Your Piece of the Planet

We volunteer because we think Prince William is a great place to live and we care about the future of our community. Volunteering is also a great way to meet new people who share common interests and start creating your own sense of community.

Next Saturday, August 2, we’ll be working on household repairs and cleaning at Merrimac Farm, beginning at 9:00 a.m. There’s lots to do for people with handyman skills and lots to do for the rest of us too.

On Saturday, August 23, at 9:00 a.m. we’ll be at Dove’s Landing with the County’s Historic Preservation Division hosting an easy hike through this fabulous property.

In September the first Virginia Master Naturalist Program will open at Merrimac Farm.  This is a great opportunity for people to learn more about nature close to home. It also should be lots of fun, with opportunities to catch dragonflies, trap small mammals, bird local wetlands, tour stream restoration projects and discover forest habitats.  Read the rest of this entry »

The Wall Street Journal reported today (“Funds for Highways Plummet As Drivers Cut Gasoline Use”) that “$225 billion a year is needed to meet the country’s transportation infrastructure needs. Current spending is about 40% of that level.”

Think we’ll increase current transportation spending by 150%?  Think the Federal government will just send us a check?  Think the members of the General Assembly/Board of County Supervisors will vote for their share of those taxes? 

The transportation system is aging, and the costs to maintain our existing roads/bridges/rail infrastructure is skyrocketing.  How much more new stuff can we afford to build and then maintain?  Read the rest of this entry »

The Washington Post is reporting that the County wants to transform the Strategic Plan from a “functional to transformative” policy. I wasn’t sure what “transformative” means in this context and, after reading the dictionary, I’m still not sure. Generally I’m predisposed toward “functional” policies that improve implementation and accountability.

The Strategic Plan is important because it drives the budget. Categories that are named as primary goals in the Strategic Plan are funded; other unnamed categories are pretty much out of luck.

This year the County’s report says that citizen input from a variety of surveys, meetings and written comments, consistently showed four priorities:  Education, Environment, Public Safety, and Transportation.

Under the newly proposed “transformative” approach, it appears these citizen priorities would be mixed-and-matched under a few categories with trendy, feel-good names:  Sustainable Neighborhoods, Sustainable Families, Sustainable Businesses. Read the rest of this entry »

Green is good for business. Leaders who invested early in environmentally-friendly design are reaping the benefits and everyone is starting to notice. Green buildings use less energy, saving money year after year. New design features aimed at creating a light footprint are also creating welcoming spaces and a sense of well being. Plus green buildings are great for your reputation.

Some Virginia schools are stepping forward. The first school – actually the first building in Virginia – to earn a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certificate was Langston High School in Arlington in 2003.

More recently, Henrico County announced that their new high school, targeted to open in 2010, will aim for the LEED Silver Certificate. Read the rest of this entry »

trail clearing at Long Park

Guest post by Neil Nelson

A significant amount of trail development and maintenance was accomplished at James Long Park recently.  Park Authority staff partnered with volunteers from the Prince William Trails & Stream Coalition, and the Nokesville Horse Society, to improve existing trails and clear new trails.  Staff and volunteers made several visits to the park to layout and mark the new trail routes, and then clear the pathway.  Existing trails also received attention.  These are multi-purpose trails, intended for hikers, bikers, equestrians and nature watchers.  Some logs were left in the trail path as jumps for equestrians, adding interest and a challenge to the ride (although a cut-out or cleared space is also available for hikers and bikers).   The work resulted in an extensive network of trails in James Long Regional Park.  Click here for a map of the park and its trails.

Want Metrorail extended to Potomac Mills?  Gainesville?  Hey, why not extend Metrorail to the intersection of Minnieville Road and Route 234, to support one of those hypothetical “centers of community” proposed in the draft land use chapter of the new Comprehensive Plan?

Of course we want Metro.  Metro is good good good.   It’s like asking someone on a hot July afternoon “want a cold drink?”

Unless you consider the impacts.  Getting Metro to PW County could be economic suicide. Read the rest of this entry »

Did you get an invitation to the VDOT public open house and workshop for the VRE Gainesville-Haymarket Feasibility Study & Alternatives Analysis on July 30 (details below)…

Prince William has imposed an extra 2% tax on local gasoline sales to finance our contribution to VRE, which is one reason Prince William’s gas prices are often higher than in Fauquier and Warren counties.

The Virginia Railway Express Gainesville/Haymarket Implementation Plan presumes that we should spend big bucks (think $200-300 million for infrastructure, plus more annually for operational costs) to extend commuter rail.  The alternative is to focus on improving service on the current lines, running trains more often and offering greater reliability. Read the rest of this entry »

The Emerald Ash Borer is in Fairfax County.  It’s a tree-killer, as bad as the chestnut blight that pretty much wiped out the most valuable tree in our Virginia forests a century ago.

The borer has already killed the ash trees in one neighborhood in Herndon.  It’s spread to Springfield, too.

I expect some bureaucracy - Fairfax County, the State of Virginia, or the US Department of Agriculture - to eradicate all ash trees within a mile of the known infestations, and to impose a quarantine on shipping tree debris out of Fairfax County.  Guess we won’t be buying any mulch or firewood generated from Fairfax County land-clearing projects for this coming winter.

If the quarantine works, all the Emerald Ash Borer larvae will be destroyed this winter.  That’s a mighty optimistic dream, but maybe we’ll get lucky.

However, Fairfax ships its woody debris to a chipping/composting facility on Balls Ford Road near Gainesville, and the infestation is probably at least 2 years old.  The odds of the infestation spreading to our piece of the planet are very high.

I’m starting to look closely at the ash tree next to my house… and it’s looking a mite poorly lately.

I am a big nature fan and enjoy visiting natural areas near and far to watch wildlife. However, to me nature isn’t a destination I must travel to see… it’s part of my everyday world and I really enjoy the plants and animals that share my backyard with me.

I live in an older neighborhood with quarter-acre lots, where my backyard abuts 100 acres of relatively undeveloped land with a network of small creeks. Although beautiful, this area doesn’t support the range of wildlife one would expect to find in a 100-acre wood. Read the rest of this entry »

This past October the EPA released a report confirming the Chesapeake Bay Program’s news that “increases in pollution due to development have surpassed the gains achieved to date from improved landscape design and stormwater management practices.”

More recently, the Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) 2008 dirty waters report shows that 85% of assessed waters are polluted. More than half of Virginia’s waterways drain to the Chesapeake Bay. This includes all of Prince William, where the dirty waters list includes all waterways along our Potomac River shoreline, the Occoquan Reservoir and more. Read the rest of this entry »