ACTION ALERT:  Help Save Fairfax City's Urban Forest

Photo: George Snyder Trail, Tom Blackburn

Please take action to preserve the small amount of urban forest remaining in the Fairfax City by signing the petition by the Fairfax City Environment Forum, which you can read and sign here . 

The City of Fairfax is proposing several paved bike trails (George Snyder, Pickett Road Connecter, Country Club Hills Connector, John Mason Trail, and Van Dyck to Wilcoxon Connector) that will cost the loss of more than 7 acres of mature woodlands and destroy more than 1,200 mature trees. The heavy equipment that would be needed to construct the trails will compact the soil and damage the roots of trees that aren’t cut down. Some of the planned trails are on steep cross slopes, and the city would have to either excavate the upper side of the trail or bring in fill dirt to level the trail, as well as construct retaining walls to reduce erosion. You can see one of the areas that will need to be excavated or filled on the George Snyder Trail below. You can read ASNV’s letter to the Mayor and Fairfax City Council urging them to relocate the trails here.

Join ASNV and the Fairfax City Environmental Forum in urging the city to relocate the trails to the many available side streets. Please sign their petition regardless of whether you live in Fairfax City, and encourage your friends to do so, too. We all need to work together to preserve our urban forests. 

Thank you for your consideration.
-Audubon Society of Northern Virginia