It was a behemoth of a job…and there’s more to do! Together, let’s take this further!
A native plant pollinator garden was installed along Vermont Avenue at Park Road, McLean, on October 7, 2023.
For years, this area was left to become overgrown, unsightly, and in a degraded condition. The Urban Forest Alliance and the Franklin Area Citizens Association collaborated on the improvement of our neighborhood gateway.
In the spring of 2022, a small band of neighbors gathered at the bottom of Vermont Avenue and surveyed the ugly piece of land that lay between them and Old Dominion Drive. Could anything be done? Did they dare to take on such a huge project?
It could and they did!
On October 7, the same group gathered again to celebrate as landscapers planted a new forest of trees and shrubs in the onetime eyesore. We in the Urban Forest Alliance have been toiling ever since that spring day to clear the land of garbage and invasive weeds and to prepare it for the transformation you see today. It wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the Franklin Area Citizens Association, a $5,200 grant from the Virginia Trees for Clean Water Program, and, crucially, the generous contributions and hard work from neighbors like you. Franklin Park neighbors pitched in to raise money and provide almost 100 hours of volunteer work to clear this land!
The job isn’t finished. The new plants need to be carefully watered and weeded as they establish themselves in the year ahead. Some will need to be replaced; more will be added. And we have already begun to push on into the wooded area further south along Vermont Avenue, where invasive weeds threaten to overwhelm the existing trees and plants. Lots of new plants will be needed, and volunteers will also be needed to help get these plants in the ground.
Our goal is not only to beautify the gateway to our neighborhood but to restore a once-vibrant habitat for birds and other wildlife. We need your help to continue this work! If you can volunteer some time to work in the area, please contact Steve Lagerfeld directly, via email (steve.lagerfeld@gmail.com) or phone (703-963-0757). You can also sign up for our newsletter by scrolling to the bottom of this or any page of this website. This will put you our mailing list and you will learn of future volunteer days. It’s a great way to come out to meet your neighbors as we work to improve this land and the neighborhood! If you can help shoulder some of the cost, please make a contribution.
How nice it will be as you drive into the neighborhood to pass by a beautiful “island” of land unlike anything else in McLean! This kind of community effort is one of the things that makes living in this neighborhood so incredible! We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE meeting you all, hearing that you’re pleased with the transformation, and think the world of every volunteer that has come down to help make Franklin Park and Forest an even better place to live!
Remember this? This photo taken on November 7, 2020, demonstrates what happens when land is unmaintained.
Japanese knotweed, a highly invasive and destructive exotic, lines the embankments of this drainage basin. Standing water from a blocked drain pipe killed mature trees. VDOT opened the drainage basin but left the area to be taken over by invasive plants.
If you’d like to provide a donation, this can be achieved via GiveButter or checks can be made out to Franklin Area Citizens Association noting “UFA-Restoration” in the memo line and dropped off or mailed to Franklin Area Citizens Association (FACA), c/o Wayne Knight, 1912 Virginia Ave, Mclean, VA 22101. We thank you for the generosity!