Town’s ‘Cancel Culture’ on years of Happy Creek bank maintenance

If you are a community volunteer (and hopefully you are), imagine how you might feel if the organization you dedicated your time to, not only destroyed your work but denied it ever even existed.
In his waning hours as vice mayor, Bill Sealock repeatedly stated that the section of Happy Creek along Front Street hadn’t been maintained for 17 years. Mayor Chris Holloway echoed his colleague in the Northern Virginia Daily on January 5 (Crews Resume Work on Happy Creek): “What is not due diligence is allowing the creek to grow out of control as it had for over 17 years with no work being done to mitigate flooding and erosion.” And, after one month on the job, Front Royal’s new Town Manager Steven Hicks added: “Over the years, it hasn’t been maintained and that’s what’s causing the erosion.”

You can imagine the surprise felt by hundreds of volunteers who have maintained Front Street’s forested riparian buffer and stream habitat for 14 years. Reporting to Town Horticulturalist Carrie Whitacre (2006-08) and her successor, Anne Rose (2009-2019), Front Royal/Warren County Tree Stewards alone dedicated hundreds of hours to planting more than 100 native trees (now removed), eliminating invasive plant species, especially shrubby undergrowth, and pruning trees to ensure healthy growth and structure.

2006-07: Tree Stewards removing invasive shrubs and trees. To prevent regeneration of invasive species, one volunteer with a professional Pesticide Applicators Certification regularly treated stumps and sprouts.

Prior to the Town’s recent destruction of the Front Street riparian buffer, significant sections of the streambank were intact. Erosion merited riprap only in a few sections undercut by the stream. In fact, uprooting the trees installed along the Prospect Street creek “bench” actually destroyed a section repaired by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries in 2006-07 that was reversing erosion by accumulating sediment. (The bench is that flat area below street level formed naturally by the stream itself during flood periods, allowing excess water to slow down and spread out, forming puddles as it recedes for absorption by tree roots and soil.)

Water is a force of nature that will not be denied. Harnessing that force to maximize its many benefits, from recreation to esthetics and human consumption, demands a mix of natural and manmade intervention. For 14 years of hard work, community volunteers deserve our thanks for doing their part, not erasure from our collective memory. Had the Town not neglected its own responsibility for erosion control, this situation could have been mitigated in a less dramatic manner – even so, clearcutting and armoring the entire streambank were uncalled for.

2008: Scouts, Young Marines and other youth groups help Tree Stewards plant 50 seedlings from the Virginia Department of Forestry along Front Street. Seedlings were hand-watered by volunteers for months to ensure survival. The majority of these twelve-year-old trees were eliminated in fall 2020.

Of the eight groups comprising the Save Happy Creek Coalition, three (Beautification of Front Royal Committee, Front Royal/Warren County Tree Stewards, Warren County Chapter of Izaak Walton League) have contributed significant sweat equity to creek maintenance. These volunteer organizations were founded by individuals with a mission to educate the public and assist the Town in realizing community aspirations. It was never their intent to act as watchdogs or gadflies. The Tree Stewards and Appalachian Trail Community Committee were even launched by Town proclamation, which included certification prerequisites. Though not a coalition member, the Urban Forestry Advisory Commission (UFAC) was formed as a qualifying “Tree Board” requirement for Tree City USA certification.

UFAC, Tree Stewards, Appalachian Trail Community, and Beautification Committee reported to Town staff liaisons whose positions are now eliminated, vacant, or filled with individuals who have failed to acknowledge these groups’ existence. Town horticulturalist Anne Rose, for example, has not been replaced, a significant loss of institutional memory and expertise. Prior to 2019, these groups would have been consulted in advance or at least given the courtesy of a heads-up about destruction of the riparian buffer they developed and maintained for 14 years. Now they deserve honest answers for this violation of public trust and an apology for disrespect of work carried out at the behest of the Town itself.

2006-07: The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) provided a grant to repair a 100’ stretch of streambank and improve trout habitat along Front Street. Fifteen public and private project partners ranged from the Town of Front Royal, Warren County Parks & Rec, and Front Royal Urban Forestry Advisory Commission to local Boy Scouts, Trout Unlimited, Izaak Walton League, and others. Above: VDGIF staff stabilizing the bank with seed, fertilizer, and straw matting. Trees were later planted in this section. Note erosion and sediment control measures in the picture on the right, preventing sediment from entering the stream during disturbance. Until its destruction, this section had actually REVERSED erosion by accumulating sediment.

Installed in the Front Street creek bed by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, Rosgen structures are configurations of large rocks that prevent erosion by slowing down the water as well as channeling it away from the banks and into the center of the channel. Called “debris” in the Town’s application for a permit from the Virginia Commission of Marine Resources, several of these beneficial structures have been damaged or destroyed.

Did you know that community volunteers even played a major role in making the Royal Greenway a reality? At a Town Council work session in 2008, the Tree Stewards presented a plan for a greenway developed some years earlier by a former Front Royal town planner. As luck would have it, then Town Manager Michael Graham and Mayor Jim Eastham had been looking over the same plan. And from that spark, Tree Stewards, the Town of Front Royal, and Warren County worked hand in hand to make that vision come true.

But apparently even this reality could vanish without your vigilance and support as citizens of our town and county.

2010-11: The Front Royal Urban Forestry Advisory Commission obtained a grant from the Virginia Department of Forestry for removal of invasive species at the Front Street site. The work was carried out by Angler Environmental, an environmental engineering company specializing in aquatic work. Below: The completed project, including woodchips from removed brush used as mulch.

2008-2018: The Tree Stewards maintained the Front Street riparian buffer, dedicating an average of two work sessions annually to clearing underbrush and invasive species, planting seedlings and trees, and limbing up branches to open views and access to the creek. Pictured below is the result of thinning and pruning in 2018.

Members of the Izaak Walton League conduct two annual volunteer clean-ups of the entire creek-bed in Front Royal. In 2016 volunteers are pictured here loading up trash deposited by stormwater rushing through the many culverts that drain streets and parking lots into the Happy Creek.

Annual Arbor Day plantings: Left: The 2020 Arbor Day addition, a black gum planted by Tree Stewards along Front Street. Right: Former Beautification Committee president Lorraine Hultquist pitches in to plant a willow tree funded by the Committee and a grant from the Virginia Department of Forestry for Arbor Day in 2016. The Beautification of Front Royal Committee has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for trees planted in Front Royal, including most of the Arbor Day selections.