The environment will take center stage across Fairfax County over the next two days, thanks to an abundance of Arbor Day and Earth Day festivities.
The county’s headliner is the annual Earth Day Fairfax festival, which has relocated to Lake Fairfax Park (1400 Lake Fairfax Drive) in Reston this year after previously taking place at the Sully Historic Site in Chantilly.
“Expect a full-on Earth party: family activities, games, food trucks, a craft beer garden, big trucks and Earth friendly vendors — plus live music and entertainment on the main and community stages to keep things rocking!” the Fairfax County Park Authority said in a press release.
From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday), visitors will be able to enjoy encounters with both wild and farm animals from Frying Pan Farm Park and Hidden Pond Nature Center, recreational activities like a rock-climbing wall and golf putting game, and crafts like paper quilling or making sustainable play dough with grain processed at Colvin Run Mill.
The park authority’s mobile nature center, Wonder Wagon, will be on site, and attendees can snag a custom Earth Day Fairfax T-shirt by collecting stamps from different booths and activities in an Earth Day Passport.
Planned entertainment includes music from School of Rock, Recycling Pirates, Proverbs Reggae Band and Wildflower Revival Band, along with karate and taekwondo demonstrations.
The festival is free, but parking costs $10 per car.
Elsewhere, the Town of Vienna will celebrate Arbor Day, which is today (Friday) with a pair of tree-planting events.
First, the town’s parks and recreation staff, local officials and scouts will gather and plant “multiple” trees at 5 p.m. today during an official ceremony at the Waters Field batting cage (300 Center Street South), according to a press release.
Volunteers from the general public are then invited to help plant trees along the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail near the Vienna Community Center, starting at 9 a.m. tomorrow. Interested volunteers can sign up online or by contacting Jeremy Edwards, the town’s superintendent of parks maintenance, horticulture and urban forestry.
The choice of the W&OD Trail as this year’s public planting location is notable after Dominion Energy controversially cleared dozens of trees along the Vienna and Dunn Loring portions of the trail to protect its power lines. Earlier this year, the utility finalized an agreement with NOVA Parks, which owns and manages the trail, that requires it to take a more selective approach to vegetation management and to replant areas where trees are removed.
Other Arbor Day and Earth Day events coming up around Fairfax County include:
- Herndon Parks and Stream Cleanup (Saturday, 8 a.m.-noon): Though volunteers will meet at Runnymeade Park (195 Herndon Parkway), they can help pick up litter, remove invasive plants and provide general maintenance at any of the town’s 11 parks and three trails.
- Fairfax City Arbor Day Celebration (Saturday, 9 a.m.-noon): Fairfax City’s 40th Arbor Day Celebration will bring a community tree planting, tree pick-ups and poetry recitations to Pat Rodio Park (3800 Keith Avenue).
- Dranesville Celebrates Trees (Saturday, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.): Volunteers can register to join Dranesville District Supervisor Jimmy Bierman, his staff and the McLean Trees Foundation at Lewinsville Park (1659 Chain Bridge Road) in McLean for weeding, mulching and planting native tree saplings.
- eARTh Day (Saturday, 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m.): Reston Town Center hosts a celebration of both nature and art that will include family-friendly activities, from face painting to plant potting, as well as a concert, a movie screening, and the return of Public Art Reston’s popular ChalkFest.
- Nature Walk and Talk (Saturday, 1-2 p.m.): Fairfax Invasive Removal Alliance members Wendy Cohen and Rekha Dolas will talk about invasive plants and native plant restoration efforts at Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library (7584 Leesburg Pike) before leading a “leisurely” walk through the adjacent park.
- Spring Children’s Festival (Sunday, April 26, noon-4 p.m.): The Great Falls Optimist Club’s 28th annual Children’s Spring Festival isn’t technically tied to Arbor or Earth day, but it does encourage families to get outdoors with rides, food and merchant vendors, games, obstacle courses and more.
