A Win for the Trail, Thanks to YOU

This week, NOVA Parks and Dominion Energy reached a new agreement on a comprehensive vegetation restoration and management plan along the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail, bringing an end to the year-long—and at times acrimonious—struggle over the future vision of the much-loved 45-mile linear park. This is a major win for trail users and the environment, and YOU helped make it happen. 

The background

We spent a LOT of time in 2025 talking about the W&OD Trail after Dominion Energy unexpectedly clear-cut all the trees along a 4-mile stretch between Vienna and Dunn Loring in February. But the story really began in November 2024 when Dominion withdrew from a long-standing but non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with NOVA Parks (the trail’s administrator) on vegetation management and initiated unilateral plans for far more aggressive destruction pruning. 

Those 4-miles near Vienna were just the beginning. Dominion’s vision: clear out all vegetation along all 33 miles of parkland and trail running beneath their transmission lines. Real-life Once-ler behavior. 

A park without its trees isn’t much of a park and the pushback—from community members, local elected officials, conservationists, and trail advocates—was swift and fierce. By March, in the face of unanimous County Board and City Council resolutions from all trail-adjacent jurisdictions, Dominion relented and paused its chainsaws. But the utility didn’t return to the negotiating table with NOVA Parks to work out a long term management plan and so the threat of renewed clear-cutting continued to hang ominously overhead. That’s when we got to work.

Spinning our wheels

The broader Northern Virginia advocacy community—primarily organizations associated with the Fairfax Healthy Communities network—had begun discussing the situation as soon as the first trees were felled. Together we joined the chorus demanding that Dominion develop a management and restoration plan reflective of the W&OD’s unique status as a treasured community resource via a joint letter in late March. We received no response.

In June, after Dominion publicized its intentions to resume clear-cutting operations, we launched a public petition calling for a permanent halt and began meeting regularly to strategize on how we might escalate the pressure on Dominion. In August, we wrote to all state and local elected officials in Northern Virginia, calling on them to demand answers from Dominion. Still no response and no progress on negotiations with NOVA Parks.

A breakthrough

With summer ending and no resolution in sight, we decided to crank up the heat on Dominion. On September 6th, our coalition organized a trailside rally on the Vienna Town Green and were joined by over 120 community members and a dozen elected officials. Our rallying cry: a trail needs its trees. 

The frustration with Dominion’s stonewalling was palpable but so, too, was the immense love of the trail. Everyone came with a story of appreciation for the W&OD: as a gathering place, a car-free respite to walk the dog, a defiant ribbon of nature through suburbia, a space for mindfulness on the commute to or from work. Following the rally, we tried to capture the sentiment and our concerns in a long piece in Greater Greater Washington. Still, we advocates did not get a response. 

But NOVA Parks did. In the weeks following the rally, draft MOU language was finally returned, emails circulated again, and new meetings scheduled. By December, the framework was in place: Dominion would replant areas it clear-cut near Vienna AND would commit to coordinating with NOVA Parks and local jurisdictions regarding future maintenance projects that involve significant native tree loss. 

The final agreement would go even further, establishing practices—for the first time—to reduce invasive plants and enhance native plants, with a focus on promoting and supporting pollinators. A better outcome could hardly have been imagined when we began our campaign.

Advocacy works

The results of all this: a stronger agreement promising greater transparency and coordination, comprehensive restoration and a commitment to a healthier park ecosystem going forward, and strengthened bonds between community advocates, elected officials, and park leaders. The latter is perhaps most important, and proof that grassroots advocacy—when we come together to speak out for the things we care about—can work. We’ll probably never be officially credited with turning the tides of public opinion and shifting Dominion’s calculus. But we’ll know the truth. 

So if you joined us anywhere on this journey over the last year—if you signed the petition, wrote an email to your Supervisor, or joined us at the rally—this victory belongs in no small part to you. Let the laughter of kids playing, the scent of the wildflowers, the joyful trill of the songbirds, and the cool shade of the trees be a happy reminder of that every time you visit the W&OD.