Clearing of RA Forested Parkland for Parking Lots

Clearing of RA Forested Parkland for Parking Lots

My name is Kevin Munroe, and I’ve lived in Reston for 33 years, and near Lake Anne Village Center for 12. I spent 11 years working for Reston Association as the Environmental Resource Specialist, 2 years with Audubon Society of Northern VA as their Staff Naturalist and Program Coordinator, and have spent the last 7 as the Manager of Huntley Meadows Park.

I walk to Lake Anne about once a week to enjoy its wonderful shops and restaurants, and am in support of the revitalization project. As a neighbor of the village center I am excited about the potential this project brings. However, I am very concerned about, and strongly opposed to, one specific aspect of the project – the clearing of a forested parcel of Reston Association natural area parkland for the purpose of installing a parking lot. I’m opposed to clearing this community parkland to create parking spaces for the following reasons:

·       Parkland Should Stay Parkland

The forested parcel that developers want to replace with a parking lot is designated as Reston Association Natural Area Parkland. The point of designating a parcel as a Reston Association natural area and setting it aside as protected parkland, is to ensure that it will remain so, immune to development, for perpetuity. One can always make the argument, as developers have for this forested parkland, that it could be better “used” and “enhanced” by turning it into a parking lot, playground, athletic field, office space, school, pool, rec center, homes, etc. If this Reston Association Natural Area is cleared and turned into a parking lot, how many other proposals will be brought before the RA board to clear forested parkland for the purpose of development? The RA parkland surrounding many of our schools could potentially be used to make larger schools and ball fields, and maybe the RA parkland across from your house might make an excellent office building, rec center or home site. Let’s make our voices heard as a community that we want our natural area parkland to stay preserved. In short, this proposal should never have been allowed to go this far – Reston Association Natural Area Parkland should never be offered up for development.

·       Land Swap is Poor Option

The proposal in question includes “swapping” the RA Natural Area for another wooded parcel of similar size down the street. This “swap” is a red herring, and a diversion technique that is not acceptable:

o   The trees on the RA Natural Area are mature American Hollies and several species of slow-growing upland oak species. The whole parcel is upland forest, a disappearing resource since upland forest is prime real estate – most of the protected parkland in Reston is lowland forest, because developers can’t build in water-logged, lowland soils. The parcel developers are proposing to “swap” is lowland forest, with many fast-growing, short-lived tree species such as Black Cherry, Red Maple and Tulip Poplar. In addition, the “swap” parcel is full of invasive exotics, while the RA natural area has almost none. The two parcels are not comparable.

o   The few large upland oak trees that do exist on the “swap” parcel will be removed as part of a road project, even if the parcel is given to RA. 

o   Simple math folks – there are currently two parcels. If one is cleared there will be one remaining. That’s a reduction, not a “swap”. And the one remaining will be developed with a road. It’s apples for oranges. The “swap” idea should not be part of the conversation.

·       Not Practical to Re-locate, Replace or “Work Around”

Developers have offered to re-locate some of the trees, or replace them, or work around them. These offers are always made by developers to diffuse tree clearing concerns – unfortunately they do not work. It’s another diversion technique.

o   Relocate - The oaks in question are 60+ feet tall, with 3 foot diameter trunks, with root structures at least 30 feet wide – they of course cannot be moved. The hollies are smaller, but also much too large to be moved. I’ve managed several large-scale tree-spading projects in Reston, and am very familiar with the maximum dimension of trees that can be moved – the vast majority of these trees cannot be moved. And most importantly, moving a few small trees doesn’t replace a forest.

o   Replace – American Hollies (Ilex opaca) grow incredibly slowly, just a few inches a year. The trees in question are 50+ years old. Trying to replace them would take several generations, and would still not equal the existing forest. The oaks grow very slowly as well, and include huge Black Oaks and Scarlet Oaks, two species that are very picky and vulnerable to disease. Trying to replace these huge, healthy, slow-growing, native trees with nursery specimens grown and shipped from another state will never create the same result, at least not for several generations. NOTE - The average life-span of parking lot trees is 7 years, due to soil compaction, heat reflection and interrupted water flow. Urban foresters call parking lot islands made for trees “coffins”, because that’s what they are if you’re a tree.

o   “Work Around” – Developers have promised to work-around some of the trees on the edge, as they create the parking lot. The largest oaks are in the middle of the parcel and cannot be worked around. Plus, a tree’s root-zone extends to its drip zone (branch tips). The root zones of the oaks in question extend at least 30 feet, probably twice that, and would be damaged by the construction and asphalt process.  

·       Why are Mature Oaks and Hollies Important?

o   Mature oaks, especially the White Oaks, Black Oaks and Scarlet Oaks on this RA parkland, have a higher wildlife value than any other plant species in Virginia. More species of butterflies, moths and birds use mature oaks than any other native plant. In particular, migrating neo-tropical migrant songbirds (tanagers, orioles, warblers, thrushes, vireos, even hummingbirds) rely on the April flowers of mature oaks to attract tiny insects that they then feed on to refuel for their thousand-mile spring migrations. Virtually all neo-tropical migrants are in decline due to habitat destruction, which includes clearing of mature forests for parking lots. These huge, old-growth, native oaks are irreplaceable wildlife magnets and biodiversity reservoirs that are disappearing across the eastern U.S. – clearing them to create a few new parking spaces in short-sighted.

o   American Hollies are the only native, shade-tolerant evergreen tree that grows in Reston. Our other native evergreen trees require sun and cannot grow in the shade of larger trees. American Hollies provide unique, year-round, forest shelter for our songbirds, as well as an essential winter food source in their berries. Perhaps most importantly, that year-round dense shade created by their evergreen branches is the best defense against invasive exotic plants.

·       Other Parking Options Exist

The idea of increasing parking by creating underground parking was discussed, but it was decided that “people don’t like to drive up several levels”. What? Parking lot designs can always be tweaked and re-oriented – if clearing a Reston Association natural area was taken off the table as an option, a creative solution would be found.

·       This is Your Parkland – it WILL be Cleared and Paved unless you Speak Out

Reston Association is under tremendous pressure to allow this clearing of parkland. Large sums of money have been spent on lawyers, designs, “swap” proposals, and the issue has been framed as being “for or against” Lake Anne revitalization. I am in support of revitalizing Lake Anne, but we don’t need to clear parkland to gain a few parking spaces for that to happen. My comments will not stop this from happening – only a ground-swell of comments and protest from Reston residents will do that. PLEASE contact one or more of the following groups: RA board, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Patch.com, other local media (especially local newspapers), Face Book (probably the best way to get the word out), Arbor Day Foundation http://www2.arborday.org/GeneralInfo/index.cfm, National Wildlife Foundation http://www.nwf.org/Who-We-Are/Contact-Us.aspx, Audubon Society of Northern Virginia www.audubonva.org or Sierra Club http://virginia.sierraclub.org /greatfalls/contactus.html to express you opinion on this issue and make your voice heard.

In Summary, clearing forested RA parkland with mature oaks and hollies (trees that cannot be relocated, replaced or worked-around) in order to add parking spaces is unacceptable and unnecessary, so please let your Reston Association board members know that it cannot happen.