NOVA Parks

Countywide

NOVA Parks leader to retire after overseeing regional park system’s expansion over 20 years

By Angela Woolsey
NOVA Parks Executive Director Paul Gilbert at a Juneteenth 2024 event (courtesy NOVA Parks)

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.

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News

Dominion to continue cutting trees in Vienna area but ‘pause’ plans for rest of W&OD Trail

By Angela Woolsey
A bicyclist passes tree workers on the W&OD Trail in Vienna (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

After weeks of negotiations and public complaints, Dominion Energy has agreed to reassess plans to clear nearly all trees near its power lines in the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Railroad Regional Park.

However, the pause won’t bring relief to Vienna and Dunn Loring, where the utility will finish clearing trees and brush along a 4-mile section of trail in conjunction with a transmission line replacement between its Clark and Idylwood substations, Dominion Senior Vice President of Electric Transmission Joseph Woomer said yesterday in a letter to the Northern Virginia Regional Parks Authority (NOVA Parks).

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News

Fairfax leaders urge Dominion to stop cutting trees along W&OD Trail

By Angela Woolsey
Tree stumps under Dominion Energy power lines along the W&OD Trail in Vienna (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

The Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority (NOVA Parks) is turning up the pressure on Dominion Energy to end widespread tree clearings along the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail.

At the regional agency’s request, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted 9-0 to approve a resolution on Tuesday (March 18) urging Dominion to halt reported plans to cut down any tree along the 45-mile-long trail that might someday interfere with its overhead power lines.

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News

NEW: Tree clear-cutting along W&OD Trail alarms local officials and residents

By Angela Woolsey
A tree stump left by Dominion Energy near the Washington & Old Dominion Trail (courtesy NOVA Parks)

Some tree trimmings and removals were expected when Dominion Energy initated a project last year to replace electrical lines in the Vienna section of the Washington and Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail, but the extent of the clearings has taken local residents, elected officials and even the agency that owns the trail by surprise.

Starting in November, the utility began cutting down trees and vegetation along a 4-mile stretch of the trail from Vienna to Dunn Loring at a much more “aggressive” scale than it has in the past, according to Paul Gilbert, executive director of the Northern Virginia Regional Parks Authority (NOVA Parks).

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News

New plaque at Meadowlark park salutes women who challenged segregation

By Angela Woolsey
Officials from NOVA Parks, NAACP, Fairfax County and more unveil a sign at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens to honor Howard University students who challenged bus segregation (courtesy NOVA Parks)

Before it became Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, Caroline Ware’s farm in Wolf Trap served as the staging area for a noteworthy yet little-known battle in the civil rights movement’s long struggle against segregation.

A constitutional history and social sciences professor at Howard University, Ware hosted a picnic on May 14, 1944 for friends and students, four of whom got arrested after refusing to move to the back of the bus they boarded to return to D.C.

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Countywide

W&OD Railroad history collection donated to library for trail’s 50th anniversary

By Angela Woolsey
Providence District Dalia Palchik, former NOVA Parks board member Barbara Hildreth and Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn look at historical photos of the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

The Washington & Old Dominion Trail’s history as a rail line was on full display yesterday (Monday) during the latest 50th anniversary celebration organized by the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority (NOVA Parks).

After listening to local elected leaders, park officials and advocates reflect on the trail’s importance to the region, ceremony attendees could pore over old photographs of train stations and touch a rusted railroad spike, just steps from where the W&OD tracks once ran through the heart of the Town of Vienna.

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Countywide

Project begins to replace invasive plants with meadows along W&OD Trail

By Angela Woolsey
The W&OD Trail LOVE sign in Vienna (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

Dozens of volunteers will break out the work gloves and garden shears this Saturday (Sept. 14) to eliminate invasive plants around the “LOVE” sign by the Washington & Old Dominion Trail in Vienna.

The cleanup will clear the way for a native plant meadow that its organizer, the nonprofit Sustainability Matters, hopes will spawn similar beautification efforts all along the 45-mile-long regional trail.

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Around Town

W&OD Trail’s 50th anniversary celebration kicks off this weekend with cleanup

By James Jarvis
W&OD Trail in Herndon (staff photo by James Jarvis)

The Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail has reached the half-century mark.

The Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority (NOVA Parks) is marking the facility’s 50th anniversary with various activities from April to September, starting this Saturday (April 27) with a trail-wide cleanup event from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m.

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News

Clifton’s Hemlock Park gets national recognition as home of oldest trees in Fairfax County

By Angela Woolsey
An approximately 20-acre portion of Hemlock Overlook Regional Park is being inducted into the national Old Growth Forest Network (photo by José Fernández for NOVA Parks)

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.

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