Dylan Kozlowski

April 10, 2021

DOS 771

Community Service
In Richmond, Virginia the James River runs through the center of the city. The James
River Park System (JRPS) maintains the parks that surround the river, keeping them free from
trash and invasive plant species. With the pandemic still prevalent in our city, I felt this was a
great system to volunteer for. The JRPS is constantly looking for volunteers to help remove
trash and invasive plants from their parks. I chose to help at a park I had not yet been to,
Ancarrow’s Landing. This is a historic park that is a part of the Virginia slave trail, it brings in a
lot of traffic from tourists and local fishermen. The volunteer leader informed us that all the
parks combined reach foot traffic of about 2 million people a year, which is why they need help
keeping the parks clean and the habitat under control. Of the many parks surrounding the
James River, Ancarrow’s Landing is one of the least visited. It needs a lot of work to restore the
natural habitat and it generates a lot of trash from the fishermen. Our goal was to tackle
removing invasive plants such as English Ivy, Winter Creeper, and other invasive plants along
with any trash we found along the way. I got a friend to tag along with me and out of the seven
people who signed up to volunteer, we were the only two who showed up.
 Ancarrow’s Landing is a large park and the JRPS’s goal to restore the habitat will take
time. For this project, the restoration will be divided in sections to gradually clear up invasive
plants along the river’s edge. We started where the previous group left off. Near the start of the
trail, we found a large patch of an invasive shrub called privet. We were informed that privet is
originally from China and flourishes in our environment because it is similar to their home. The
issue is that privet grows so fast that it will crowd out native plants and change the ecology of an
area. It grows before spring and will completely devastate an area before the native plants have
time to grow, blocking the sunlight and changing the natural tree canopy. With this information,
privet became our number one enemy and we went straight to work. Hand saws and pruning
clippers were provided. With these tools, we made our way along the trail edge and gradually
moved deeper into the habitat. This was a 2.5-hour event and even though there were only three
of us, we made a huge impact on the area. By the end of our time there we removed a pile of
trash and cut out around 180 privet plants and other invasive species. It was a very satisfying and
therapeutic experience. It made me grateful to see the hard work people do behind the scenes to
keep the areas we love clean and scenic. The best part was seeing our results before and after.

Before
After

A picture with the enemy (Privet)