The Outdoor News Hub had an interesting piece recently on a topic I’ve written about a couple of times in Times-Dispatch columns: coyotes in urban areas.

Apparently, researchers recently discovered the smallest known coyote territory ever observed. “For at least six years, a coyote community has maintained its existence within about a third of a square mile.” And what’s even more amazing about the discovery is that the territory is located just 5 miles from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.

Stan Gehrt, an associate professor of environment and natural resources at Ohio State, led the tracking of coyotes around Chicago for 12 years. Few others are doing what he’s doing in terms of research, but most experts agree that this isn’t an isolated case. Put another way, if there are coyote communities in Chicago, there are coyote communities in or near most urban areas, including Richmond.

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This will be the fourth week we’ve given away two free entries in the Oct. 20th Pretty Muddy mud/obstacle run at Pocahontas State Park, and the emails keep pouring in. It makes sense: Who doesn’t want free stuff, especially when that free stuff (a $70 value for each ticket) is a chance to be active, get muddy and have a blast with friends?

The Chicago race drew over 1,700 women and 2,000 spectators. Race organizers expect Richmond to have similar numbers. So, if this is the first you’re hearing of the race, all you have to do to be entered in next week’s drawing is “like” both RichmondOutside.com and Pretty Muddy on Facebook and email me by clicking here.

And now, without further ado, this week’s winners are…Yashica Harris and Katelyn Frazer. Congrats, ladies. You’ll be receiving an email shortly with instructions on how to claim your prizes. 

Last week I traveled to the 61st installment in the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Natural Area Preserve System. The Blackwater Sandhills NAP is unique in many ways, as I documented in my Sunday T-D column. It’s about an hour and a half drive from Richmond to the 2,384 acres in Isle of Wight. But the property boasts 1,000-year-old bald cypress trees, wind-deposited sandhills that only occur on the east side of the Blackwater and Nottoway rivers in Virginia, rare lilies, orchids, bats, salamanders and much more. It’s a very cool place that will now be protected from future development because of the work of groups like The Nature Conservancy, Isle of Wight County and others.

 Here are some pics:

Brian van Eerden of The Nature Conservancy looks at a big bald cypress.

The Blackwater River is more of a long, winding swamp.

A type of euonymous (I believe), this bloom was amazing in the dark swamp.

Just a quick reminder that Renew Richmond begins today and runs through October 12. Haven’t heard of Renew Richmond? Click here to find the website and watch a cool video explaining it. Actually it’s just the cleanup/beautify part of the event that begins today. On Oct. 15, the fun part begins: the art show in Carytown.

RichmondOutside.com is proud to be one of the local sponsors of this very cool new event. We’ll be taking our team to the James River this week to clean up graffiti and pickup trash under the south side of the Nickel Bridge. There’s plenty of it there. Now’s the time to scope out the area you want to beautify and get cracking.

Three Fridays, six winners. The Pretty Muddy race series — coming to Pocahontas State Park Oct. 20 — has been kind enough to donate two free entries to their Richmond mud/obstacle run every Friday between now and race day. And we here at RichmondOutside.com are more than happy to give them away.

This week’s winners? India Sisler and Samantha Adams. Congratulations, ladies! You’ll be receiving an email with the good news. If you didn’t win this week, remember, we’re doing this all over again a week from today.

Don’t forget, ladies, every Friday between now and October 19 we’re giving out free entries in the Pretty Muddy Women-Only Mud Run at Pocahontas State Park. That means today after 2 p.m. two local women will get to put $70 back in their pockets and join their friends on Oct. 20 for a race that adds plenty of twists to the standard mud run.

Two weeks ago, 1,700 women ran the Chicago race and 2,000 spectators cheered them on. The Pocahontas run is filling up fast. If you haven’t yet registered, all you need to do is “like” Pretty Muddy and RichmondOutside on Facebook and click here to email me. It’s as easy as that. Then check back here this afternoon to see if you’ve won. If you haven’t, no worries: There’s always next Friday!

Matt Balazik snorkels the James in search of spawning sturgeon.

This morning I joined Times-Dispatch environment reporter Rex Springston, local river guide Mike Ostrander and VCU aquatic biologist Matt Balazik on the Mayo Bridge to look for Atlantic sturgeon that are currently swimming up the James River to spawn. Springston and I wrote about the phenomenon for the front of Wednesday’s T-D.

Earlier this month, Balazik confirmed that the Chesapeake Bay population of Atlantic sturgeon are spawning in the James in the fall by photographing a female he netted releasing eggs. That was down by Hopewell, and it was big news. Proof, finally, of something Balazik has long seen evidence of. The challenge then became finding the actual spawning grounds. While Atlantic sturgeon are thought to spawn on a number of different rivers up and down the East Coast, no one knows exactly where. In fact, according to Balazik, there has never, at least since sturgeon populations crashed in the early 1900s, been a fertilized Atlantic sturgeon egg found in the wild.

Balazik holds up a vial of what was at first thought to be sturgeon eggs.

For a while today it looked like that would change. After about an hour of swimming with a snorkel and fins, Balazik decided to give up looking for spawning sturgeon and see if he could find their eggs. The first place he looked was in about 1.5 feet of clear swiftly moving water at the base of one of the Mayo Bridge pilings. The rest of us stood on the bridge and watched. Then he gave us the thumbs up.

“Eggs!” he shouted.

Balazik took them back to his lab at VCU to confirm, but it turned out it was a kind of blue-green algae that looked almost identical in shape, color and size. It was disappointing news, but the fact is those eggs are out there someone. Balazik proved they spawn in the James and the falls provides the best habitat to do so. It’s just a matter of where.

No matter what happens with the ongoing egg search, it’s still cool to know that a federally endangered species, a prehistoric fish that’s been swimming since dinosaurs roamed the earth, now swims around in downtown after being fished nearly to extinction over 100 years ago.

The skills park during construction

Though it’s been open to the public for months, the city is holding an official ribbon cutting ceremony tomorrow for the Belle Isle bike skills park. If you’ve haven’t gotten a chance to see the park in the middle of the island under the Lee Bridge, tomorrow at 10 a.m. would be the perfect time to check it out. It’s a great place for kids and adults, alike, to hone their skills.

From the city: The City’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities will open its new Belle Isle Bike Skills Area on Saturday, September 29, at 10 a.m. with a celebration that will include a ribbon-cutting ceremony, demonstrations, and tours. The public is invited to attend and to bring their bicycles to try out the mountain bike training area.

Go time approaches for the first ever Renew Richmond, the trash cleanup/graffiti paint over/guerrilla gardening/good old fashioned city beautification event (with a twist) from sustainRVA. The twist? If you’re so inclined, take whatever trash you pick up and turn it into art. If it isn’t terrible, and especially if it’s awesome, it’ll be part of a pop-up, outdoor art exhibit in Carytown. Pretty cool idea, right?

Renew Richmond kicks off on October 1st and concludes on October 14th. The final two weeks of October are reserved for the art show. Now’s the time to get started creating a cleanup team. There are awards in different categories: most trash picked up, best art, etc. Check out the sustainRVA website for more, and start thinking about that little slice of Richmond that needs some TLC.