After weeks of negotiations and public complaints, Dominion Energy has agreed to reassess plans to clear nearly all trees near its power lines in the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Railroad Regional Park.
However, the pause won’t bring relief to Vienna and Dunn Loring, where the utility will finish clearing trees and brush along a 4-mile section of trail in conjunction with a transmission line replacement between its Clark and Idylwood substations, Dominion Senior Vice President of Electric Transmission Joseph Woomer said yesterday in a letter to the Northern Virginia Regional Parks Authority (NOVA Parks).
“The forestry work we are currently performing … is vitally important for the safe and reliable operation of the transmission lines along the Trail,” Woomer said of the Clark-Idylwood work, which he described as the utility’s first significant tree maintenance in the area in 20 years.
For two decades, Dominion had adhered to a voluntary agreement with W&OD Trail owner NOVA Parks that limited cuttings within its easement to trees posing direct risks to electrical lines and committed the utility to replanting eliminated vegetation.
Dominion says it withdrew from the agreement last year after determining that more sweeping clearings were needed along the trail in Vienna and Dunn Loring to protect power lines and comply with federal regulations.
Construction on the Clark-Idylwood project began last July and is on track to finish this summer. The tree clearings are expected to wrap up by mid-April, according to Dominion spokesperson Aisha Khan.
“We do not have a count on the number of trees removed,” Khan told FFXnow.
In discussions with NOVA Parks leaders and local officials over the past few months, Dominion indicated that it plans to take the same clear-cutting approach to the remaining 29 miles of trail where it has power lines, starting next in Reston and continuing from Loudoun County to Falls Church and Arlington.
In response, elected leaders in the affected localities, including the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, all passed resolutions last week urging Dominion to stop removing trees, commit to a more “selective” approach and work with NOVA Parks on a new vegetation management agreement that includes invasive species control and replantings.
Acknowledging the “significant amount of feedback” from local leaders and the community, Dominion now says it will “temporarily pause any additional forestry work” beyond the clearings already underway in Vienna and Dunn Loring.
“We have not yet determined the scope or timing of the tree clearing that will be necessary along the remainder of the Trail,” Woomer wrote in the letter to NOVA Parks. “This will only be determined after we complete a comprehensive review of the remaining trees and engage with the community.”
A Dominion spokesperson previously told the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors at its March 18 meeting that the tree cuttings would be paused after “about two more weeks of work.”
Dominion said in media statements, including to WJLA and the Washington Post, that the clearings would halt once the Vienna-area work is complete, but NOVA Parks Executive Director Paul Gilbert notes that the “five-week reality is still different from the two weeks that were promised.”
A spokesperson for Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn, whose district includes Vienna, told FFXnow that the supervisor is “disappointed that Dominion’s pause doesn’t include the four-mile stretch where they’ve been indiscriminately clear-cutting.”
Dominion’s communication efforts questioned
In his letter, Woomer asserted that Dominion had communicated its plans for work in the Vienna-Dunn Loring section of the W&OD Trail “over the last several months” to NOVA Parks, local governments, trail users and residents through in-person meetings, written mailers, digital advertising and signage along the trail.
The utility and its engineering consulting firm Dewberry presented the Clark-Idylwood project to the Vienna Town Council in early June 2024, but at that time, officials said survey teams were still staking out Dominion’s power line easement.
“The Dominion team of forestry will go through and evaluate for danger trees. Essentially, anything that’s going to fall and get near or hit a line, they have the option to clear in the easement,” Dewberry project manager Andrew Dahlman said after council members cautioned against “aggressive tree trimming.”
Dominion also appeared before the Vienna Transportation Safety Commission last July, per its project timeline, and Khan says they “hosted several targeted engagements with elected officials, staff, neighborhoods and businesses while also sending numerous mailers.”
According to Mayor Linda Colbert, at the Vienna Town Council meeting, Dominion “assured” her, the council and staff that it would plant new trees along the W&OD Trail — something the utility hasn’t agreed to in recent discussions with NOVA Parks about how to address the impacts of the clearings.
Dominion’s most recent offer from late February included a commitment to planting pollinator meadows in 50 acres affected by the tree cutting but no tree replantings except at the Vienna Town Green, Gilbert told FFXnow on March 18.
“We expect Dominion to keep its word by planting suitable, native trees in its regional park easement in Vienna,” Colbert said in a statement to FFXnow. “Doing so will help restore the natural resources and wildlife habitat that has already been destroyed and demonstrate Dominion’s commitment to stewardship and corporate community responsibility.”
Gilbert maintains that Dominion didn’t explain the scope of its tree removals for the Clark-Idylwood project or terminate its voluntary vegetation management agreement with NOVA Parks, which had been in place since 2005, until after the cuttings started last November.
NOVA Parks didn’t learn that Dominion planned to clear trees along all 33 miles of the W&OD Trail with power lines until late February, according to Gilbert.
“Mr. Woomer’s letter from today talks of transparent communications,” Gilbert said yesterday in an email to Dominion. “Communications related to the current and planned cutting have been an issue. We are hopeful that transparent communications will become the norm in the future.”
Staff in Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik’s office say that, based on calendar records, Dominion never met with her about the Clark-Idylwood project, and no public meetings were held in her district, which includes Dunn Loring and Idylwood.
The Hunter Mill District Office says Alcorn didn’t have any meetings with Dominion on the project prior to construction, but Dominion did organize a conference call on Feb. 5, 2024 to inform staff from several Board of Supervisors offices and the Town of Vienna.
“There wasn’t much information provided other than” what’s on the project webpage, a spokesperson for Alcorn’s office said. “The focus was about the trail detours — tree cutting was definitely never mentioned.”
Residents from outside Vienna who contacted FFXnow also described a lack of outreach by Dominion.
“Impacted stakeholders in the Providence District were not given the same courtesies of town halls and community meetings as the Town of Vienna received regarding this project, that I am aware,” an Idylwood resident said by email.
Danielle Brigida, a Falls Church resident who has experience in wildlife conservation, says she hadn’t heard about any public meetings on the Clark-Idylwood project for her neighborhood since 2021.
“I’m just so disturbed by the rushed and thoughtless way [Dominion has] handled this work and their lack of communication,” Brigida told FFXnow. “While the biodiversity of the region is not making headlines, Falls Church and this area do benefit from the variety of native trees. They need these canopies to sustain pollinators and other insects, birds, and mammals.”
According to Woomer, Dominion and NOVA Parks are still working to establish a long-term plan for replanting cleared areas with pollinator meadows and “low-lying native species.” The plan will also include “enhanced” management of invasive plants.
“Our goal is to develop a plan that supports the Trail’s natural habitat and preserves low-growing native species, while also protecting the safe and reliable operation of the transmission lines,” Woomer wrote. “We’re confident we can achieve both goals.”
NOVA Parks, however, appears to be running out of patience with Dominion. Gilbert tells FFXnow the agency now intends to work with local governments to develop a plan that it will “give to Dominion.”
“The plan will include significant habitat restoration on the damaged area, and a process for future cutting that is selective, and done with the highest environmental standards,” he said. “We need a thoughtful approach to the W&OD that honors that value of the park.”
Clark-Idylwood project map via Dominion Energy
