NOVA Parks and Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Railroad Regional Park supporters are teaming up with local law enforcement to encourage the safe use of e-bikes and other electric mobility devices.
After kicking off in Loudoun County on Aug. 1, the educational initiative will continue this month with free events along the 45-mile-long W&OD Trail hosted by the Fairfax County, Herndon and Vienna police departments.
Visitors from around Virginia came to Occoquan Regional Park in Lorton to celebrate Women’s Equality Day at the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial last week (Aug. 26).
Hosted by NOVA Parks, Wednesday’s event commemorated the women who took part in the suffrage movement, which fought for women’s right to vote leading up to the implementation of the 19th Amendment in 1920.
The Commonwealth of Virginia is putting some money behind plans to add a visitor center at the heart of the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail.
The two-year state budget adopted by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger in late June includes $1 million for the Town of Vienna to help acquire the land needed for the future hub, a project spearheaded by the W&OD Railroad Regional Park’s owner, NOVA Parks.
Construction work is underway on a summertime effort to reinvigorate Gateway Regional Park in the City of Fairfax.
Avon Corp., which received the contract for the project, has started work that’s expected to run through September. The park will remain closed through November for the construction and subsequent fall plantings, according to NOVA Parks, which manages the site.
Local police and parks officials across Northern Virginia are working to raise awareness of how to safely ride and share paths with electric bicycles in response to reported upticks in complaints about reckless behavior.
Over the past month, the Vienna Police Department has been sharing information about safe and legal riding practices, while also stepping up patrols in areas where concerns have cropped up as part of an E-Bike Safety Awareness Campaign launched on May 29.
Local and state transportation planners hope to provide some additional protection to users of the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail with a new safety initiative.
If approved by the Virginia Department of Transportation, the initiative will add high-visibility stop signs at nine trail intersections in Fairfax County, according to NOVA Parks, which owns the 45-mile-long regional park and is supporting the proposal.
Reston residents will have many free ways to get out of the house and enjoy the outdoors as part of Play All Day VA celebrations, which fall on Father’s Day this year.
As a part of a statewide initiative to get residents active in their own communities, Reston Association is offering a number of activities at its facilities that are free or reduced in price on June 21, the longest day of the year.
In 1944, eight young black women boarded a segregated bus heading from Fairfax County to D.C. and sat in the front area, setting in motion a fierce challenge to Virginia’s Jim Crow laws.
The Howard University students’ story is the subject of a new, nine-minute documentary released last week by NOVA Parks and Howard University, “The Student Bus Protest That Challenged Jim Crow.”
Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park visitors can now officially enjoy the trail during the same hours at any point in its 45-mile length.
The board of directors for NOVA Parks, the regional authority that owns and operates the park, voted at its May 21 meeting to standardize 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily as the W&OD Trail’s formal operating hours, effective immediately.
Over the next year, visitors can expect to see fewer invasive plant species and more native plantings along the Washington & Old Dominion Trail and other regional parks.
The NOVA Parks Board of Directors adopted a fiscal year 2027 budget at its meeting last Thursday (May 21) that includes increased funding for invasive species management throughout the system, and for tree and shrubbery plantings along the 45-mile W&OD Trail, among other priorities.
