Dec 2020 Talkin' Trash and Documentation
Trash, trash, trash and more trash
Invasive invasion – NOVA Parks lacks a counter-invasion plan
Stormwater overflows and erosion – 13 years of neglect and counting
W&OD Trail Expansion – NOVA Parks seeking an end run around public opposition
Dear Friends,
As we enjoy the holiday season, here is a fall/winter update on Upton Hill Regional Park developments. Recall at the NOVA Parks Sept 17 Board meeting, the board discussed needing to document the work being done at Upton Hill.
FoUH thought that was a good idea. We noted that we have been documenting problems at the park for several years and called for more investment in the park to remove invasives and trash.
We recently updated our website to further document the persistent trash and littering problems over the last two years with a focus on the last few months. All sorts of trash are found in random walks around the park. Clearly, park patrons prefer Heineken beer, as their bottles predominate the beer and wine bottle category. But plastic bottles, plastic bags, shoes, car tires and a lawn chair were variously strewn around the park. Some were not picked up for months.
The invasive plant species problem was extensively documented thirteen years ago in Arlington County’s 2007 Natural Resource Inventory of Upton Hill Regional Park. Despite its recommendations, NOVA Parks did not allocate funding for controlling invasives. Episodic volunteer work and a single cameo appearance by the Arlington reps to the NOVA Parks board over two years ago seem to be the sum total of the efforts. This likely cannot overcome the magnitude of the problem throughout the park. Funds are needed for sustained, professional efforts. After that, volunteers can maintain the gains.
The new, large cistern designed to contain the storm water runoff consistently fails to do so. In lighter rains, it has some success – but so did the previous catch basin. In heavier rains of perhaps at least an inch or so (there have been some 20 of these rainfall events in 2020 of which we managed to document about half), the storm water from the parking lot goes through the cistern and pours down the hillside, steadily eroding two channels before entering the ecologically sensitive woodland wetlands below (purple area in map near the corner of Wilson Blvd. and N. Livingston Street). In short, the cistern system has failed to correct the runoff problem since its installation which was concurrent with the parking lot’s expansion.
The 2007 Natural Resources Inventory underscored the danger that excess rainfall running off impervious surfaces poses to the unique wetlands noting, “Although not a large quantity of water, only a small increase is needed to overwhelm the small channels of the existing ravines and rivulets, and trigger downcutting of headwaters gullies in the soft colluvial fill. As gullies become deeper, the water table around them drops, and adjacent wetlands can be dewatered.”
NOVA Parks should install a professional rain gauge in the upper park so the correlation between rainfall and storm water outflow can be better measured!
Recently, the hillside is being excavated again. It will have to be monitored carefully in rains for sediment runoff.
More Dead Trees Walking — W&OD Trail Widening. Recall our last update, where we noted that more details are needed about NOVA Parks’ plans for public engagement, analysis of alternatives and environmental assessments. We may not get a straight answer, however. At its July 16 meeting, the board discussed the plans for the W&OD Trail’s widening. Worth a watch.
Board members conspire with the NOVA Parks staff to avoid public controversy over the W&OD’s widening. Their tactic is to delay a public engagement process for the section in Arlington until after the Falls Church section is completed. The board indicates that the goal is to hold Arlington’s public review when there is a good-looking, finished product in Falls Church to avoid having Arlingtonians focus on the destructiveness of the construction process under way in Falls Church.
FoUH agrees construction sites are messy. Moreover, if recent experience at Upton Hill is any guide, the contractor may be remiss in tree protection and storm water runoff management, requiring multiple official interventions to obtain improvements.
But this is not the main problem with the trail widening: It is the project itself, installing the equivalent of a full-size neighborhood street right next to Four Mile Run! An area that is already suffering from flooding in heavy rains! Moreover, numerous trees will be cut particularly at the western end of the project in Madison Manor Park around Brandymore Castle.
Please watch the video starting at 28:18 and you can see and hear the board’s approach yourself.
Best to you and your families for the New Year!
FoUH
www.FriendsofUptonHill.org – with updates!
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