Coming Soon: A New Park Along Ernest Road in South Richmond
by Lisa Aikins-Afful, Southside ReLeaf Outreach and Engagement Coordinator
The Richmond 300 Master Plan sets the goal for the City to provide all Richmonders with access to public green space within a 10-minute walk of their home. As part of that goal, Mayor Stoney announced in the Fall of 2020 that the City would slate five Southside public parcels of land for future park development. These five future parks include parcels in the following areas:
Broad Rock Creek
Hioaks Water Tower
Ernest Road
Reedy Creek Wetland
Rosemont Road
Southside ReLeaf’s advocacy helped inspire the City to pledge the land to create five new parks, and we have been a key leader in the process of developing these green spaces. Our goal has been to approach this work collaboratively, activating private, public, and non-profit partnerships while engaging our Southside neighbors at each step along the way.
As the Outreach and Engagement Coordinator for Southside ReLeaf, this project has been a main focus and passion for me in recent months. I’m excited to share more about the work that is happening and express gratitude to all our partners.
June 2024: The park along Ernest Road before any development work, including invasive ivy removal, had started.
October 2024: The new park’s loop trail emerging from the invasive ivy.
A collaborative effort to green Southside
Back in the spring, the Virginia Department of Forestry awarded Southside ReLeaf, Groundwork RVA, and Restoration Environment Solutions (RES) a grant to develop the first new park along Ernest Road. From the beginning, we knew that creating a park in this space would require clearing invasive ivy and trash litter from over 60,000 square feet of urban forest—no small feat! We’ve hosted several work days so far (with many more to come!) to create the main trail through the park and an adjoining loop trail, and to clear out invasives and other debris. Every partner we’ve engaged in this work has played an important role in the progress we’ve made to transform the space.
Groundwork RVA has mobilized dozens of volunteers and members from their Green Team and Green Workforce initiatives to support the work of clearing the space of invasive plants, trash, and other debris. I’ve worked closely with Brian Scott, Green Workforce Foreman, to pinflag the loop trail, outline the space’s boundaries with a surveyor, plan for “sheepscaping” (landscape management using sheep), prepare for and host workdays, and more. We’ve been supporting each other through this process, and I couldn’t be more thankful for him.
RES has helped develop and implement an ecological restoration plan that will eliminate invasive species in the space, preserve the existing native plants, and install 5,000 new native plants to enhance the urban forest. Their contributions ensure that the park increases the ecological integrity and human health benefits of this space. In addition, they hosted an invasive species removal training for over 50 people in July before invasive ivy removal began. We’re grateful for their expertise.
Richmond Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities (PRCF) has supported our efforts to develop the new park at every step. Their workforce development team has been a major force in helping to clear the main trail through the park. Michael Gee, Labor Crew Supervisor - Workforce Development, helped deliver a debris dumpster and portable restroom to the site, making continued work possible. At different times during the work, we found yellow jacket nests, resulting in some painful stings. Kate Rivara, Community Program Coordinator, made sure the nests were taken care of quickly by dispatching the intrepid John Harris, Jr., Workforce Development Labor Crew Supervisor. To help confirm the boundaries of the new park space with a surveyor, Daniel Hazlett, Senior Management Analyst, left the comfort of his office and traipsed through the most overgrown parts of the space with me. We are thankful for all of these contributions!
Southside ReLeaf has taken the lead with community engagement efforts, in addition to hosting regular work days. So far, we’ve completed door-to-door canvassing in the neighborhoods closest to Ernest Road, launched bilingual surveys to seek feedback from neighbors about their desired park amenities, and hosted two guided walkthroughs and one community day to allow neighbors to see the developing park space. We’ve succeeded in creating a buzz in the community and have received great feedback.
Volunteers have been critical to helping us develop the new park. Across all of our partner organizations, we’ve had over 50 volunteers support the work so far, clearing out full dumpsters’ worth of ivy and debris. I’ve worked closely with William Rider, our volunteer MVP. Being an avid mountain biker and trail rider, he was familiar with the space and excited to steward it. He has shown up to almost every Ernest Road work day we have hosted, has recruited friends to volunteer, and has shared thoughtful suggestions for material sourcing and potential partnerships. William’s current passion project is to get trees and apply the Miyawaki method to expand the urban forest at Albert Hill Middle School in the Fan. To all of our volunteers, thank you! We couldn’t do this without you.
July 30, 2024: Volunteers remove a wheelbarrow full of invasive ivy at our first workday, clearing the main trail through the new park.
September 1, 2024: Neighbors from the surrounding area tour the future park space and provide feedback on what amenities they want to see at the new park.
August 22, 2024: Volunteers remove fallen limbs and other tree debris, continuing to clear the main trail through the future park space.
November 6, 2024: Sheep from RVA Goats and Honey graze on invasive ivy with the goal of clearing a huge swath of the forthcoming park.
Next steps for the new park
We’ve made incredible progress on the new park, but there is still a lot of work to do. Ridding 1.5 acres of invasive ivy is a slow process, one that is currently being aided by the efforts of a grazing sheep herd from RVA Goats and Honey. Additionally, we will continue to host volunteer work days with our partners, including two coming up (more on this below!). Once all the invasives have been removed, we’ll shift our attention to planting 500 understory native shrubs and trees, and nearly 5,000 herbaceous plants as part of the ecological restoration of the space.
We will also continue engaging our neighbors in the park’s development through door-to-door canvassing, soliciting additional survey feedback, and hosting educational workshops on urban forest stewardship. We hope to empower neighbors and provide them the tools to become long-term stewards of the new park space, truly creating a multi-generation asset for the community.
How you can get involved
We’re already dreaming about the grand opening celebration of this new park, but before we can host such an event, we need help from as many volunteers as possible. Follow us on Instagram to learn about workdays as we announce them, or visit our Events page to find upcoming volunteer opportunities. We invite corporate or other groups to complete a private volunteer workday at the park, ideal for 15+ volunteers. We also have two public volunteer work days coming up, with more to be announced soon. Please join us and spread the word!