Operation: Birdhouse (RVA)

Early on Saturday, April 26, a team of volunteers installed forty-nine small birdhouses along the entire length of Hanover Avenue in The Fan from Lombardy Street to The Boulevard. They have been built from chemical free, untreated lumber and have been specifically sized to provide a safe haven for some of Richmond's local song birds including wrens, blue birds, and finches from the unwelcome non-native species' such as the Starling and the European (Barn) Swallow.

The installation was inspired by two developments.

Locally, after years of feather poaching, deaths from pesticide and human encroachment on breeding grounds, a rookery of Blue Herons have recently established a nesting area on an island in the middle of the James River in downtown Richmond -- a first for the city. According to an interview with Richmond's Times Dispatch, Mike Wilson, a research biologist with the College of William & Mary's Center for Conservation Biology, the herons prefer to avoid people but "are just running out of spaces that are not influenced by humans."

Internationally, there is increased demand for the preservation and reclamation of publics spaces. From the beatification of street corners in major metropolitan areas like Montreal, New York and London to the establishment of communal garden spaces in Berlin and Richmond's Church Hill neighborhood, citizens are integrating nature back into the urban landscape. This is partially a response to civic neglect and partially a response to the need for more integration between humans and nature.

Members of the community are asked only to tend the houses in the fall once the breeding season is complete. The houses have been designed with a hinged right panel for easy cleaning.

We hope that the residents of Hanover Avenue, the Fan District and the greater Richmond area will support our efforts to improve our community and the environment in which we live.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Birdhouse
• fan
• richmond
• virginia
• activism
• birds
• bird
• public
• service

[TA2012]

ROCK ON!