Monacan Bulldozer

Bulldozer in the foreground, Monticello in the background, floodplain in between.

There’s lots of things that we can do with engineering, with big machines and modern equipment. I mean, there are lots of things that one could do.
And so we do have the ability to build up the soil and help create an island, an elevation that will then put a structure that is out of the 100 year floodplain. That’s true.
We also could pipe the creek and pave it over and then we wouldn’t have to have a buffer. You could actually get a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers to do things like that.

But should we?

That’s where I’m coming from. The 100 year floodplain has a very important hydrologic function in allowing, during a storm, as a water is rushing down, because it has this area it spreads out and dissipates the energy of the water and then some of that sediment load actually drops out in that slower water at the margins. That’s why floodplain soils are so rich, that’s why people like to farm them, because it’s some of the best soil, because that’s where those floodwaters dissipate and lose their energy.
When you constrict the area that the water is flowing through it goes faster. So on a large scale, looking at the whole area, I understand what Mr. Pohl is saying and I understand what Timmons has said, that this will not raise the elevation of the flood overall.

But I’m also looking at this from two perspectives; one is death by 1000 paper cuts, which is all the little fills cumulatively altogether, I don’t have the confidence that we’re looking at it from that perspective.
The other aspect is, again, what I just said about floodplains. They have a purpose and we really should not build in the floodplains. Albemarle County is actually more restrictive; we don’t let you put subdivisions in the floodplains.

You know, our neighbors in Charlottesville allowed a development of housing in the floodplain through an area which I used to kayak when the water was up.
And too bad for those folks when we get another big storm.
I believe very strongly and I have a 35 year career in floodplain and watershed management, and so I’ve spent my whole life trying to keep people out of floodplains.

I would also suggest to you that the zoning, yes is from 1997. But in our comp plan, never mind the park thing for a moment to my commissioner at the other end of the dais, they’re not suggesting this become a park necessarily, but it’s designated as green system because the county did go along and say all of these floodplains, we’re going to call them green systems.

Don’t always think of the Earth as just a place where we are going to recreate or not recreate. There are other ecological functions that are going on there for biota, for salamanders, for all kinds of other critters that are also under our stewardship.
Where I’m coming from is I’m not in favor of allowing fill in the floodplain.

I think that zoning can be old, zoning can be wrong. Zoning can be a bad idea. I think this zoning is outdated. I agree with Lonnie. There are a lot of a lot of reasons why we developed along rivers, that was because that was a transportation system. We had to move goods on the Rivanna. We put goods on batteaux on the Rivanna and sent them down to Richmond. So you know, there’s a lot of reasons why people develop near rivers, also for water supply.

But today, putting industrial along our rivers is also a bad idea. So I don’t think the zoning is good. We’re not here tonight to decide about the zoning, we are here to decide whether you think it’s OK to fill in the floodplain. And I’m going to stick with the comprehensive plan. I think it was wise to say that this is a green system and I don’t care if no one ever recreates in it. So that’s where I’m coming.

I have a lot of hydrologic reasons and ecological reasons for the way that I am presenting my position tonight. I don’t think we’re getting a huge return for allowing this site to become this industrial use by getting it out of the floodplain. That’s it.
I will now step down off my soapbox and yield to my colleagues.–Karen Firehock April 22, 2025 Albemarle County Planning Commission

Clovis and Yadkin

Driving with Dorsey. What will turn up. Work from 1000 years ago turned up in the course of turning the soil. Dorsey was a farmer, farmers turn soil and in the course of their labor unearth the production of countless individuals from millennia. In both cases the discovery and manufacture driven by intelligence, art and the need to eat.

Information on projectile points Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
Pictured, Mr. Gordon Shifflett.

contemplation

The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974)

driving around with DWS

IH Farmall

Farmall was a prominent brand in the 20th-century trend toward the mechanization of agriculture in the US. Its general-purpose machines’ origins were in row-crop tractors, a category that they helped establish and in which they long held a large market share. During the decades of Farmall production (1920s to 1980s), most Farmalls were built for row-crop work, but many orchard, fairway, and other variants were also built. Most Farmalls were all-purpose tractors that were affordable for small to medium-sized family farms, and could do enough of the tasks needed on the farm that the need for hired hands was reduced and for working horses or mules eliminated.–Wikipedia

Friends of DWS

U.S.S. Constitution

old ironsides sailing ship
Photo by R.A.G.Smith

In total, 60 acres of trees were needed for her construction. Primary materials consisted of pine and oak, including southern live oak which was cut from Gascoigne Bluff and milled near St. Simons Island, Georgia. Enslaved workers were used to harvest the oak used for the ship’s construction–Wikipedia

No potentates

In a few hours we’re walking up Monticello Mountain for my favorite legal event. People from all over the world take the oath of citizenship, and become Americans.

“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”-Naturalization Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America