16 Blocks Division
by Griffin Covey
Seven years ago 16 Brass Lithobates Clamitans were deployed over a key section of Stroubles Creek in the center of the 16 Blocks. The mission is one of preservation, and they are tasked with drawing attention to downtown water pollution. This is local advocacy to protect a local streams by frogs.
Amphibians are particularly at peril and usually the first to fall when lethal toxins and trash are introduced into their home-ecosystems. The original 16 frogs of the unit were strategically placed for maximum visibility, exposed to the elements and tough sidewalks that are sometimes rowdy and crowded to spread the word on water pollution.
Blacksburg wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the availability of fresh water.
Mike Rosenzweig said to the Collegiate Times in 2018. He is the founding director of SEEDS and designed the campaign and built the team that made 16 Frogs happen.
Stroubles Creek was used by early settlers at least 50 years before the establishment of Blacksburg in 1798 and centuries before that by native tribes. It was due to the creek that sparked the communities growth into a town based on 16 Blocks around it. Blacksburg relied solely on wells and springs for drinking water until the Blacksburg-Christiansburg-VPI Water Authority was completed in 1960, and the population moved to the New River for the main source of water.
THE MISSION: PRESERVE THE STREAM
Storm water carries litter from the street — cigarette butts, red solo cups, beer cans and other garbage left by people — and moves into storm drains that flow into Stroubles Creek. While the water from the New River is processed through a sewage treatment plant, the water from Blacksburg’s storm drains is not, meaning any pollutants in the water are maintained when they flow back into the river.
One of many Storm Drain painted by local artists to work with the Amphibian Unit asking that Stroubles not be treated as Collateral Damage for mindless littering.
“We’re taking our water out of the same river that we’re putting it back into. Any impairment that is caused to the streams ultimately causes greater damage to the river downstream.”
MIKE ROSENZWEIG
This was first published in Print Issue #44 (Dec 2023)
