On Wednesday, Jan. 9, the county, while advertising the public meeting on the proposed Blake Lane elementary school to be built in Oakton, described the site as undeveloped, which certainly carries a different connotation then either of the more accurate terms – park, or open space. Undeveloped implies not utilized. Blake Lane Park is anything but unused. The park is usually filled with people playing soccer, flying kites, walking dogs, meeting neighbors, and is the lynchpin of the surrounding community. The park is also a designated Invasive Management Area site (IMA), and hundreds of volunteers have worked there pulling invasive plants and creating a more viable ecosystem. The Girl Scouts have planted a pollinator garden to help our disappearing bees, butterflies and other insects. The county may still want a school there, but at the very least, they should acknowledge what they are destroying.
Jennifer Pradas
IMA site leader Blake Lane Park