Half a decade after Fairfax County launched a solar panel initiative touted as the largest in Virginia to date, the first major installation at a public school is nearing completion.
Rooftop solar panels have been under construction at Olde Creek Elementary School (9524 Old Creek Drive) since Aug. 1 and are on track to become fully operational by Oct. 13, according to Fairfax County Public Schools.
Will Fairfax County’s latest energy-efficiency initiative deliver enough bang for the buck to make it viable in an era of constrained budgets?
County supervisors weren’t so sure, but the new Energy Compass initiative will have the coming year to prove its worth.
Herndon’s tree canopy coverage isn’t bad for a town of its size, but it notably lags behind some of its neighbors, town staff say.
At a work session on Tuesday (Sept. 9), arborist Nick Maletta told the Herndon Town Council that the town currently has 26% canopy coverage, which falls within a standard range but at the lower end of that spectrum.
Some local hunters are getting their Legolas on: it’s bow hunting season.
Fairfax County kicked off its annual archery program for qualified bowhunters this past weekend to help control the local deer population.
A Reston resident says she’s facing fines and possible legal action over the presence of milkweed on her property.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, milkweed has a “bad reputation,” but the wildflower is vital for monarch caterpillars and other pollinators. It’s also toxic to the invasive spotted lanternflies, which have proliferated across the D.C. region over the past few years.
Invasive species, an overpopulation of deer and climate change are threatening Reston’s valued forests, a report released earlier this summer found.
Reston Association’s 2024 State of the Environment Report (RASER), published in June, deemed Reston’s urban forests to be in “fair” condition due to the “collective severity” of those and other challenges, including negative impacts of construction and yard debris getting dumped in natural areas.
Like a monster in a horror movie franchise, the hydrilla that long plagued Lake Thoreau before lying low over the past couple of years has now returned.
Though past management efforts have seen some success, the invasive aquatic plant, whose full scientific name is Hydrilla verticillata, has resurfaced in “significant quantities” throughout the lake this summer, Reston Association announced on Monday (July 28).
Time is running out for Fairfax County homeowners to get a federal tax credit for adopting solar energy.
The reconciliation bill passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump on July 4 will eliminate a residential clean energy credit that lets residential property owners deduct 30% of the cost of installing rooftop solar panels, solar water heaters, geothermal heat pumps and other clean energy systems from their federal income taxes.
Spotted lanternflies are booming in Fairfax County.
Primarily concentrated in the western part of the county just a couple of years ago, the invasive pest can now be seen throughout Fairfax and the D.C. region. Sightings have also been reported this summer in Arlington, Falls Church and the District.
Fairfax County and an energy developer have begun the process of converting part of a closed landfill site in Lorton into a solar array.
The county’s Department of Public Works and Environmental Services (DPWES) and Madison Energy Infrastructure will officially break ground at 10 a.m. tomorrow (Wednesday), on the 5-Megawatt Solar Array Project — though officials connected to the project told FFXnow work on the site actually started weeks ago.
