Fresh Air and a Helping Hand

Six miles north of Charlottesville is the Ivy Creek Natural Area. The area is managed by the Ivy Creek Foundation. It is currently owned by Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville. Ivy Creek is rich with nature and history dating back to the 1870s when former slave Hugh Carr purchased the land as a family farm. 

On Saturday, Nov. 19, PVCC’s Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) visited the Ivy Creek Natural Area to take part in the monthly public work day. PTK volunteers assisted Ivy Creek’s Karl Hohenstein to remove and replace water bars on the trail from 9-11 a.m.. According to Hohenstein, the water bars are intended to divert water on hills that want to run down the trail, so that the water does not erode the trail further.

Hohenstein said, “We’ve probably got 400 of them out on the trails, and we probably, two or three times a year, go through and clear them all out so that they continue to drain and provide their intended function.”

On this day, PTK volunteers helped carry red cedar logs along the trail to the replacement spot while another group of volunteers helped replace the wooden markers that indicate which trail hikers are on. These are among the many tasks volunteers are able to help with when they join the public work day. 

Susie Farmer is the Ivy Creek Foundation’s director of education. She said, “Ivy Creek has a public work day the fourth Saturday of every month, and we really appreciate the PVCC group coming out and doing all this hard work that you all do for us every month. You make our jobs easier.”The next public work day will be on Dec. 17. The Foundation moved the event up by a week due to the upcoming holiday. Anyone interested in volunteering at the upcoming public work day can reach out to Farmer by email, susie@ivycreekfoundation.org, so that they know who is coming. Check out the Ivy Creek Foundation website for more information about upcoming volunteer and educational events.