We are in the final stages of determining whether we can safely hold our FriendsFest picnic in light of the rapidly changing local COVID-19 situation. Look for a followup email within the week to announce our decision and plan. Meanwhile, if you intend to attend, please RSVP HERE! so we can do our planning and order enough barbecue. For those of you that are new to Friends Fest, this is the Friends of the Middle River's yearly barbecue to celebrate the River. During this picnic we will pull our winning raffle tickets and some lucky person will win the grand prize of a new kayak, and there will be many more raffle drawings and nice gifts. You will hear about our stewardship efforts from the past year and also what new activities are in the pipeline. New volunteer opportunities are always available.
Date: Sunday, September 12, 2021 (Rain date 9/19, same location and time) Time: 4pm-dark, 5pm supper, 6pm raffle drawing Location: 111 Mill Race Rd., Verona. VA 24482
Stay tuned for more info!
~ FriendsFest Committee Chair, Carolyn Ford | | | Paddle Opportunity: Afternoon on the Water The last scheduled paddle trip of the FOMR river season is a 7.4 mile trip that puts-in at one of our newest River Access Program locations. This trip starts as a quiet stretch as you pass underneath Interstate I-81.You’ll paddle through a lot of farm land. At Laurel Hill Bluff there are some challenges like a series of ledges that you could get stuck on, especially when the water is low like this year! But this trip has good fishing and bald eagles are often seen near the bluff on the right. Date: Saturday, September 4, 2021 Rain Date: Sunday, September 5, 2021 Put-in time: Between 12:30pm and 1:30pm Be off the River by: 4:30pm Trip length: About 3.5 hours or 7.4 river miles Cost: Free
Read more and sign up HERE! | | We are in the final stretch of our 2021 fundraising raffle ticket sales for a chance to win great prizes: Kayak, Yellowfin Vibe Wildfire 100, 10-foot, Seat and Paddle Fly Fishing Trip with Guide, Justin Fischbach $50 Gift Certificate to the Fisherman's Attic $50 Gift Certificate to the Wilderness Adventure and more!
You can buy raffle tickets HERE! | | | On July 31, Shenandoah Valley Campground at Verona was the site of a one-of-a-kind event: FOMR's first River Roundup. Over 50 kids (and their parents, too) participated in streamside learning stations that focused on art, river critters, and trash/junk.
Based on the number of attentive ears, curious eyes, inquisitive voices, (and appreciative parents!), we'll definitely be repeating this event next year. Whom better to share a bit about our river with than those who are camped right beside it?
Many thanks to the campground for hosting us, and to the many volunteers who helped to make the event an overwhelming success!
~ Education Committee Chair, Marion Bittinger | | | Clean the Bay Day Litter Cleanup Back in June, FOMR partnered with groups throughout the state and with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation who sponsored the Clean the Bay Day litter cleanup event. All told, more than 2000 volunteers prevented 52,306 pounds of litter from entering to Virginia Waterways! Way to go! | | | Benthic Macroinvertebrate Results for Spring 2021
This past spring, the FOMR Benthic Monitoring Program shifted back into full gear with small monitoring teams (2-3 volunteers) comprised of vaccinated monitors. We are now using the new small mesh nets (500 microns) and a new protocol at every site. The new protocol involves collecting more bug samples at each site to improve the validity of our data. The scores from the sites monitored this spring were comparable to previous results. See data HERE.
Late this summer, we had planned to finish the on-stream portion of the benthic training originally scheduled for the spring of 2020. Unfortunately, because of continuing Covid-19 concerns, we have once again postponed this training until the spring of 2022. We apologize to the great group of trainees who completed the classroom training in February, 2020. Thanks for your patience and continuing enthusiasm. Hopefully, we can complete this training next spring. This fall we will continue to monitor using small teams of vaccinated monitors and we have contingency plans for increasing social distancing if necessary. We also hope to resume our quality assurance protocol this fall which will help ensure the reliability and validity of our data.
Many thanks to our certified monitors: Whit Morriss, Paul Bugas, Ann Cline, Adrie Voors, Joe Thompson, Phil Davis, Sara Jordan and Pete Cooper. Also many thanks to Ted Turner, our consulting entomologist (Ted also does our lab work); Phil Davis, our certified benthic trainer; and Kate Guenther, our data wizard. These folks are the heart and soul of our benthic program and all have many years experience with benthic monitoring (most of our certified monitors have at least 10 years of experience). Without their expertise, enthusiasm, tireless energy, and plain hard work, our benthic monitoring would not be possible. It should be noted that the FOMR Benthic Program is one of the only volunteer programs in the state identifying bugs to the family level (and we have been doing so for 10 years).
~ Science Committee Chair, Pete Cooper | | E. coli Monitoring at 8 New Sites We have results from the first sampling at our 8 new monitoring sites on lower Middle River. All sites are located between the Route 250 bridge at river mile 46.2 and the Craig Shop Road bridge at river mile 5.5. All the E. coli counts were in a healthy range and this is great news! The water levels are low and there has been little rain to cause significant runoff into the river. It will be interesting to see if there are changes when we get any rain.
See the July E.coli data HERE!
~ E. coli Subcommittee Chair, Tom Shapcott | | | Photo by Noel Burkhead. Roanoke River, Roanoke Co., VA; tuberculate male, 147mm SL; N. Burkhead & R. Jenkins, courtesy Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. | Fish School: Bluehead Chubs Bluehead Chubs are a nest-building minnow that make their home in Middle River. Paul Bugas writes at our website, "Bluehead Chub is what ecologists call a 'keystone species'. Simply put, if you eliminated this species from the Middle River, many other fish that rely on blueheads would disappear." Understanding the minnow’s nest-building secrets may be the key to conservation efforts. Read an interesting article from Virginia Tech by Krista Timney about this wonderful fish species who calls the Middle River "home."
Read the VA Tech article HERE! | | Current RAP Booklet Version 7/30/21 | | August
21-29 Middle River Cleanup in progress 24 FOMR Board Meeting (open to members)
September
4 Afternoon on the Water Paddle Trip 12 Friends Fest (Rain Date: 9/19) 21 E. coli monitoring 28 FOMR Board meeting (open to members) | Friends of the Middle River Web: www.friendsofthemiddleriver.org Email: info@friendsofthemiddleriver.org |
|
|
|
