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'Stream team' digs its reservoir project
Student "stream team" helps Friends of the Rappahannock with conservation project in Stafford
Date published: 10/2/2009
By RUSTY DENNEN Danny Giambattista and three classmates wrestled the hefty root ball of a red cedar into a hole on a slope overlooking the Rappahannock River. Armed with shovels and rakes, they packed soil around the base of the 4-foot tree, admiring their handiwork. Planting is something Giambattista, a Colonial Forge High School junior, has done before. "My dad does a lot of landscaping," he said. Others were tackling it for the first time. One girl warned her helpers: "Hey! Don't put your hands in there. I'm gonna, like, shovel your fingers off." About 36 students in the school's Learn and Serve America class helped the Friends of the Rappahannock on Wednesday with a conservation project at Stafford County's Rocky Pen Run Reservoir site. "I just like to help out with the community and I thought this would be a fun class," said Giambattista, 16, who lives in Austin Ridge. "And I thought it would look good on college transcripts." Nearby, Jasmine Brown and Torri Allen, both seniors, were packing dirt around the base of a seedling. "It was cool, and kind of hard," Allen said. "I didn't expect all the things we had to do." Over several hours, the students planted 80 trees--holly, cedar, black gum, sycamore, white oak, chestnut oak and northern oak--to screen an equipment building from view along the Rappahannock's Stafford shore. The reservoir project required cutting trees at the intake point. "We spoke with the county about our interest in seeing a better visual buffer and put together a restoration plan," said John Tippett, FOR executive director. "This is a great opportunity for kids to experience what it means to do a restoration." Last year, the Learn and Serve class planted 1,400 seedlings at Austin Grove farm. The reservoir planting project was done with a $2,400 grant from Stafford County. Virginia Paving Co. provided an augur to dig holes in the hard, rocky soil. Soon, much of the area south of U.S. 17 near Berea will be a construction zone. The reservoir's dam and water-treatment plant will be finished over the next three years. Water will be pumped out of the river into the reservoir during times of high flow.
Date published: 10/2/2009
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