Truckin' on the Western Branch

Worried that the proposed 185-home development project was ill planned and environmentally unsound, Strutton and her neighbors campaigned to preserve the property, 142 acres surrounded by wetlands. For years truck farmers had used Hoffler Creek, named for William Hoffler, a Revolutionary War militia captain, as a waterway to market for their crops. Hathaway, to his Queen Anne house that overlooked both Hoffler Creek and Hampton Roads. They raised their six children on the farm that would become the wildlife preserve. In the 1940s and ’50s the family planted timber on parcels of the land with the idea of later selling to developers. Strutton’s group persevered, she said. In 1996 we got a provisional deed for the preserve after we hired a landscape gardener and an architect to create a master plan we submitted to the City of Portsmouth and we proved our fundraising ability by raising $104,000. The city gave us a five-year trial in 1997. In 1903, one truck farmer, John Wright Ballard Sr., brought his bride, Effie Toler

We were in an old construction trailer with no heat and no air-conditioning. We had mouse droppings everywhere, snake skins coiled on the ceiling—it was bad. We raised the money for a new building in 2004. It was certainly not what we had hoped for but it was a start. Delegate Johnny Joannou helped us get $175,000 from the General Assembly, and the Beazley Foundation contributed. We became the Hoffler Creek Wildlife Foundation.

Strutton retired at the end of 2012. Helen Kuhns is the current executive director.

Helen Kuhns, Executive Director. Image by Sheally

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