They’re pretty obvious  all around the area, and all over Virginia–purple glue traps to capture emerald ash borers

A trap for emerald ash borers.

which have decimated ash forests in part of the U.S. and are threatening Virginia, according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Native to Asia,  the pest was first discovered in Detroit in 2003, and a year later on nursery stock in Fairfax County. Since then, a quarantine area was established that includes the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Fauquier, Frederick, Clarke, Loudoun and Prince William, and the cities of Alexandria, Winchester, Fairfax City, Falls Church, Manassas and Manassas Park. No ash trees, green ash lumber or ash wood products, or hardwood firewood, may be transported out of those areas. Last year, about 5,500 traps were placed around  Virginia.  They are baited with natural plant-oil attractant and covered with a nontoxic glue to catch the insects, which are  attracted to the color purple. For more information on the Virginia and national programs, click here,  here and here. Read Donnie Johnston’s most recent story here.

On Saturday, members of the Tappahannock Rotary Club, with help from Friends of the Rappahannock, were  on the river below the Downing Bridge, cleaning up trash, when they saw a large bird hopping along the shore. Richard Moncure, FOR

‘s river steward for the lower Rappahannock, says it became clear that the mature eagle could not fly. Local waterman  Andy Brooks, he said, named it “Popeye” because of the way it was hobbling along. “We met officer Justin Martin” with the Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge “and joined forces to flush the bird out into the water where we could grasp [it] with net and towel.” Moncure said it wasn’t immediately apparent why the bird couldn’t fly, saying it may have had a collision with a vehicle on the  bridge linking Tappahannock and the Northern Neck.  Another possibility, biologists say:   eagles are territorial over feeding areas and mates and often have aerial battles that sometimes end badly, with one or both participants injured.   A boat maneuvered next to the eagle, which was brought aboard in a net. Vasa Clark, a Boy Scout volunteer,  snapped the picture of the rescue on this page. Moncure said  it was a combined effort involving FOR,  the  Rotary club, June Parker Marina, Scouts, the wildlife refuge and the Essex County animal control office. Once ashore, Moncure  said, the bird was taken to the Wildbunch Wildlife Rehabilitation Center  in Warsaw, for care.

Friends of the Rappahannock has been doing river cleanup since its founding in 1985.  One of its  partners is the Rappahannock Rotary Club, which  has provided volunteers for FOR’s annual cleanup around Fredericksburg, and the boost to extend the cleanup downriver, says member Dana Herlong. The Rappahannock chapter put out a challenge for other clubs in the Rotary’s 20-member district, to help out. Herlong, owner of Herlong Associates, Inc., said she was talking with John Tippett, FOR’s executive director, a few years back about the fact that the Rotary district 7610  “overlays the river” to the Chesapeake Bay. “We wanted to get a district [cleanup] going,” she said. Earlier this year, the club and two other benefactors presented a new boat to FOR to help Moncure  patrol  downriver. The Warsaw and Tappahannock clubs helped  with the the cleanup this year. “We’re very excited,” Herlong said. “We’re hoping this will grow each year.”

Rappahannock Rotary volunteers help with recent river cleanup.

Even if you were awake at 4:36 in the wee hours this morning, you probably wouldn’t have felt it, but it was another aftershock from last summer’s magnitude-5.8 earthquake. The magnitude-1.7 shock was reported by the U.S. Geological Survey, centered about seven miles southwest of Mineral. The last aftershock hit around 1:04 a.m. on April 26, also a magnitude 1.7. That one was in the same area, about eight miles southwest of Mineral. Before that, there were two on March 7–a magnitude-1.6 at around 3 a.m., its epicenter about four miles south of the town of Louisa, and 52 minutes later, a 1.7-magnitude aftershock hit about five miles south of Mineral. USGS scientists say the aftershocks are helping them to better define the fault area that caused the earthquake last Aug. 23. There have been over 50 aftershocks over magnitude 2.0 since the earthquake, according to USGS.

If you thought it seemed warmer, for the most part, in March than it was in April, there are some numbers to back it up. According the University of Mary Washington weather site, there were eight days in April when the high temperature reached 70 or higher. In March, a surprising 11 days were  70 or above. But overall, April was warmer than March, with the average for the month at  68.5 degrees and 65.3 degrees, respectively.

Until late last week there were four good-size maple trees standing in front of the  Colonial Village at Greenbrier apartments off the Blue and Gray Parkway.  On Friday, which happened to be Arbor Day, the apartment managment had crews taking them down. Scott De Long, who has lived in the complex since 1999 with his wife

Scott De Long's photo of the trees before they were cut.

Marlena, sent me an email about the cutting, saying  residents were given little notice, and that, when he inquired, he was told  removing the trees was part of the site’s landscaping plan. Sarah Smith, the apartment manager, told me she wasn’t authorized to talk about it, and referred me to the corporate office, Colonial Properties Trust, in Birmingham, Ala.  Jim Spahn, the company spokesman, said trees are an integral part of a property’s curb appeal, and that Colonial wouldn’t cut trees if it were not necessary. He says the area where the trees  were growing  had to be re-graded and that there is an erosion issue on the slope, and that water gets into the buildings. Some of the residents point out that trees and their root systems stem erosion and hold the soil in place. Spahn conceded that it was probably not a good idea to cut them on Arbor Day.  While any property owner has the right to landscape  and cut trees, how it is done makes a difference. While I was there on Monday, I talked to another couple, Matthew and Amber Potter,  who live in the same building and were also upset. Potter watched as the crew cut down one of the trees near his balcony.  Potter says one of the crew gave him the vague answer that the reason for cutting the trees was “complicated.” Potter says he and his wife moved to Fredericksburg partly because it is tree-friendly, and that the complex is one of the few in the area with lots of trees on site.

Here’s an excerpt from De Long’s email about the cutting: “Our apartment complex advertises in all the rental guides. `Live in a park-like setting’ is their main selling point (this paired with a misleading photo of Alum Springs Park). And then they cut down nearly all our trees! Every resident I have spoken to is really angry about this.  The management justifies it as a critical part of their `landscaping plans.’ But this is baloney.”

He says some big oaks were felled near the pool two years ago with no advance notice and little explanation. “They laid some sod in a few areas, scattered grass seed everywhere else–and it looks about as good as the National Mall in Washington DC. (and we all know how much work that needs). “

Look for my story in  Wednesday’s paper.

Fresh-cut maple stump at Colonial Village at Greenbrier in Fredericksburg.

After a busy spring wildfire season  quenched  only by recent rains, the state’s ban on open burning before 4 p.m. ends tonight  for another year, the Virginia Department of Forestry says. Four weeks ago, on Easter Sunday and Monday, seven small fires grew into big ones, mainly  on national forest land in  the western part of the state. Smoke from  several of them was visible  for miles, and a portion of Interstate 64 was closed for a time.  During Easter week, my son and I saw fires and smelled smoke on almost every foray we made from Douthat State Park in Clifton Forge, where we were camping.  One afternoon,  a helicopter  dropped its water  bucket into the park lake, then sped off to a nearby smoking mountaintop. More than  43,000 acres  have burned  since Jan. 1, the department says.  Eleven of those were in Shenandoah National Park, along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The department notes in a press release that burning prohibitions continue in some areas. “The state Air Pollution Control Board prohibits open burning in the metropolitan areas of Northern Virginia, Richmond, Hampton Roads, Roanoke and Winchester during the months of May through September. This ban is in effect 24 hours a day. ” For more information, click here and here.

It was minimal, to be sure, but aftershocks continue from last summer’s earthquake. The U.S. Geological Survey says the latest one, at 1:04 this morning,  was a magnitude-1.7 shock, centered about eight miles southwest of Mineral. Mineral, in Louisa County, was the epicenter of the magnitude-5.8 tremor that shook much of the East Coast last Aug. 23. There have been a couple similar aftershocks, most of them felt only by seismic instruments over the last month. For example, there were two on March 7–a magnitude-1.6, was around 3 a.m., its epicenter about four miles south of the town of Louisa. Fifty-two minutes later, a 1.7-magnitude aftershock hit about five miles south of Mineral. There have been over 50 aftershocks over magnitude  2.0 since the earthquake, according to USGS.

A 640-acre Middlesex County farm with about seven miles of frontage on the lower Rappahannock River has been preserved through a conservation easement, Gov. Bob McDonnell says. According to a press release, the agreement was  reached by landowner Minnie K. Burch, the Virginia Outdoors Foundation,  and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.      According to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, the tract contains some of the most highly productive farmland in the region, and the easement will ensure that the farm will continue on. The easement protects the property’s prime soils and shoreline by restricting future development. The land can never be divided and there are limits on the size and number of buildings and structures. In addition, the landowner will follow a conservation plan which will conserve the soil and water quality through farming practices such as no-till.. View a slide show, and read more here.

For seven years, visitors to Smith Mountain Lake State Park could watch nesting osprey live via a closed-circuit camera system. Now, all can see the majestic “fish hawks” on  a new website. According to a press release, the special nesting platform and 25-foot pole were first erected near the lake in 2004, with funds from Appalachian Power Company, the Virginia Society of Ornithology, and the Friends of Smith Mountain Lake State Park. The park is  on the north shore of the lake in Bedford County.

Kerr Reservoir in Clarksville, Va., and Buggs Island in North Carolina  ranked No. 81 on Bassmasters magazine’s  first annual top 100 ranking of the nation’s best bass lakes. Lake Gaston, another prime destination for bass anglers in the East, came in at 83. The top three: Falcon Lake, Texas, Lake Okeechobee, Fla., and Lake Guntersville, Ala.