The chainsaws have gone quiet, but the fight to preserve trees along the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail isn’t over yet.
A number of elected officials, nonprofits and community organizations plan to renew pressure on Dominion Energy over its approach to tree clearings with a rally tomorrow (Saturday) in Vienna.
Pedestrians and cyclists who frequent the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail will need to find an alternative route through the Dunn Loring area this week.
The trail closed yesterday (Monday) between Gallows Road in Dunn Loring and Shreve Road in Idylwood to give crews room to install a new electric transmission line as part of Dominion Energy’s Clark-Idylwood reconductor project. The closure will remain in place on Friday (July 11).
After reevaluating plans to clear more trees throughout the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail corridor in the spring, Dominion Energy is revving up its chainsaw once more.
The utility shared yesterday (Thursday) that its forestry team has “identified several areas” along the 45-mile trail in Fairfax, Arlington and Loudoun counties where tree removals will be necessary to preserve the electrical grid.
Dominion Energy appears to be open to addressing the damage done by its extensive tree clearings along the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail in Vienna and Dunn Loring.
The utility confirmed its interest in a new agreement to govern vegetation management for parts of the trail that overlap with its power lines less than 24 hours before NOVA Parks Executive Director Paul Gilbert gave an update on the situation to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and Vienna Town Council.
NOVA Parks and the Town of Vienna are partnering for an initiative that could transform a pair of offices into a visitor center for the Washington and Old Dominion Trail.
Fresh off its 50th anniversary last year, the 45-mile trail runs from Shirlington out to Purcellville, with Vienna as its “geographic center,” NOVA Parks Executive Director Paul Gilbert said when announcing the project during an Arbor Day event at the Vienna Town Green last Friday (April 25).
Multiple new thoroughfares line the course for next month’s Tour de Hunter Mill bicycle ride.
Registration is now open for May 4’s event, which will be the fifth annual bike ride through Fairfax County’s Hunter Mill District.
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).
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.
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).
The man charged with raping a woman in Herndon on Monday (Nov. 18) had been sentenced to jail less than a week earlier, the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office says.
Denis Humberto Navarette Romero, 31, was previously arrested by Herndon Police for a separate incident and brought to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center on Oct. 20, according to the sheriff’s office.
