Vital Back Bay Buffer is Lovely to See

Back Bay, one day, may be a little fresher body of water, thanks to the efforts of Susan Wenzel and many volunteers,

On a recent Saturday, 800 or so flowers, shrubs and trees were planted in a 1,200-foot-long buffer along a lake in South Shore Estates in the Red Mill area. Working with picks, shovels, trowels and a noisy gas-powered auger, Cub Scouts from Cub Pack 350, their parents and other volunteers prepared the beds and tucked the plants into the ground.

Soon the buffer will live up to its name and help shield Back Bay from rainwater run-off from streets and homes in the neighborhood. In this case, plants in their mulched bed will absorb run-off from the busy Upton Drive and Nimmo Parkway intersection as well as the parking lot of the Red Robin Restaurant and other businesses nearby.

Instead of flowing into the lake that eventually flows into Back Bay via Ashville Bridge Creek, rainwater and pollution from the roadways will be cleansed by plants and soak into the ground.

Wenzel, with the help of Susan Admire , executive director of the Back Bay Restoration Foundation, supervised the plantings. Wenzel had taken on the planning, design and preparation of the beds, as well as ordering plants and coordinating and training volunteers as part of an internship she is serving with the University of Maryland. Retiring from the Navy this spring, Wenzel is on her way to a degree in environmental management.

The South Shore Estates buffer was one of several that Wenzel has worked on over the past several weeks as part of the internship. Clay Bernick, in the city’s Planning Department, was her project supervisor throughout. Virginia Beach Horticulture Extension Agent Susan French and Laurie Fox , extension agent at the Virginia Tech Agricultural Research and Extension Center, also served as advisors.

Some buffers Wenzel worked on benefited the Lynnhaven River watershed, but others, including this one, were among the first to help out the Back Bay watershed. Grants , including one from the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Program, helped pay for the projects.

Not only will the buffer be doing its job to protect Back Bay from pollution, it will be beautiful to look at, Wenzel noted. The likes of purple coneflowers, black-eye Susans, Joe Pye weed, red- stemmed dogwood, persimmon trees and willow oaks will turn the heads of motorists on Upton Drive.

In addition, the plants will offer habitat for wildlife in this fast-growing area of the Beach. For example, raccoons, opossums and other small mammals dine on persimmons, and goldfinches feed purple coneflower seeds to their young.

“I know the main purpose is to mitigate water pollution,” Wenzel said. “But I am particularly fond of the fact that buffers give birds and other small critters food and shelter. I specifically picked plants that would prove beneficial to them.”

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