
DATE: Thursday, November 27, 1997           TAG: 9711270695

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   93 lines

EDUCATION CENTER SET FOR BACK BAY REFUGE

At the beginning of the trail, rising over a pond like a giant's coat rack, a gnarled black gum tree greets visitors.

The ancient tree, in the company of world-class pines and bald cypresses, broods over a 17-acre tract that has become the latest addition to Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

The parcel, along with a house, trails and canoe launch, will serve as a new environmental education center for the refuge, with the goal of introducing schoolchildren and others to the ecology of freshwater habitats.

The big advantage will be its location, about 20 minutes closer than the present refuge headquarters is for most visitors. Instead of driving almost to the ocean, then down through Sandbridge, visitors across the region will find the trip seems half as far.

For now, it will be open only for supervised groups because it won't be staffed full time.

The land is not on the ocean side of the bay, where most visitors go to see the refuge but on the west side, from which much of the bay's fresh water flows. It is here, as well as the north side, where the bay lives or dies.

``This is a perfect site to tell why we need to protect the north and west sides of the bay,'' refuge manager John Stasko said last week as he led a group of volunteers and refuge staff over its trails.

``This is going to give students an opportunity to get the whole picture of Back Bay, not just dunes and the ocean, but fresh water, too.''

Back Bay, with a watershed extending nearly to Owl Creek on the north and Princess Anne Road on the west, was once a major stopping place for migrating waterfowl and a prime spot for fishing.

But years of abuse by humans, including suburban sprawl, roads and shopping centers, brought increased loads of chemical runoff and sediment that clouded the water and smothered submerged grasses. This, in turn, reduced fish and water bird populations and, 10 years ago, the 104-square-mile bay was nearly lifeless. Its rebirth has been slow.

The land lies off New Bridge Road along the southern side of Ashville Bridge Creek, which flows into Muddy Creek before meandering into the bay.

The new parcel is part of 500 acres acquired this fiscal year by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of its extensive expansion of the refuge. More than half of the 6,340 acres the government plans to add to the original 8,000-acre refuge has been bought, approaching the point where public lands virtually will circle the bay.

Congress appropriated $2 million to buy additional land in fiscal 1998. The government has been paying fair market prices - almost $300,000 for the 17-acre parcel, for instance - that landowners have found attractive.

``This is what makes it all worthwhile,'' said Molly Brown, president of Friends of Back Bay, as she took in the sight of the gnarled black gum. The group has long lobbied for funds to complete the refuge.

``We're proud because we made this all happen,'' she said.

The site is next to a farm whose owner, John Cromwell, teaches farm life and environmental practices to school groups. The new center will work closely with the farm, refuge officials say.

Beginning in March, Stasko said, the center will teach classes and groups to compare water samples from the pond and the creek and study the difference in organisms.

It also will teach visitors about marshes and how they filter out nutrients and sediments in ground water and control flooding.

And it will help students identify wetland plants, from cattails to cypress knees, as well as animal habitats.

One of the trails runs alongside Ashville Bridge Creek, where canoes can be launched. Paddlers could get to the northern part of Back Bay from there.

The city has been interested in opening a similar center on West Neck Creek, but Stasko says he hopes the local government will change its focus to the Back Bay center and coordinate its environmental education programs with the refuge.

``We hope it will be a real partnership,'' he said.

The 17 acres is part of a Depression-era camp built by the government-funded Civilian Conservation Corps. Since then there have been plenty of designs on using it, including turning it into a trailer park.

The most recent owner was Bill Cairns, a former Long Island, N.Y., car dealer and real estate salesman who wanted to get away from crowds and crime.

He and his wife lived there for 10 years before selling and moving to Sandbridge.

``We're not environmentalists, but we can appreciate land being kept the way it is,'' Cairns said.

``It was really quiet at night and in the mornings, you never knew what you'd find, whether it was a deer, a fox or an owl. There were amazing gar fish in the creek and crabs that would - I'm not kidding - come up to the back door.

``It hurts a lot to sell it.''

For Friends of Back Bay, the feeling is just the opposite.

Said Brown, ``Now it's preserved for future generations.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

PAUL CLANCY/The Virginian-Pilot

The site of a new environmental education center for Back Bay

National Wildlife Refuge is off New Bridge Road along the southern

side of Ashville Bridge Creek, which flows into Muddy Creek before

reaching the bay.