Heidi James, with husband, Blitz, and son, John.
Heidi James, a member of the Lynchburg Garden Club, received the 2017 de Lacy Gray Award for Conservation at the Annual Meeting in Fredericksburg.
Chief among Heidi’s accomplishments is the removal of a derelict iron bridge from the James River. The bridge was swept loose and into the river during a flood in 1985, where it remained rusting and collecting debris for 25 years. Removing the bridge was expensive, difficult and dangerous. In 2011, engineers working on an unrelated project had cleared vegetation and built a temporary road between the James River and railroad tracks. Heidi and the Lynchburg Garden Club leapt into action, writing and calling city and state officials. The unsightly, dangerous bridge was removed.
Heidi has held numerous positions in local and statewide organizations. She is a past president of the Lynchburg Garden Club, and was the Garden Club of Virginia’s Historian. She wrote a history of the GCV’s Conservation and Beautification Committee and researched and wrote about the Tradescant window, the GCV’s gift of a stained glass window to Oxford University.
