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The Friends of the Washington and Old Dominion Trail (FOWOD) is a non-profit citizens organization dedicated to the preservation, enhancement and promotion of a unique recreational resource in northern Virginia: the W&OD trail, a 45-mile multi-use rail-trail that is owned and operated by the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority. We hope you will use this site to learn more about the trail, keep up to date on current events happening on or near the trail, support the efforts of the FOWOD, and share your thoughts and ideas with us.
Please note that the NVRPA maintains its own site, and that this one is wholly distinct from it.
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Trail Remains under Grave Risk of Losing Thousands of Trees
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 Calendar of up-coming events |
| July 1st |
next meeting of the FOWOD board |
| July 26th |
W&OD 10K |
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Trail Manager Karl Mohle (right) reviews the current state of the Trail and discusses future plans for it
with Trail users, FOWOD board members, and other NVRPA officials at the annual picnic (6/8/08)
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The 2nd Annual Friends of the W&OD 10K
Plans for our second annual race, to be held on Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 6:30 P.M., are now firmly in place. Once again the course will run along the Trail (for the most part) on the west side of Vienna. For complete details as well as the opportunity to register for our race early and obtain thereby a discounted rate, click here.
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All but one segment of the W&OD Trail now adopted!
Of the 34 segments of the W&OD Trail which are available for adoption in the NVRPA's Adopt-a-Trail program, only the Fairfax City Connector Trail remains unclaimed. If you wish to adopt this segment or if you would like to place your name on the waiting list for another, click here for instructions (and further details regarding the program).
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Vienna Town Mayor Jane Seeman (R-front) and Council Member Laurie Genevro Cole (L-front)
receive from FOWOD President Roger Neighborgall and board member Anne Pastorkovich (R-rear)
a check for $500 to help to defray the cost of the town's upcoming Bike Rodeo.
•(3/17/08)•
[Photo: Brian Trompeter, Reporter, Sun Gazette Newspapers]
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Future Road and Trail Improvements in Reston Area
A public meeting concerning future road and trail improvements in the Reston area which may affect the W&OD Trail was held in Reston on Tuesday, January 22, 2008, from 7 to 9 P.M. at the Langston Hughes Middle School Cafeteria (11401 Ridge Heights Road).
Fairfax County Supervisor Catherine Hudgins established the Reston Metro Access Group (RMAG) as an advisory committee whose role is to plan vehicular and pedestrian traffic management around the proposed Wiehle Avenue and Reston Parkway Metro stations. The W&OD, the major pedestrian/bicycle avenue in Reston, is located very close to both of the planned metro stations as well as to a large number of shops and offices in Reston Town Center. Key pedestrian/bicycle issues involving the W&OD include proposed changes to the Wiehle Avenue intersection, increasing and improving W&OD trail connections between Town Center Parkway and Reston Parkway, and possible road improvements impacting the W&OD at Isaac Newton Square, Michael Faraday Court, and Sunset Hills Road. The RMAG meets regularly on the fourth Tuesday of every month at the North County Governmental Center. Further details concerning the RMAG, including pedestrian/bicycle, bus, and traffic analysis presentations on modal access issues, are available at the Fairfax County project web site.
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Red clover, also known as beebread, cow clover, cow grass, meadow clover, or purple clover --
Linnaean binomial: Trifolium pratense ("three-leaf meadow [plant]") --
blooms generously along the Trail during the spring & summer
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Turtle, watch
Often spotted on the Trail as it plods along (stopping now and again to crane its neck), the eastern box turtle -- Carolina terapene terapene -- has been firmly established in our area for many millions of years. Although this fascinating reptile has not yet become an officially endangered species, it is most certainly at real, ever-increasing risk due to the ongoing (and accelerating) destruction of native habitat, climatological change, AND the well-meaning hikers and children who, when they take the turtle home, inevitably bring about its premature death. This final risk, of course, is one that is within everyone's direct power to eliminate easily: if you should happen upon one of these grapefruit-sized, brown and yellow tanks, simply enjoy its company in the wild, but please DO NOT take it home.
An entertainingly reflective appreciation of the virtues of our regional testudinate was framed for the North Carolina Legislature when that body decided to adopt the turtle as the official state reptile in 1979:
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H. B. 384 CHAPTER 154
AN ACT TO ADOPT THE TURTLE AS THE OFFICIAL STATE REPTILE FOR THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA.
WHEREAS, the turtle is a most useful creature who serves to control harmful and pestiferous insects, and acts as one of nature's clean-up crew, helping to preserve the purity and beauty of our waters; and
WHEREAS, the turtle is derided by some who have missed the finer things of life, but in some species has provided food that is a gourmet's delight; and
WHEREAS, the turtle, which at a superficial glance appears to be a mundane and uninteresting creature, is actually a most fascinating creature, ranging from species well adapted to modern conditions to species which have existed virtually unchanged since prehistoric times; and
WHEREAS, the turtle watches undisturbed as countless generations of faster hares run by to quick oblivion, and is thus a model of patience for mankind, and a symbol of this State's unrelenting pursuit of great and lofty goals; and
WHEREAS, the woodlands, marshes, and inland and coastal waters of North Carolina are the abode of many species of turtles; Now, therefore,
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1. G.S. Chapter 145 is amended by adding a new section as follows:
"§ 145-9. State reptile.— The turtle is adopted as the official State reptile of the State of North Carolina, and the eastern box turtle is designated as the emblem representing the turtles inhabiting North Carolina." |
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On behalf of the W&OD Trail Patrol, Rick Stevens, W&OD Trail Manager, and Norm Lisy, Coordinator of the W&OD Trail Patrol, traveled to Richmond on June 13th to receive the Governor's Transportation Safety Award for 2007.
Presented to organizations that encourage safe walking and bicycling in Virginia, the E. Wallace Timmons Award for Pedestrian/Bicycle Safety recognizes the impressive efforts of our patrollers who, last year alone, volunteered approximately 1300 hours, during which they traveled nearly 13,000 miles on the Trail.
The Trail Patrol currently has over 50 active members; demographically, it is robustly diverse. Patrollers traverse the 45-mile-long W&OD on skates, bikes, and by foot, every ready to assist Trail users. Over the past seven years of its history, the Patrol has contributed many thousands of hours finding lost children, fixing flat tires, cleaning skinned knees, providing water, pointing travelers in the right direction, and reporting Trail conditions.
Congratulations, patrollers, Rick, and Norm!
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Norm stands center front, and Rick is to the immediate right
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(Continuing) Call for Photographs
We continue to request that Trail users send along to us (by e-mail attachment) their best photos of the W&OD. Particularly desirable are images of the area under threat of deforestation, that is, the area from Cochran Mill Road east of Leesburg to Route 287 east of Purcellville. Credit for the photo will be given, of course, but the Friends wish to reserve the right both to use the image on the website and to incorporate it into presentations made in opposition to the proposed deforestation.
To see our gallery of images from the Trail, click here.
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An additional source of information concerning the Trail
The W&OD Trail Report, a blogspot sponsored by John Brunow (owner of bikes@vienna, LLC), offers all Trail users an opportunity (to quote from and to paraphrase the recurring page header) "to report what they see during their use of the trail" and to share that thoughtfully with other users. The site's archives also contain a number of fine photos of wildlife and flowers.
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Some reasons not to retrograde the W&OD Trail to a rail corridor:
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•Unlike the mid-19th century when track was first laid down, unlike the subsequent decade of decades -- until the 1960's -- during which the area largely dozed in relative rusticity, the early 21st century finds NOVA in nearly feverish development. Hundreds of homes have been built within a distance of 100 feet or less from the Trail. Were a new rail system to be built at ground level, traffic on the region's nearby roads would worsen considerably because there exist now over 70 at-grade crossings along the W&OD Trail. And, of course, to construct an elevated train through the corridor would cost billions of dollars.
•It is important to recognize that the W&OD Trail is already a transportation corridor. A great number of cyclists and pedestrians use it regularly as a route from home, direct or via Metro, to work or to shopping.
•The W&OD Trail is, above all else, a very popular recreation destination. Between two and three million people use it each year, thus making the W&OD the most -- or perhaps only the second most (after the Minuteman Bikeway in Massachusetts) -- successful rail-trail in the entire country. The Trail also functions as an important greenway for wildlife in our area. It provides food and shelter for birds and animals, both native and migrating, and in this way enhances our lives by providing an increasingly urbanized NOVA with an echo of its more sleepy, sylvan past.
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The Friends continue to offer for sale From Alexandria to the Blue Ridge—The Story of the W&OD Railroad, an hour-long documentary on the history of the W&OD Railroad which became available through the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority in July 2003.
This video and its companion piece, The Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park, will begin running on Arlington Cable channel 71 in mid-March, and each continues to be played regularly on the Herndon Community Access channel (#23, on the Cox Cable system).
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EMF and the W&OD
If you are concerned about the possible effects of all of that electricity surging tsunami-like into the metro area through the wires not so far above your head along much of the Trail, you may be interested -- and relieved -- to read this article reproduced by American Trails a few years ago.
One of our board members does note, however, that EMF does affect certain heart monitors, especially on humid days.
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Continuing to pursue its effort to assist pet owners in their extension of the courtesy of cleaning up after their pets, FOWOD now has in place along the Trail four "mutt mitt" stations:
We hope to continue to increase the number of stations along the course of the Trail. You may guide us in the selection of new locations by e-mailing your suggestions to the Trail managers.
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Brief film clips (roughly half a century old) of trains running on the W&OD are now available for viewing/downloading.
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One of the earliest signs of the arrival of spring on the Trail is the shrill chorus of the spring peepers. Click here for an explanation of the frog's scientific name and a brief note on the German count who composed the world's first detailed description of the amphibian.
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Some background on, and an appreciation of, the Vienna Mural Project
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Click here for a chart including the elevations and GPS co-ordinates of all of the mileage markers along the W&OD trail
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