An environmental pioneer and former Orange resident who cleaned miles of local rivers recently died after he was struck and killed by a car while assisting a stranded motorist in Greene County last month.
“It is with deep sadness that American Climate Partners acknowledges the passing of Michael Collins, our co-founder and executive director,” the environmental nonprofit group he co-founded in 2023 said in a statement. “Mike was killed in a car accident on July 29 while assisting a stranded motorist near Ruckersville.”
“He was in love with life and tried to leave the world and his family in a better place. He did his best to love everyone as well as all sentient creatures,” reads Collins’ obituary.
He was 65.
A Greene County Sheriff’s Office representative confirmed Collins was struck around 6:10 p.m. in the area of U.S. 33 and Toms Road while assisting a disable vehicle. The locaiton is near the U.S. 29 intersection in Ruckersville.
The case was given to the Greene County commonwealth’s attorney for review, but there are no criminal charges pending at this time, the representative said: “At this time, this is considered an accident.”
Collins, born in Charlottesville, graduated from Warren County High School in Front Royal, received a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Virginia Tech and a master’s degree in land use and environmental planning from the University of Virginia. Preceded in death by his wife, Anna, they raised their children with countless outdoor activities that included fishing trips down the Rapidan River, according to the obituary.
“His passion for conscious environmental stewardship and entrepreneurial spirit were the engines driving the train,” the obituary reads.
Collins got his start teaching Environmental Science at Culpeper County High School and eventually made his way into the public sector. Collins worked for the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission in Charlottesville and helped create a new planning department for the town of Orange.
Collins is perhaps best known for his work with environmental nonprofit groups, including the creation of the StreamSweepers and American Climate Partners. A recent focus had been the Rapidan Fish Passage Project.
The Culpeper Star-Exponent caught up with StreamSweepers and Collins on the Rappahannock River in Richardsville in 2017.
“We’re focused on healing people and nature at the same time,” he told the newspaper at the time.
The organization started out cleaning the 80-plus miles of the Rapidan River, but it now focuses on the watersheds of Southwestern Virginia, full of tires and trash from years of coal mining, timber harvesting and, more recently, catastrophic flooding. Back in 2017, StreamSweepers was removing between 10 and 20 tons of trash, on average, every summer from the Rapidan.
“There is no question we we’ve made a difference,” Collins said, noting it’s hard to quantify the impact of removing thousands of tires from area waterways. “The bigger thing that StreamSweepers has done is not the environmental story; it’s the healing. As these folks heal the river, they heal themselves. This is therapeutic for the person and the river.”
Many on the river that day with Collins attested to that.
“Mike was known for his energy, vision and commitment to the environmental causes that he championed so passionately,” American Climate Partners said in its statement announcing his death. “His strong entrepreneurial drive led him to constantly imagine and create new forward-looking projects. The breadth of his work spanned from the conception and development of solutions for intractable problems, to the hard day-to-day work of cleaning rivers, improving soil health, and restoring habitats throughout central Virginia and beyond.”
Collins believed in the sacredness of the planet and human kind’s responsibility to steward it to keep it alive and healthy, his colleagues wrote.
“He also believed strongly that healing the earth would lead to healing the climate and ourselves.”
Like StreamSweepers, Collins’ other initiatives grew in scope over time.
SoilKeepers, which started by teaching people how to manage their lawns to avoid using synthetic chemicals that pollute rivers, moved into establishing wildlife and pollinator habitat and, more recently, has developed a project to improve the racetrack at Founding Father James Madison’s Montpelier estate in Orange County.
The Rapidan Fish Passage Project has the goal of creating a healthier free-flowing river, removing the dam in the river and opening the historical spawning grounds of the Rapidan River once again to migrating fish from the Chesapeake Bay.
Southern Climate Restoration Solutions partners with landowners and subject matter experts on developing natural strategies to rebalance the carbon, nitrogen and water cycles essential to life — the key drivers of the earth’s climate.
A celebration of Collins’ life will be held at 5 p.m. Sept. 7 at Oakencroft Farm and Winery outside Charlottesville. There will be time for remarks and stories for all that wish to share.
“Mike’s family requests that, in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions be made to an organization or non-profit that is close to your heart,” reads his obituary. “Please consider a contribution to American Climate Partners in honor of Mike and his visionary initiatives to preserve our planet.”
As for the future of the dam removal and fish migration project in Rapidan, the American Climate Partners board and staff, still reeling from the sudden death of their leader, is deciding next steps. They will be seeking new leadership.
American Climate Partners Board Chair Thomas Salley, of Rappahannock County, said in a email to the Culpeper Star-Exponent this past week, “We’re working with our partners to move the project forward and to honor Mike.”
Source: www.dailyprogress.com