In an effort to reduce heat islands in vulnerable communities, the Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services has applied for millions of dollars in grant funding to establish a street tree planting program.
The county will use its Vulnerability Index to identify communities in need of the program, according to county staff.
Questions continue to swirl around Lake Accotink Park’s long-term future, but that hasn’t stopped Fairfax County from pursuing some needed facility upgrades.
This Saturday (June 3), the Fairfax County Park Authority will celebrate the completion of its new Accotink Creek Crossing, a 320-foot-long concrete trail and 325-foot, elevated pedestrian bridge that closes 3.9-mile trail loop around the North Springfield park.
Fairfax County’s parking lots and streetscapes could look a little greener.
At a land use policy committee meeting on May 16, planning staff proposed a new update to the county’s landscaping and screening ordinance — the first major change in 40 years — that would make developers add more green landscaping to more parking lots and street frontages.
The Town of Vienna is ready to turn over a new leaf in its commitment to tree plantings and preservation.
In the hopes of reversing a significant decline in canopy coverage over the past decade, staff proposed a tree conservation ordinance to the Vienna Town Council last week that would require developers to preserve existing trees when possible.
As Northern Virginia continues to cement its position as a global base for data centers, Fairfax County leaders say the time has come to reevaluate the impact of the facilities and, potentially, set some boundaries for the future.
At its meeting this morning (Tuesday), the Board of Supervisors directed county staff to research environmental issues linked to data centers and what’s being done to address them. Staff will also develop guidelines for site locations and the process for approving them.
Some stability has been restored to Sugarland Run.
The Town of Herndon has nearly completed a project to restore roughly 1,200 linear feet of natural stream and stabilize stream banks of Sugarland Run South from the Washington & Old Dominion Trail crossing to the pedestrian bridge crossing, according to town manager Bill Ashton II.
The price tag affixed to dredging Lake Accotink has led some on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to say it might be time to pull the plug on restoration plans.
The Fairfax County park is popular, with over 250,000 visitors each year, but in a presentation to the board’s environmental committee yesterday (Tuesday), staff said the cost of the much-needed dredging project would be astronomical.
With Earth Day just around the corner, the Town of Vienna is preparing for its annual celebration of all things environmentally friendly and sustainable.
Sponsored by the town’s Conservation and Sustainability Commission, the Green Expo is held on the fourth Thursday of every April. As such, this year’s event will take place at the Vienna Community Center (120 Cherry Street) from 7-9 p.m. this Thursday (April 20).
About 20 acres of eastern hemlock trees rooted to the Bull Run River banks in Clifton will be formally recognized tomorrow (Tuesday) as likely the oldest trees in Fairfax County.
Believed to be at least 250 years old, the trees in Hemlock Overlook Regional Park are the first stand in the county and only the second in Northern Virginia to join the Old Growth Forest Network, a national nonprofit that aims to identify and protect the oldest known forests in every county in the U.S.
Fairfax County staff have pared down the draft of Reston’s proposed comprehensive plan from 180 pages to 133.
At a Fairfax County Planning Commission workshop on March 30, staff walked through their amendments to the proposed plan, a process that kicked off more than two years ago with a community-driven task force initiated by Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn.
