75: Deerskin Onesie

F L O W E R D E W,  V A

In 1607 the English landed in Jamestown and established a first permanent settlement in what would become America.  Soon after, expansion spread upriver to places like Flowerdew Plantation which began producing tons of tobacco for shipment back to England.  Flowerdew flourished for decades and is now a private residence. 

 

Abutting Flowerdew is James River National Wildlife Refuge (JRNWR) - a 4,300 acre limited-access property which has seen virtually no development since 1607.  Hence, it still resembles what the new world looked like when Jamestown was founded. 

 

Whenever east of Richmond, especially when following the James River, I recall days of sitting on a couch with my young daughters watching the classic film Pocahontas.  Through the magic of imagination, Disney conjured up a beautiful and mysterious woman darting through the forest in sleek deerskin onesie.  Her darting presence is easy to sense in these parts of Virginia. 

 

As I turn off of Route 10 onto Flowerdew Hundred Road just before sunrise under a blue harvest moon on Halloween, I enter the refuge and it gets wild in a hurry; the thick forest quickly dampens all surrounding civilization.  A mile in there’s a small parking lot for the Powell’s Creek trailhead.  The lot is empty.  It’s just me and Pocahontas in this corner of the preserve. 

 

Earlier this year, a permit was needed to reach Powell’s Creek but the US Fish & Wildlife Service in recognition of the importance of native landscapes and connecting people with nature just last month eliminated the permit process – a very welcomed change in these pandemic days of people yearning for open-air respites. 

 

My respite begins lyrically – a late migrating wood thrush serenades as I wend along the first few steps of today’s walk.  Soon after, the trail begins paralleling Powell’s Creek.  The reflections off its surface on this autumn day are exquisitely Renoir-like. Les couleurs sont ravissantes!  The trail soon reaches a land bridge crossing to a small island – a passage attracting not just walkers but flocks of birds as well.  It’s a boisterous, flittering crossing.  

 

Though this tiny island has no name, I’d recommend Haliaeetus Island in homage to the scientific term for the American bald eagle.  The loop trail around this island reveals many sightings; the final two perch perfectly for an ideal image capture. 

To stretch out my time at the JRNWR, and in honor of Flowerdew’s deep crop history, I stop for a cigar break at a clearing halfway around the island.  The views amplified by the golden light of sunrise are outstanding.  Sitting quietly amid this primordial environment savoring a little rolled tobacco seems very 1607-Virginia-like.  When in Rome…

 

After returning to the still-empty parking lot, the tour of this large property continues.  I head to its interior by way of a favored route: forest service roads.  How many amazing driving experiences have I had on such roads?  Rarely do they disappoint, and they surely don’t today.  The thin route slices through towering trees and past several vernal pools left behind by Hurricane Zeta.  I drive slowly, allowing the sights to more deeply endure. 

 

After a mile the road enters a well-managed longleaf pine savanna forest.  With help from The Nature Conservancy (TNC), prescribed burns here have conserved a forest type that in 1607 was quite common in this part of the state.  The openness of the understory gives the tall straight trees room to breathe… and allows Pocahontas to easy dart between them.  Beyond fire, TNC has also assisted the forest service in easement acquisitions and strategic planning that keep this historic property pristine.  TNC’s partnership with the refuge is an example of just how widespread their work is.  If you dig into the history of many of this country’s preserved lands, you’ll sometimes find stories of TNC contributions – often subtle and behind-the-scenes, but hugely instrumental nonetheless. 

The forest service road ends at the driveway of Flowerdew Plantation.  Cleared fields replace what was once long-ago a pine savanna. Tobacco no longer is grown but the rich land here at Flowerdew in the flood plain of the James River remains very productive.  This border symbolizes why the work of both the forest service and TNC is so important. It brings focus to the right balances that can exist between indigenous nature and human activity, including that of a deerskin-onesie-wearing beauty.