NOVA Parks | FFXnow

Published October 8, 2024 at 2:30PM | Updated October 8, 2024 at 4:18PM

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.

Countywide

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

By Angela Woolsey

Published September 18, 2024 at 3:45PM | Updated September 19, 2024 at 4:34PM

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.

Around Town

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

By James Jarvis

Published April 25, 2024 at 11:45AM

The Washington & Old Dominion 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.

News

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

By Angela Woolsey

Published April 17, 2023 at 11:45AM

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.