Sunday, March 29 | 12:01am

Education Building and Barn Closed

In keeping with Governor Northam's Executive Order, Ivy Creek Foundation is keeping the Education Building and barn closed until further notice. If you belong to a group that uses the building, please check with your group for more information. Thanks for your understanding!

Monday, March 30 | 12:01am

Trails Are Open!

The trails at Ivy Creek Natural Area are still open! Come take a break and enjoy nature. Please be respectful of the health of yourself and others on the trails. Practice "social distancing" and "maximum group size" as recommended by government officials. You can find an online version of the trail map here.

However, be aware that Albemarle County has closed ICNA's (and all County parks') restrooms until further notice due to COVID-19 concerns.

Encourage your children to play only with family members.

Please only leave footprints. 

Consider making a donation to Ivy Creek Foundation https://ivycreekfoundation.org/membership. Like other non-profits and small businesses, ICF is feeling a financial impact from COVID-19.  ICF depends upon the generosity of Friends (members) and visitors so that we can offer guided field trips to school children, programming for people of all ages, use of our education building for more than forty partner organizations, and more than seven miles of trails.  

Enjoy your hike!

Tuesday, March 31 | 8:00am

Saving Historic River View Farm Farmhouse - Stabilization and Repairs to Exterior

Much of what is now Ivy Creek Natural Area was previously River View Farm. This was the homestead of the Hugh and Texie Mae Hawkins Carr family, formerly enslaved individuals, who established this farm about 1870. There are no records to indicate who built the farm house at River View Farm, but it is likely that Hugh Carr constructed it himself after his marriage to Texie Mae Hawkins in 1883. The original house occupied the highest ground and was shaped like the letter ‘I’, oriented in an east-west direction with a center gable and two chimneys, one on either end. The house was later expanded by their daughter, Mary Carr Greer, and her husband Conly Greer. For more information about the Carr and Greer families, please visit our cultural history page.

Work to stabilize and repair the farmhouse has now begun.The most noticeable feature of the work will be the replacement of the roof (which is not the original roof). Please respect construction boundaries during this time. Our deepest thanks to Albemarle County and City of Charlottesville for funding this project!

This is only the first phase of the house's rehabilitation, but we can hardly wait to start planning for interpretation and educational programming. If you'd like to support this effort, please consider donating to Ivy Creek Foundation. Thank you!

Wednesday, April 1 | 8:00am

We Need Your Help!

We need your help! One way you can help is by making a donation. Like other non-profits and small businesses, ICF is feeling a financial impact from COVID-19.  ICF depends upon the generosity of friends, members, and visitors. This generosity provides resources allowing us to offer guided fieldtrips to children, programming for people of all ages, use of our education building for more than forty partner organizations, and maintenance of more than seven miles of trails.  

Thursday, April 2 | 5:00pm

New Audio Tours Available

Bess Murray served as Coordinator of Ivy Creek Foundation from 1983 to 1993 and also was the voice of "Natural History Notes" on WTJU for 15 years. Now those two focus areas are combined in a new audio tour series, "Walking with Bess." In this series, selections from "Natural History Notes" are matched with locations in Ivy Creek Natural Area according to the month. You can find the March and April installments at https://izi.travel/en/search/walking%20with%20Bess, or download the izi.TRAVEL app to your phone and enjoy a GPS-enabled tour around Ivy Creek Natural Area! Also check out the other audio tours of ICNA: https://ivycreekfoundation.org/audio-tours-of-ivy-creek-natural-area.