City of Alexandria and Arlington County receive 2018 Governors Environmental Excellence Silver Award
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality announced the 2018 Governor’s Environmental Excellence Awards on April 5, 2018 at the 29th Environment Virginia Symposium in Lexington. The Governor’s Environmental Awards recognized the significant contributions of environmental and conservation leaders in four categories: sustainability, environmental project, land conservation, and implementation of the Virginia Outdoors Plan. They are given to businesses and industrial facilities, not-for-profit organizations, and government agencies. The City of Alexandria and Arlington County received the Silver Medal for the Four Mile Run Tidal Wetland and Living Shoreline Restoration Project.
Since the early 2000s, the City of Alexandria and Arlington County have worked jointly and with a dedicated Joint Task Force of community members to achieve a vision of Four Mile Run becoming a community amenity and model of urban ecology. Completed in 2016, the Four Mile Run Tidal Wetland project in Alexandria plays a prominent role in regional efforts to protect the
Potomac river and Chesapeake Bay by restoring two acres of diverse wetland habitat and natural cycles that support wildlife and improve water quality by removing phosphorus, nitrogen and sediment. The Arlington Living Shoreline Restoration project, completed in 2017, involved naturalization of fives acres of the stream bank by replacing stone that was used to harden the stream banks with native meadow plants. The project has created extensive new wildlife habitat along the stream to support birds, inspects, fish and other animals in the watershed. The amount of pollution removed, as a result of the project, includes 43 pounds per year of phosphorus, 247 pounds per year of nitrogen, and 18,800 pounds per year of sediments.
For a list of all the award winners, click here. To learn more about the project, click here.
For more information, please call Dana Wedeles, Park Planner with the Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities, at 703.746.5491.
