Frank Gough
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“Virginia Conservation Police Notebook”

To increase awareness of the activities of our dedicated Conservation Police Officers, previously called game wardens, the “Virginia Conservation Police Notebook” provides an overview of the variety of activities encountered by our officers who protect natural resources and people pursuing outdoor recreation in the fields, woods and waters of Virginia.

Illegal out of state tire dumpers caught by citizens tip. For the last 2 years Conservation Police Officer Frank Gough has been conducting an investigation on illegal tire dumping in the Shumate area of the New River in Giles County.

During the summer of 2007, Gough received additional information from a resident who had observed vehicles transport tires into the same area. In January, Gough received a call reference to a vehicle entering the Shumate area with a load of tires in the truck bed. Gough responded and located fresh vehicle tracks leaving the main road headed toward the river where Gough had located a tire dump site before. Gough blocked the exit road from the river and conducted a foot patrol where he located the vehicle loaded with tires parked by the existing dump site along the river. Gough conducted surveillance on the vehicle for approximately 2 hours until the subjects returned to the vehicle. The subjects appeared to be leaving without dumping the tires. Gough stopped the vehicle and interviewed the subjects. Both individuals resided in Princeton, West Virginia and have been unemployed for a lengthy period. Both admitted that they came there to dump the load of 22 tires but observed Gough when he first drove into the area. They admitted dumping tires in the Shumate area at least once a month for the last two years. They said that they had dumped a total of approximately 450 tires during that time span. The subjects would pick up a load of tires from truck stops and gas stations in West Virginia where they were paid two dollars to four dollars per tire. One of the subjects stated that he learned how to do this from his father who had been doing it for years. A marijuana pipe was also seized from one of the subjects. The investigation will be ongoing for additional violations by local tire businesses in West Virginia. Charges are pending. For more information contact Lt. Rex Hill (276) 783-4860.

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Paul Moody Receives ReNew’s Steward Award

Our ReNew the New group is constantly doing things to help keep the river clean and enhance the beauty of the New River Water Trail. I am extremely grateful and humbled to have been recognized by my peers presenting me with this award.

Paul Moody Receives ReNew’s Steward Award

ReNew the New recently recognized Paul Moody for his decade long work with the committee and his outstanding dedication to the New River. The ReNew Committee is made up of outfitters, county officials, and citizens with a passion for and commitment to the New River. No one working with the group has given more time, sweat and careful attention to ReNew’s mission than Moody.

For more than ten years, ReNew The New has taken on the stewardship of the thirty-seven miles of the New River that flow through Giles County. In addition to sponsoring two annual cleanups, ReNew has pushed for stricter litter laws, promoted kiosks and fishing line disposals at county boat landings, recognized outstanding law enforcement officers acting on behalf of the river, advocated for a local game warden; helped promote river safety and sponsor new and updated boat landings. This past August, Giles County’s ReNew led a New River Valley-wide cleanup including Radford City, Montgomery and Pulaski Counties. The event was sponsored by the NRV Regional Commission and involved almost six hundred volunteers. On November 9, Renew the New was given the Virginia Soil and Water Commission’s Merit Award, which Paul Moody accepted in New Kent County, VA, on behalf of ReNew.

Paul Moody spent the Sundays of his childhood fishing on the river with his father and became forever ‘hooked’ on the New River. He was a decorated solider during the Vietnam war era and, after serving with the 82nd Airborne out of Fort Bragg, NC, he went to Bluefield State College and eventually took on a position as a mechanical piping designer with the TVA in Knoxville, Tennessee. He spent his Sundays on the Tennessee River at the base of the Smokey Mountains. But the Smokies weren’t Peter’s Mountain and the Tennessee River wasn’t the New. The New River Valley kept calling him home and Moody eventually found a way to return, permanently. He bought a former stone quarry-turned-trash-dump along the river in Pembroke. Moody cleaned up the place and established New River’s Edge, an outfitting business and a riverside retreat.

Paul Moody’s knowledge of the river and its ways, his donation of hundreds of hours to scouting, advocating and organizing for ReNew made Moody—who was a founding member of ReNew The New— the obvious choice for the organization’s highest recognition, “New River Steward.”

ReNew’s spring cleanup, “Ramps and Roads” is scheduled for March 25. Schools, organizations, and citizens are invited to come out and help clear the Giles roadways and boat landing of litter. If you join in that Saturday morning effort, you’ll be sure to see Paul Moody heading one of the crews.

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Regional River Clean-up Event receives awards

The New River Valley Regional Commission and the ReNew the New Committee received two awards for the “Fall into the New” river clean-up event, held in August in Radford. The Regional Commission received the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) 2016 Innovation Award for their role as convener and facilitator of the clean-up event. The Regional Commission received the award during NADO’s 2016 Annual Training Conference, held in October, in San Antonio, Texas.

The ReNew the New Committee, a volunteer organization based out of Giles County, also received an award for the Fall into the New clean-up event. ReNew the New received the Virginia Soil and Water Conservation Society’s (SWCS) 2016 Merit Award during the SWCS’s annual meeting in November. Paul Moody, owner of New River’s Edge, Inc. in Giles County, received the award on behalf of ReNew the New, from VA SWCA president, Scott Gordon. The SWCA Merit Award recognizes organizations for their outstanding conservation effort or activity by a group, business, or organization.

Fall into the New hosted 450 volunteers from Floyd, Giles, Montgomery, and Pulaski Counties, and the City of Radford, and cleaned up 10 miles of the New River. Volunteers represented student groups, businesses, river advocacy groups, and the general public. Outfitters and local youth groups donated 150 canoes for the volunteer’s use, and 4 tons of trash and hundreds of tires were removed from the New River.

Check out a three-minute video on the Commission’s you tube channel: ReNew Event Promotional Video

For further information, please contact Michael Gottfredson (michaelg@nrvrc.org ), 540-639-9313, ext. 205.

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LOCAL RIVER CLEAN-UP EFFORTS RECEIVE STATE AWARD

LOCAL RIVER CLEAN-UP EFFORTS RECEIVE STATE AWARD

The ReNew the New Committee received the Virginia Soil and Water Conservation Society’s Merit Award on November 9th, 2016.


Radford, VA (December 7th, 2016) –

On November 9th, 2016, the ReNew the New Committee, a volunteer river clean-up group, was awarded the Virginia Soil and Water Conservation Society’s (SWCS) 2016 Merit Award at the SWCS’s Annual Meeting in New Kent County, VA. Paul Moody, proprietor of the New River’s Edge, Inc. outfitters in Giles County, VA, accepted the award on behalf of the ReNew the New Committee.

The ReNew the New Committee was given the 2016 SWCS Merit Award based on the “Fall into the New” regional river clean-up event held in Radford on August 27th, 2016. The event hosted 450 volunteers from Floyd, Giles, Montgomery, and Pulaski Counties, and the City of Radford, and cleaned up 10 miles of the New River. The volunteers represented student groups, businesses, river advocacy groups, and the general public. Outfitters and the local youth groups donated 150 canoes for the volunteer’s use, and 4 tons of trash and hundreds of tires were removed from the New River.

The Virginia SWCS is a branch of a national non-profit scientific and educational organization serving as an advocate for conservation professionals and for science-based conservation practice, programs and policy. SWCS has over 3,000 members worldwide. The SWCS Merit Award recognizes organizations for their outstanding conservation effort, activity, or product by a group, business, corporation or organization.

About New River Valley Regional Commission

The New River Valley Regional Commission is one of 21 regions in Virginia whose commissions are chartered under Virginia law. The organization encompasses the counties of Floyd, Giles, Montgomery, and Pulaski, and the City of Radford. The purpose of the Regional Commission is to promote regional cooperation, to coordinate the activities and policies of member local governments, and to provide assistance to local governments.
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