'Learning Barge' ready to teach about wetlands on the river

PORTSMOUTH

It looks like a giant floating garden - big, wide and gray - with marsh plants growing on its deck amid walkways and oyster shells. Among its features: solar panels, compost toilets, sun-powered lights shaped like little fish, recycled water spouts, and two wind turbines whirling on top.

This quirky behemoth is called the Learning Barge, a $1.2 million vessel dedicated to environmental education and designed for a zero ecological footprint.

A throng of dignitaries and organizers christened the hand-made barge Monday at a ceremony involving singing, speeches, hugs and the symbolic splashing of clean water on its steel hull.

The official launch marked the end of more than three years of work and construction, much of it donated, led by the University of Virginia School of Architecture and the Elizabeth River Project, a local environmental group.

Proclaiming the barge "the world's first floating wetland classroom," officials allowed visitors aboard for the first time and said its educational voyages on the Elizabeth River will begin Oct. 1.

The craft already is nearly booked through October with local students and civic leagues hungry for a hands-on experience with one of the region's most polluted and talked-about waterways, said Marjorie Mayfield Jackson, executive director of the Elizabeth River Project.

"This is a customized gift to the Elizabeth River," said Jackson. "We have something very unique here."

Students from the University of Virginia spent the summer at a Chesapeake shipyard, which donated the space, piecing together the barge and installing as much green equipment and energy-saving devices as possible.

They were finishing the craft until midnight Sunday, including some students who had already graduated but flew into town to help anyway.

"We just felt very close to this project, and wanted to see it happen," said Danielle Willkens, 27, who graduated last year from U.Va. with a master's degree in architecture but continued to work on the barge to the end.

The project already has won several national awards, including a creative design competition by the Environmental Protection Agency, and the top educational honor last year from the American Institute of Architects.

Phoebe Crisman, an architecture professor at U.Va., conceived the idea while volunteering on a different Elizabeth River initiative in 2005.

Together with Robin Dunbar, an educational coordinator with the Elizabeth River Project, Crisman cobbled together money and services from 50 sponsors, including cash gifts from Lowe's and Dominion Virginia Power.

"I became quite a grant writer," Crisman said with a chuckle Monday.

The barge includes six stations and labs where visiting students can sample water quality and pollution, watch how wetlands and oyster reefs filter contaminants, grow their own river algae from fertilizers, learn about restoration efforts and sustainable energy, and craft their own art project.

The barge will be anchored along the Portsmouth waterfront for now but will be

shifted around to different sites on the river throughout the year.

A tug boat must push the barge to where it needs to go to meet students for field trips, which last for up to 2-1/2 hours.

University of Virginia President John Casteen, a Portsmouth native, spoke Monday about swimming in the Elizabeth as a child - and being punished for it because of all the pollution.

"I think in the end, this project will help restore the Elizabeth River," Casteen said, noting the new goal of the river group to attain a "swimmable and fishable" river by 2020.

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com