Powhite Park works for beavers, mountain bikers

Many species of mammal call Richmond's Powhite Park home, but two set it apart.

Their combined influence has altered the park's landscape more than any other and made it a place worth repeat visits for all mammals, humans included. Yet few Richmonders know that Powhite Park exists, much less where it is.

On any given day, thousands of cars pass by the park - most on the Powhite or Chippenham parkways, some on Jahnke Road - without an inkling of the work those two species have put in to make the place a hidden gem, a beguiling 90-acre wilderness within city limits.

Indeed, the fact that they've gone about their business in Powhite Park for years with little disturbance is a testament to how forgotten the place is. Even a modicum of human interference would have sent them looking for greener pastures. Both can be reclusive. Both value the park's solitude.

Which species are these with so much in common in one sliver of city land? Beavers and mountain bikers.

The work of beavers might be more prevalent here than anywhere else in the city of Richmond. There is evidence of beaver throughout the James River Park System, but nowhere I've seen do they feel safe enough to actually dam a creek, form a wetland and build a lodge.

They've done all these things at Powhite Park. You can find gnawed-through saplings at Pony Pasture, Reedy Creek, The Wetlands and elsewhere, but at Powhite Park the full range of their biological imperative has been realized.

More than a year ago, I was riding my mountain bike in the park at night (that's technically against the rules, but I promise, I'll never do it again). I was at the bottom of a hill near the beaver pond - formed where they've bottled up Powhite Creek - and heard the familiar tail slap on the surface of the water. Beavers do this to signal danger to their neighbors. They knew I was there. I shined my headlamp in the direction of the sound but was too late. That's the closest I've ever come to seeing a beaver there. Signs of their work, however, are much easier to find.

Park in the lot off Jahnke Road opposite Chippenham Hospital and take the only trail offered. On one side is a new development, on the other Chippenham Parkway. Follow that a few hundred yards into the park and you'll almost immediately be greeted by a boggy area with a bridge over it. Keep going, hugging the wetland to your left, and you won't be able to miss the distinctive beaver-downed trees.

Spend a couple of hours there, standing stock still, and you just might steal a glimpse of the industrious dam builders in their self-made water world.

Another thing you might see is a mountain biker or two, especially if you go in the afternoon or evening. Since the late 1990s, the park has been a kind of secret hideaway for fat-tire enthusiasts looking to change their routine.

It's a great place for beginners to work on their skills without worrying about falling off a ledge or getting discouraged. But beginners rarely find Powhite on their own. Until recently, the 8-mile spider web of trails there was maintained by riders who enjoyed the park's hidden-gem status. It was very do-it-yourself, and thus arose all manner of obstacles and skills challenges: Teeter-totters, skinnies, rickety bridges, log piles, and, the highlight, a ravine called "The Buzz" where riders dipped in and out at breakneck speed.

Almost all the trails that exist in the park are there because of mountain bikers, but the park still gets relatively little pedal traffic compared to other city green spaces. And anyone is free to walk or jog the trails. In all my trips there to bike, I can count on two hands the number of nonbikers I've passed.

Change, however, is coming to Powhite. The city trail crew, led by Nathan Burrell, has come up with a sustainable plan for the park's paths. Some in the local mountain bike community are worried the park will lose the DIY ethic that made the riding experience unique, but if the work of Burrell and his army of volunteers in Forest Hill and James River parks is any indication, the new Powhite trails will be safer, more sustainable and just as fun to ride.

Somehow, however, I'm not sure a huge influx of people will come to partake. Mountain bikers and beavers at Powhite Park benefit from a quirky paradox: The park sits near-empty most days because it's cocooned by people. People whiz by on major roads. A hospital takes up most of one side. A small neighborhood sits on another. It's just kind of hard to see.

So, should you decide to take a trip there and happen to make the acquaintance of either a beaver or mountain biker, let them know you like what they've done with the place.

Contact Andy Thompson at