Debra Jacobson Receives the National Sierra Club’s Volunteer Achievement Award
Debra Jacobson, a Great Falls Group member, has received the national Sierra Club’s prestigious Volunteer Achievement Award. A small ceremony with Norbert Pink and Brian Castelli presenting the award to her occurred at an afternoon tea on July 10th at the net-zero energy home of Brian Castelli. Debra was joined by her family and a few of her close Sierra Club friends and allies. Debra will be honored again at a national level when the Sierra Club holds its virtual recognition event in early September.
Image: Norbert, Debra with award, and Brian photo courtesy Brian Castelli
Volunteer Action for the Environment - Zero Waste Initiative
Virtual Meeting WHEN: Monday, Sept 13; 7-8:00 pm WHERE: Zoom link sent after RSVP DETAILS: We will focus on three topics:
Promoting composting
Supporting placing a new tax on plastic bags
Improving recycling
We will have a discussion on possible actions for this new Great Falls Group initiative. You can choose the topic that you would like to work on. New and experienced participants are all welcome. Come be part of the solution! CONTACTS: Evelina Hobson or Haiping Luo at zerowastesierra@gmail.com SPONSOR: Sierra Club/Great Falls Group
Power for the People Virginia
Recent posts from Ivy Main's blog on energy-related matters in Virginia.
Ivy Main, Conservation Co-Chair and Renewable Energy Chair
Justice Park
Members of GFG Susan Bonney, Ann Bennett, and Catherine Carver testified, along with about 12 others, at the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors' meeting on July 13 about the Fairfax County Park Authority (FCPA) reauthorization for 30 years. They voiced concerns about Justice Park, and supported more investment in local parks. They also asked whether the only park authority left in the state should be reauthorized for a length of 30 years, which is a long commitment to the current structure. As growth and the pandemic have brought more residents into the parks, they suggested that some of the COVID relief funds coming to Fairfax County be utilized for park land acquisition, especially in underserved areas of the county.
The FCPA's role in allowing the use of a community park for student parking was the highlight of testimony. In reponse to the public outcry, on July 20 the Annandale Blog reported that FCPA has decided not to support the Fairfax County Public School's latest proposal on parking in Justice Park.
We're still waiting to find out what FCPS will propose. GFG and park advocates have consistently offered to work with FCPS on parking alternatives.
Major Fairfax County Environmental Inititative Submits Final Report: Members Look to Future
For many months, several Great Falls Group members have been working on Fairfax County’s Community-wide Energy and Climate Action Plan (CECAP) – Fairfax County's first-ever greenhouse gas emission reduction plan.
The CECAP Final Report was submitted to the Board of Supervisors’ Environmental Committee on July 20th. The final report incorporated many of the suggestions and feedback the Fairfax County Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination and its contractor, ICF, received from the Working Group, particularly comments and recommendations made by the Sierra Club members involved.
Now that the CECAP report has been completed, a group of Sierra Club members who participated in the CECAP process have launched a Club working group to help move Fairfax County to meeting the overall goals delineated in CECAP. We are now reaching out to any Sierra Club members who wish to participate in this latter group. Please contact us if you are interesting in in contributing to this vital stage of implementing CECAP.
Quiet Clean Nova Meets with County Supervisors, Reaches Out to Public
Quiet Clean NOVA, formed in February 2021, seeks to ban or reduce the use of gas-powered leaf blowers due to their many negative effects - loud noise, air pollution, environmental injustice, climate change, and habitat destruction. For more information, go to our QC NOVA website https://quietcleannova.wordpress.com/
Since February, QC NOVA has met with several county supervisors and Virginia lawmakers. Delegate Kaye Kory and Senator Barbara Favola have agreed to introduce bills granting jurisdictions in Virginia the authority to ban or otherwise regulate gas-powered leaf blowers. QC NOVA has also set up tables at community events and launched a petition. For a report on our activities from February to May, see the June issue of The Cascade.
Read more about QC NOVA's progress in June and July and what you can do to help out.
WHEN: Tuesday, August 31; 7-8 PM DESCRIPTION: Over 70% of the world’s internet traffic passes through Virginia--specifically through the largest concentration of data centers on the globe in Loudoun County. Only 4% of power generated for this important digital infrastructure, however, is renewable. Join us to learn how Virginia has become a world leader in digital communications and what we can do to make it sustainable for Virginia and the entire world. CONTACT: Please register at https://www.mobilize.us/lcvva/event/404384/ SPONSORS: League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, Loudoun Climate Project
GFG Cleans Up Jones Branch Drive
This year the GFG has spent about 12 hours picking up 10 bags of litter in Tysons on two clean-ups on Jones Branch Drive, the group's assigned street for more than five years, led by Patricia Leslie. (Tysons has dropped "Corner," as you probably know.)
Each year more than 23,000 volunteers collect about 44,000 bags of waste along Virginia's roadways under the Commonwealth's "Adopt-A-Highway" program. The Virginia Department of Transportation provides the volunteers with safety vests, bags, signs and more. If you would like to sign up for a street, go to this link for more information.
Zero Waste Initiative Makes Call to Action
The group continues to brainstorm and discuss ways to advance our three Zero Waste Initiatives:
Support placing a tax on plastic bags
Examine current options for, and barriers to, wider adoption of composting
Increase recycling rate and decrease contamination
In July, we discussed simple ways people can get involved in each category of the Zero Waste Initiative to help out their community and the environment! 1. Take the #PlasticFreeChallenge - find it online and learn many actions you can take to reduce plastic waste. Go to https://plasticfree.ecochallenge.org/ or https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/ to make the pledge. 2. When ordering at a restaurant, with every order, say up front "No plastic straw and bag please." 3. Ask your county supervisor to support reducing single-use plastic in your county. 4. Learn how to compost and where compost can be dropped off near you. 5. Research what recycling your private hauler will accept on their website.
Link to the full meeting discussion notes found here.
Next Meeting WHEN: Monday, Sept 13; 7-8:00 pm WHERE: Zoom link sent after RSVP
Prince William County
Data Centers May Encroach on the National Parks in Prince William County
Concerned environmentalists held a press conference on July 20 to bring attention to the effort to place data centers in the Rural Crescent area of the county and adjacent to two national parks. The press conference was held ahead of a Prince William County Board of Supervisors meeting to discuss the proposal that night.
There is a designated data center overlay district identifying 3100 acres of vacant land that is suitable for data center development. However speculative land developers are eyeing the less expensive land in the Rural Crescent next to Manassas National Battlefield Park and Prince William Forest Park. Kim Hosen, Executive Director of the Prince William Conservation Alliance, says “Developers want to replan 800 acres from Rural Crescent uses to data center development, which would undermine the Rural Crescent and create unacceptable impacts to our national parks.”
At the press conference, six conservation leaders expressed deep concern about the effects the data centers will have on diversity of animal and plant species, waterways, farmland, the two national parks and the other greenspace in the area. They argued that increased urbanization will have a permanent negative effect on this natural area. The Great Falls Group supports this effort to protect the Rural Crescent and is working with this coalition to preserve the vital natural open space, aesthetic and historical resources in and around the Rural Crescent and our national parks.
Prince William County Forest Inventory Reveals County's Forest Cover
The PWC Mosquito and Forest Pest Management Branch recently published the results of a county-wide forest inventory. The work was completed using the i-Tree Eco software provided by the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service and its partners.
It is estimated that there are approximately 51 million trees that cover about 47% of Prince William County. The results of this project provide an in-depth understanding of this invaluable forest resource. Since the software is widely used, these results can be compared with findings in other regions.
The results provide a snapshot of the current composition of the County’s forests, including species diversity, age, and tree health. They also include a look at the quantifiable value of the trees through the services they provide, such as pollution removal and carbon storage. The County will repeat this survey in the future to track changes in the forest composition over time.
