THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 3, 1996 TAG: 9611010263
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: COASTAL JOURNAL
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: 90 lines
Many subdivisions in the northern half of Virginia Beach are graced with lakes that provide waterfront property for inland residents.
In older neighborhoods, most of these lakes were once farm ponds. The ponds may have provided irrigation for crops, watering holes for livestock, or even fishing holes for the farmer and his family, said Louis Cullipher, director of the Virginia Beach Department of Agriculture.
The ponds, built long before wetlands laws existed, were basically created from low-lying marshy areas along the Lynnhaven. The farmer would simply build an earthen berm and dam off the river. Unscientifically constructed, the dams were created with fill dirt, old farm equipment and most anything else the farmer wanted to get rid of.
After a pond was dammed, it would be drained through a pipe or possibly by a pump several times to flush out the salt water, Cullipher explained. In time, the ponds would become fresh, replenished by rain, runoff and ground water springs.
Over time, the ponds naturalized and became a habitat for fish, herons, turtles and other critters. Trees, bushes and grasses grew up along the shoreline. The old farm ponds became beautiful enough to be termed waterfront property when the land was subdivided into neighborhoods.
More recently, the ponds also have become a management problem. The old dams spring leaks, for one thing. A broken pond dam is nothing like the problem of a huge river dam breaking, because the water simply drains out into the Lynnhaven, and doesn't endanger life and limb down stream. On the other hand, the neighborhood's waterfront property could become mud-hole property.
The lakes also have algae blooms and resulting fish kills when too much fertilizer and other chemicals from neighborhood lawns wash into the water. In addition, the lakes begin to silt in from stormwater drainage and runoff from yards.
Trantwood Lake in the Inlynnview neighborhood is typical of the older ponds in the city. Built around 1950 as a source of water for the Trant dairy farm, the lake was enlarged and canals were added as the surrounding neighborhood developed.
Now shoreline shrubs, like wax myrtles, are overgrown and hang out over the lake, snagging trash and debris in the water and pulling the shoreline down. The bushes also are shading out low-growing shoreline plants that could help prevent erosion and dirt is washing into the water.
``I've lived here 11 years and I've seen the lake overgrow and overgrow,'' said lakeside resident Leona Shuler, ``and seen the wildlife dwindle.''
Residents, led by Shuler, decided something had to be done. They revived the Trantwood Lake Corporation after a 20-year hiatus and installed Shuler as president.
The first major project of the nine-member board was to initiate a lake cleanup. Last weekend, board and resident volunteers, dressed in waders or boots, were out in force, either in boats or along the shore. They were picking up trash and hacking away at the branches of the huge shrubs overhanging the lake.
By the end of the weekend, enormous piles of brush and trash were lined up on the streets, awaiting pickup by the city, but it was only a drop in the garbage can. Shuler thinks it will take the better part of a year to complete the cleanup of all 110 lots that line the lake shoreline.
``We're going house by house, channel by channel, whatever people will let us do,'' she said.
Many longtime lake residents are elderly and can't go out and do the back-breaking work that the lake committee was doing last weekend. So a lot of the cleanup will continue to be done by volunteers.
``It will take a long time, but we are willing to do it,'' Shuler said. ``The people on the board are wonderful and are willing to come out and do other people's property.''
The lake corporation, supported by dues, plans on being an active group, holding educational meetings for civic leagues in the watershed on issues such as fertilizer and pesticide use. The group also will discuss projects like stocking fish or the need for regulations on lake use.
On the surface, Trantwood Lake is a serene and beautiful spot and when Shuler and company finish with it, the lake will be beautiful through and through.
P.S. A WATERFOWL FIELD WALK will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Call 721-2412 for reservations.
WHY DO LEAVES FALL off the trees and why do bears sleep so long in winter? ``Woods in Winter'' is the topic of a family adventure at 10 a.m. Saturday at Norfolk Botanical Garden. Call 441-5830.
AN ASTRONOMY STROLL on the beach will take place at 5 p.m. Nov. 10 at False Cape State Park. The fee is $5. Call 426-7128. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
Trantwood Lake residents, from left, Wayne Bilger, Betty Jeavons and
Tom Eitt are helping clean up the shoreline. by CNB