Habitat Restoration
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Role of the Project Director
After Bandy Field was established as an official public park by the City of
Richmond and designated as a nature park, the Friends of Bandy Field (FOBF)
wanted to establish a wetland in the low, rainwater collection area of the
park. They also wished to remove invasive plants and to replace them with a
variety of trees and shrubs native to the area. To accomplish this, FOBF set
out to recruit a consultant to help plan the park enhancement initiative.
Mr. Robert A. S. Wright, an environmental planner, was recommended to the
FOBF Board by an officer of the Virginia Native Plant Society (VNPS) to
serve as the consultant to design and guide the completion of the desired
project. Mr. Wright, himself a VNPS member and native Richmonder, is a
professional wetland scientist and a certified forestry and wildlife
conservationist. He agreed to serve without fee as project director for the
Bandy Field Wetland and Habitat Restoration Project.
Master Plan
 In his role as Project Director for the Park's natural enhancement effort,
Mr. Wright inventoried the Field's plants, identified the invasive exotics
for removal, selected a variety of native plants for restoration of the
habitats, and developed the entire master plan that would make the
initiative both ecologically healthy and wildlife friendly. The plans and
recommendations to guide the effort were included in two major documents
that were entitled, "Bandy Field Nature Park Habitat Improvement Project -
Final Action Plan - July 18, 2003" and "Post Construction Status Report &
Drainage Improvement Plan - Bandy Field Nature Park Improvement Project
Phase I & II - June 1, 2004." The Final Action Plan is available as a PDF
file (2.9 MB) ; also available are the appendixes
Statement of Findings Memorandum
(4.4MB)
from July 2002 and the
Land Use History Narrative.
Partner Organizations
We were supported in our project to enhance Bandy Field without changing its
character as an open nature park by a number of organizations. The
Pocahontas chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society and Robert Wright
were very helpful as mentioned above. In April of 2000 members of the
Pocahontas chapter undertook a “plant walk” on Bandy Field to catalog the
plants present. The report listed many species of native plants. Members of
the society also found several invasive plants and warned that we should
take action to prevent the invasive plants from driving out desirable native
plants. You can find the entire plant inventory on pages 4-7 of an
Appendix
to the Final Action Plan document .
We received continued help and advice from the
City of Richmond Department
of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities, and in particular from the
Superintendent, Mike Barbour, and Ms. Mary Lois Mitchum, manager of the
southwest region of the City.
Another organization that supported us was the
Alliance for the Chesapeake
Bay. Its program coordinators at the time, Ms. Stacey Moulds and Mr. Scott
Meyer, helped to organize many volunteer "Action Days." They informed us
about wetlands and helped us in formulating our plan for the plantings in
our small wetlands area.
We were also supported in all of our endeavors by the Boxwood and Tuckahoe
Garden Clubs. They not only provided valuable financial help, but they also
contributed many volunteers, a number of whom joined the Friends of Bandy
Field as members. In addition the two garden clubs applied to the
Garden
Club of Virginia for the prestigious Common Wealth Award. In October, 2004
the first prize of $5,000 was awarded to the two garden clubs for projects
connected to Bandy Field Nature Park. It enabled the Friends of Bandy Field
to buy trees and bushes for its habitat improvement effort, to eradicate
invasive plants, and to develop a website that will provide information
about many aspects of Bandy Field. In addition, the prize helped in
providing an educational outreach program which would let school-age
children participate more fully in the experience of a nature park situated
between the City of Richmond and Henrico County. Our member, Mary Glen
Taylor, and a dedicated group of garden club members prepared twelve ecology
boxes containing information about the ecology of woodlands, wetlands,
habitat restoration, and the removal of invasives.
Also providing consistent support are members of the Boy Scouts of America.
Boy Scouts have helped us on numerous workdays, planting trees and digging
trenches. Several Eagle Scout candidates undertook projects to enhance the
nature park. These projects included constructing the wetland bridge,
building blue bird boxes, removing ivy from the woodlands, and spreading
many dump-truck loads of woodchips to prevent weeds from growing.
 Many other volunteers have come to Bandy Field for our frequent workdays
from organizations including the Virginia Muslim Coalition For Public
Affairs, Richmond Tree Stewards, Bank of America, James River Garden Club,
Falls of the James Chapter of the Sierra Club,
Orchard House School,
Collegiate School,
Douglas Freeman High School,
Virginia Commonwealth
University, and the University of Richmond. We thank the volunteers from all
these organizations and the many individual volunteers as well.
Removal of Invasive Plants
A major effort to remove invasive plants began in 2003. The most common
invasive plants at the park are tree of heaven (ailanthus), wisteria, and
English ivy.
Learn more about the harm done by these plants at the
Plant Conservation
Alliances websiteand from
Invasive.org.
The City Department of Parks and Recreation removed widespread ailanthus
growth from Bandy Field Nature Park in January of 2003. Most of the
ailanthus was located in the southwest corner of Bandy Field. The Friends of
Bandy Field were able to cover the considerable cost of this undertaking
thanks to the generous support of its members and the Boxwood and Tuckahoe
Garden Clubs. The removal of ailanthus turned out to be an ongoing project
during the following years. Another major problem was tall ragweed which
threatened to choke newly planted trees and bushes. Our president, Charles
Price, together with volunteers battled the ragweed again and again. The
spreading of woodchips in the spring of 2006 seems to have helped
considerably in combating the ragweed invasion. Removal of invasives is an
ongoing effort at the park.
Construction of a Wetland Area
The first major undertaking of the Friends of Bandy Field was the
development of a wetland area in the northern part of the Field. In March of
2003 a group of seventy volunteers dug a wide ditch and planted river birch,
aronia (chokeberry), viburnum, swamp rose, swamp milkweed, bayberry, and
rush. Under the leadership of the field engineer, Robert Wright, a swale was
constructed surrounding the wetland and seeded with different grasses
serving to filter runoff pollution. On a later workday in 2003 a ditch was
dug near Three Chopt Road for better upslope drainage of the wetland.
Unfortunately, the severe drought of several seasons led to a low survival
rate of plants in the wetland area.
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Chokeberry |
Swamp Rose
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Bayberry Berry |
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Planting of Trees and Bushes
The planting of new trees and bushes was often arduous and exhausting due to
the hard clay soil. We could never have accomplished it without the guidance
of our program director and our many volunteers who spent many Saturday
mornings in sometimes very warm and sometimes very chilly weather digging,
raking, seeding, planting, and spreading woodchips. The result of this
effort can be admired in several areas. The trees that were planted in the
woodland area in the part of the Field that is next to Chandler Circle
include the following (with links to the Forest Biology and Dendrology
Educational Sites at Virginia Tech):
willow oaks,
loblollies,
shagbark hickories,
tulip poplars,
American
hollies,
red cedars,
dogwoods,
redbuds,
arrow wood viburnum,
Winthrop viburnum,
wax myrtles,
cranberry viburnum,
witch hazels, and
service
berries.
All of these are native trees and some furnish berries for birds. The trees
filled also those gaps where ailanthus trees had been removed. Some trees
died due to drought and ragweed infestation and had to be replaced. In 2006
a large amount of woodchips were spread to help control growth. In the
winter of 2005 twelve loblollies and nine cedars were planted in the area
next to Three Chopt Road. These plantings were made possible by funds from
the Common Wealth Award.
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