When Paul Gilbert finishes leading NOVA Parks, the regional park system will be nearly 2,000 acres larger than it was when he started.
The Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority announced last Friday (April 11) that Gilbert will retire as its executive director by the end of 2025. His 20-year tenure included the addition of 15 new parks and several signature attractions, from the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial at Occoquan Regional Park to the winter light festivals in Bull Run and Meadowlark Botanical Gardens.
Gilbert informed the authority’s board of directors “a number of months ago” that he was considering stepping down at the end of this year, he told FFXnow. The advance notice gave the board time to contract a hiring firm to conduct a nationwide search for executive director candidates.
“We wanted to get an early start, just to make sure that we do this process well,” Gilbert said. “I’ve been here 20 years, and we hope the next person will be here for quite a few years, but it’s really been such an interesting job, a rewarding job.”
Appointed as executive director in 2005 after previously serving on the NOVA Parks board, Gilbert says his approach to the job was shaped by his prior experience running the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust (NVCT), a volunteer nonprofit organization founded in 1994 by a former Fairfax County Park Authority board member to preserve the region’s green spaces and natural resources.
Under Gilbert, NOVA Parks expanded with 22 acquisitions totaling 1,801 acres of parkland, opening 15 new parks, building on three others and introducing a number of unique amenities. Additions in Fairfax County include:
New and expanded parks
- Linn Preserve, McLean: 11 acres acquired in 2012 between Madeira School and Scott’s Run
- Occoquan Regional Park expansion, Lorton: 36 acres in 2020
- Pohick Bay expansion, Lorton: 10 acres in 2009, 2012, 2017 and 2020
- Tinner Hill Historic Park, Falls Church: 1 acre acquired in 2014 in conjunction with Fairfax County, Falls Church City and the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation
- Webb Nature Sanctuary, Clifton: 20 acres in 2013
New park facilities
- Dual Trails segment of the Washington & Old Dominion Regional Park in Falls Church opened in 2021
- Festival of Lights at Bull Run Regional Park in Centreville started in 2006
- Korean Bell Garden at Meadowlark in Wolf Trap opened in 2012
- Jean R. Packard Center, which contains the RiverView event space and Brickmakers cafe, opened at Occoquan in 2018
- Turning Point Suffragist Memorial was completed in 2020, though its dedication was delayed until May 2021 due to the pandemic
- Winter Walk of Lights at Meadowlark began in 2013
While some of the land was purchased, Gilbert says the “vast majority” came to NOVA Parks through donations, often from people who were impressed by how the agency handled other properties.
For example, one of the system’s most recent additions — 85 acres of forests and fields in Leesburg that will become Cattail Regional Park — came from a man whose aunt had donated Temple Hall Farm, also in Leesburg, in 1985.
“It’s not yet open to the public, but it will be within another six months or so,” Gilbert said of Cattail. “… [It’s a] beautiful property with historic structures on it and upland bog and just great ecological resources, historic resources, and that’s the best thing ever. Our region continues to grow and expand, and we need to grow and expand our park system.”
NOVA Parks’ efforts to preserve natural and historic sites have taken on heightened importance recently, as the federal government under President Donald Trump looks to slash national parks staff and funding and sell off public land for resource extraction.
Development in Northern Virginia has also presented challenges to the region’s parks, as illustrated by the ongoing battle over Dominion Energy’s tree removals along the W&OD Trail.
According to Gilbert, NOVA Parks is currently working with a landscape architect firm to develop a new memorandum of understanding that will establish a plan to restore affected areas and manage trees in the future without endangering electrical lines. The agency hopes to present its proposal to Dominion before Arbor Day on April 25.
“That’s going to be a big concern to get that fully resolved, and if it’s not, that work will continue,” Gilbert said, adding that he “may continue to work on various projects after December, if there’s a need for that.”
Going forward, Gilbert hopes to see NOVA Parks continue cultivating new attractions, noting that the agency obtains 90% of its operating funds through revenue from paid amenities like its golf courses and Climb Upton in Arlington, facility bookings for weddings and other events, and other fees.
He has also prioritized a more inclusive approach to historical interpretation. Efforts to highlight little-known stories like Meadowlark’s unexpected connection to the Civil Rights Movement garnered Gilbert a Freedom Fund Community Advocate Award from the Fairfax County NAACP in 2022 — an honor he mentioned as a particular point of pride.
“[Gilbert] and his team have made significant strides in illuminating the untold and often forgotten stories of the invaluable contributions of all communities that helped shape Fairfax County, Virginia, and beyond,” said Karen Campblin, the Virginia NAACP’s environmental and climate justice chair and former president of the Fairfax branch. “… While his visionary guidance will be greatly missed, I eagerly anticipate the next chapter of his journey and the continued inspiration he will undoubtedly bring.”
Other projects in NOVA Parks’ current five-year strategic plan include an expansion of the dual trails design along the W&OD Trail, with discussions underway in Vienna and Arlington.
As a lifelong Northern Virginia resident, Gilbert says he remains an “optimist” about how the region has grown and evolved over the past few decades and where it might be headed in the future.
“We have more attractions, and Northern Virginia is a really interesting, unique, dynamic place, not just a bedroom community of Washington, D.C., anymore,” he said. “… I think the park systems have grown with that, and I’m excited to have played some role in that.”
