the stairs between Libby Terrace and 31st Street
A reader writes with a question regarding the stairs between Libby Terrace and 31st Street:
I run or walk these stairs probably 4-5x/week. Is there a group or point person that is responsible for maintaining this area? I’d be glad to volunteer to help if there is ever a clean-up day. [...] The steps are growing over with kudzu, the steps are awash in leaves, and there is a fresh crop of condoms deposited there regularly.
That’s something you would have to contact the City Parks and Recreation Department for. A few of us are meeting with them this afternoon to discuss the creation of a Friends of Chimborazo group so I’ll mention this and see where it gets us.
We’re hoping to tackle the steps at the end of 32nd Street that go down into the park very soon, too.
the stairs down to sugar bottom? The true “owner” of those might be hard to find.
We use the stairs a lot while training some of our gym members. Richmond Balance would be happy to help maintain the area as well. Please let me know how we can help.
I’d be careful what I asked the city for. Way back in the early 1990′s, the city got the idea to spray all the kudzu both on those steps and on the south side of Libby Terrace. They also sprayed all the cobblestones in Libby Hill Park because of grass growing up in the stones. Turned the whole area orange. I had a dog at the time and walked him in the park, and he was sick all summer long, so I called and asked what they’d used, and the parks manager told me (forgotten now exactly what it was, a mix of 2-4-D and something else). Friend who was a ‘Nam vet told me it was the same things used in Agent Orange, but when I asked the parks rep he swore it was so safe he’d ‘eat a salad sprayed with it.’ (No, I didn’t go pick a bunch of kudzu for him to eat, although I sure thought of doing it!)
If I were interested in cleaning up those steps, I’d get a group together and do it without city help. Sounds like you folks already have some interested people…
I agree with you Celeste. We don’t need a cocktail of defoliants sprayed in this area. The city will probably be spraying Williamsburg Rd. soon and it looks awlful afterward when they do.
Since I identified the problem and use the steps often I went over this morning and cleaned them up. It truly was a fetid and festering “dung heap”. While not pristine now, it looks a lot better. It has historic significance and deserves care.
I encourage the Libby Terrace folks to consider taking more ownership of the steps. Neglected areas are a sign to the criminal community that nobody is watching or cares. “Stuff” is going on there now and your homes are a stone’s throw away. This spot should also be on the Neighborhood Watch screen.
I’ll stop in at Richmond Balance to meet Michelle so that we can coordinate future maintenance. Let’s keep Parks and Rec out of it.
Zeb, Michelle, I wish you the best. In defense of the folks on Libby Terrace, some of them have, over the years, worked on it – the Dillehay’s live in the last house on the south side, and I know they’ve done a lot. But they’re retired now, and perhaps having you folks work on it will make a difference. Absolutely the best of luck to you – and when I have a chance to talk to the other (two) people I know who live over there, I’ll try to let them know what’s going on. And I’ll try to let the Neighborhood Watch know about it, too.
Again, good luck and keep it up!
Had an interesting conversation tonight regarding clearing kudzu. Seems that goats are the choice, not pesticides. One of the people telling me this said to google it, so I tried a search consisting of two words, just like this: “kudzu + goats” and here is just the first of many links (sorry, John, I’ve forgotten the basic html you tried to teach me!)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1021/p01s02-ussc.html
They’ve been used at NC State, even the city of Wilmington, NC has used them, to say nothing of places further west. If I were really interested in clearing the steps, I’d also do a survey (via fliers, probably) of the folks on the south side of Libby Terrace, set up a fund depending on what it takes to rent a few goats, and find someone to look after a few rental goats for a couple of days. The man talking to me tonight went into more detail than this article does, he said they even destroy the roots. Might be worth looking into. I rather doubt the city, which loves pesticides, would want to employ goats, but perhaps a few private citizens could do some clearing over a Saturday and Sunday via some rented goats. There are goat herds in the surrounding counties, if anyone happens to know someone with a few, perhaps you could even get them donated for a weekend or just a Saturday to make a dent in the kudzu. Or make a trip to the farmer’s market when the guy with the goat cheese is there, ask him if he’d be willing to bring a couple or three goats over on a Saturday, might get that for free or very little money.
With that documented, during the goat visits but AFTER you’re done, via a few pictures, you might have a chance of convincing someone in Parks and Rec to try it next year, just be careful about the city hollering about liability from goat bites or whatever. This is NOT a joke, by the way, I’m totally serious. As well as fascinated by the research out there on goats eating kudzu!
I’m actually so excited about this, I’d even put forth twenty bucks and contact someone I know who lives on Libby Terrace’s south side who has kudzu behind his alley, to see if he’s interested in contributing or doing goat watching, if you folks are interested. And I don’t live anywhere near Libby Terrace, I’m way north of Broad right now!
Goats!? You bet! There are a couple routinely staked out along Route 5 @ Osborne Tnpk in front of the BP gas station. They do a great job cutting the tall grass and weeds in a steep ditch. Plus, they are really fun to see (for a city kid.) But that’s Varina…a different world than Church Hill.
Aren’t goats considered livestock within the city limits? The property owners who would benefit from these kudzu-munchers might need to figure out a way to get the city to look the other way while these temporary weed-eaters do their thing.
Come to think of it…goats would do a better job clearing the overgrown hillsides in Chimborazo, Libby Hill and Jefferson Parks…and they wouldn’t complain about the steep pitch of the hills. If DPW is willing to let inmates cut the grass (and allow them to do a questionable job at that,) why wouldn’t they let a few goats munch away and save the city the gas bill?
FYI, Dept. of Public Works does most of the grass/weed cutting on city property and in parks.
Gosh I hope goats become a trend…I know a lot of vacant lots in Union Hill that could use a wandering goat, or two. Will be watching your goat-weed eradication efforts with great interest!
This would be awesome! I have thought a lot about getting a goat for here, but I don’t think I’m allowed, being within city limits and all. Plus, they are LOUD!
But I would totally foster one or two for a couple-few days if people actually were looking to get some goats to “mow.” I have almost half an acre, privacy fenced down the hill in the Fulton area. That would be amazing. We would love it!
Two questions:
Who hangs out to herd them and make sure they stay in the right area – or do they just get tied up and moved every once in awhile? (Tying up is how they do it in the islands if the area is not restricted/is wander-able.)
Also, are they naturally compatible with dogs? I have three.
Why not?
:D As a former Church Hill resident and current goat owner, I can tell you that only certain breeds qualify as “loud.” And no, as prey animals, they aren’t naturally compatible with dogs. If tied out, the goats would need to be supervised from predators. They do love kudzu, though, and go nuts over poison ivy. Did I mention what great fertilizer they leave behind?!
The goat solution is excellent and timely "out of the box" thinking. Win/win green outcome for sure. Imagine that hillside happily managed by a few 4 legged "mowers". It would look like alpacas in the hill of Peru. The Times-Dispatch would be all over it: "Richmond takes lead in Green
Technology for Park Maintenance!"
Somebody did some weed whacking at the bottom of the steps at the streetside over the weekend. Looking better all the time. I saw city crews at Libby Park this AM armed with mowers, etc. One truck was pulling a trailer with a plastic tank half full of liquid. Let’s hope it was H2O for the new trees.
Looked up goats and dogs, and their love for each other – or lack thereof. Seems like it is a case by case thing. Also found a funny vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_YHlwAsfyQ&feature=related
and there are others of goats and dogs, both playing and facing off.
I’d still be willing to have them here, and just walk my dogs for a few days in the evenings while the goats dominated the yard at night.
Definitely!
goats?
good eatin’!
yum.
In lower Chimbo the kudzu is TAKING OVER so I would love to see a pesticide yet sure fire way to get rid of it all. Since forming the Friends of Chimborazo group, that is actually becoming our priority as the area the kudzu currently covers would be great if used in other ways than to harbor this very stifling plant.
I also happen to know my roommate would be in favor of a goat trend as well.
So we need to figure out if we can do this and get it going! (As we have a lot of poison ivy, too, that just won’t die.)
That was supposed to say “pesticide free…” oops!
Crystal, you sound like you’re really interested in getting this going, I hope it does, and I figured you meant pesticide free but I like seeing typos corrected!
Maybe Beth, the former resident of post #10, would be interested in bringing in some of her goats for a day? It sounds like overnight would be too much trouble, since they’d need supervision. I wonder how much munching they could get done just on a Saturday?
I know this is a long article, but well worth reading as it challenges typically held views about weeds.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/magazine/29weeds-t.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=weeds&st=nyt&oref=slogin
badlands, that is a SERIOUSLY long article! However, since it’s a long weekend, I took the time to read all of it. What I got out of it is that weeds are already adapting to climate change, and they’re better at adapting than crops (engineered crops, not nec. genetically engineered, but specially bred). And that means a lot of farmers will have problems with more weeds, too.
From the last page, “Developing techniques for managing weeds in a time of global climate change will be essential to the world’s agricultural future, and the U.S.D.A. researchers, though they have been starved of essential financing, lead the world in this field. (There is one exception, Ziska admits; his Web searches have revealed that marijuana growers have an amazingly detailed knowledge of how CO2 enrichment affects their crop. But as Ziska points out, they don’t publish in scientific journals.) Possession of this expertise could be a great economic asset to the United States, both for the protection it could provide to our own harvests and as an intellectual export that is sure to be much in demand in other countries.” [I posted the entire paragraph for fun due to a certain reference, most will pick up on it I think!]
Also, kudzu’s roots might provide biofuel because they contain 50% starch.
But to the subject at hand – kudzu overgrowth on the steps from Libby Terrace. I’d really love to see someone bring in some goats. I understand that they’d need to be tethered, and supervised, but is anyone seriously working on getting a couple of goats and tethering them for a weekend, or even a day? I think it would be great fun. Unfortunately I have no goats. And no weekday time to volunteer to be a goatherd, but I guess I could spend a couple of hours on a Saturday or Sunday reading a book and watching over them….
Back to Beth of post #10, would you be willing to bring in a couple of goats on a Saturday? Do they need total attention for an entire day, or could we just agree to go watch them periodically? Hope you see this and respond, thanks!
The goats would have to be watched and protected from Church Hill predators. Loose pit bulls. Let’s do Roundup.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128411947
Really great story on NPR’s website recently titled “Weed-Whacking Goats Will Work for Food.” It’s about goats in Los Angeles’ business district, weed-whacking a hillside. Might work on Libby Hill and a few other areas like the backside of Richmond Hill at Franklin and 21st Street.