamesriverpark.org.

Thanks, and see you in the Park!

Josh Stutz
Executive Director