¡Dígale a la Junta de Supervisores del Condado de Fairfax que los parques le importan!

A summertime walk in Huntley Meadows. Photo by Serenella Linares.

View this blog post in English! Nuestros supervisores necesitan escuchar a todos los que usan los parques antes de que comiencen las audiencias sobre el presupuestos el 12 de abril. ¡Haga oír su voz ahora! Por qué se necesita urgentemente su voz: La Junta de Supervisores del Condado de Fairfax… Continue reading

Tell Fairfax County Board of Supervisors that parks matter to you!

¡Vea esta publicación de blog en español! 4/11/22 UPDATE: Our advocacy is getting noticed – please add your voice if you haven’t already! Sign this petition! Advocates from various park friends’ groups will present this information at the public budget hearing on Thursday 4/14. We want to get at least… Continue reading

ANS comments in support of closing Rock Creek Park’s Upper Beach Drive to cars

Beginning in April 2020 with the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, the National Park Service extended the typical weekend-only car closures of portions of Beach Drive in Rock Creek Park to the weekdays as well. The closures provided DC and Montgomery County residents with a wonderful new, safe, urban oasis… Continue reading

Take Action: Tell DC Mayor Bowser to Get Plastic Bottles Out of Our Water!

Plastic bottles are everywhere. They’re strewn across the streets of our neighborhoods, filling up gutters and alleyways. They’re all over the city’s parks and green spaces, and make it difficult to enjoy nature. Perhaps most visibly, they fill up our waterways, the end point for a large portion of litter.… Continue reading

ANS Testifies at DC Council Performance Oversight Hearings

It seems like just yesterday that we were in the middle of last year’s budget process in Washington, DC. Once again we find ourselves balancing our city-wide checkbook, but this time in preparation for the 2022 fiscal year. Before DC’s proposed budget is released though, the DC Council holds performance… Continue reading

Is an indoor ski slope coming to Fairfax County?

In 2018, Alpine-X submitted an unsolicited proposal to Fairfax County to build a 450,000-square-foot indoor snow sports complex on the closed landfill (currently largely serving as meadow and grassland habitat) in the Lorton area of Mount Vernon District. Fairfax Peak, as the project is called, has been progressing largely out… Continue reading

Healing our Landscapes: Passage of the Great American Outdoors Act

This article was published in our Autumn 2020 Naturalist Quarterly special edition, “Healing Our Land – The Election Issue.” Please visit www.anshome.org/naturalist-quarterly to see the rest of the stories in the issue.   From the Dakota Badlands to the cathedral of Yosemite to Rock Creek Park and the Frederick Douglass… Continue reading

ANS Testifies on Fairfax County’s FY2021 Revised Budget

On Wednesday, April 29th, on behalf of ANS, I will present phone-in testimony on Fairfax County’s FY2021 Revised Budget. This was to be a good year for many things including: A one penny increase in real estate taxes was initially proposed to be dedicated in support of affordable housing. The… Continue reading

Make Your Voice Heard: Protect the Anacostia River!

First learn…then scroll down to the bottom of this blog to TAKE ACTION and send your own letter about the future of the Anacostia! On March 2nd, ANS submitted comments on the Anacostia River Sediment Project Proposed Plan and Feasibility Study. For us and many of our partners, this comment period… Continue reading