For the second time in less than a month, residents of Mason Neck have a lot to be excited. Last month, ground was broken for the Mason Neck Trail. This month, after speeches were made and two Memorandum of Understandings were signed (one between Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Friends of Meadowood and one between BLM and the Mason Neck Horse Coalition), the Meadowood Special Recreation Area on Mason Neck opened to the public.
This was followed by the uncovering of the Wood Thrush Trail sign by Gladys Bushrod, a 94-year old neighbor who lives abutting Meadowood just across the street from the fire house.
As part of the festivities, Andie Leonard and Marilyn Hildebeidel worked with 30 school children putting up bluebird houses, and Jim Waggener, Harry Glasgow and Larry Underwood led groups around the trail.
"The high point of the whole day came when Andie and Gary reported that shortly almost immediately after putting up one of the houses; a bluebird perched on it to check it out. Talk about housing demand in the Washington Area," said Joe Chudzik, who was instrumental in cleaning up Meadowood before the opening ceremonies.
A TOTAL OF 41 volunteers worked over the weekend to clean up trash from a section now called Meadowood on Mason Neck; a Special Recreation Management Area (SMRA) with parkland and trails designated by The U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
Chudzik arranged and conducted the cleanup of the extension of Gunston Drive in Meadowood West. In three days, more than 300 tires were removed from the property, and enough junk to fill about three large trucks was piled up near the paved road.
Some of the junk included 140 bags of litter; tons of scrap metal; major appliances; steel tanks; mattress springs; car seats; an engine block; and truckloads of other debris. A few of the volunteers used their pickup trucks to bring many loads of tires and junk out to the pile.
The clean-up project was organized by the Friends of Meadowood with the Mason Neck Lions Club providing logistics support and refreshments.
Volunteers from the following organizations participated: Bureau of Land Management; Gunston-Wiley Citizen's Association; Friends of Meadowood; Mason Neck Lions Club; Virginia Control Line Modelers; and the Fairfax County Sheriff's Inmate Work Program.
Fairfax County Division of Solid Waste Management arranged to remove the collected trash to the Waste to Energy Recovery Facility at the I-95 landfill for proper disposal. Tires will be shredded and the scrap metal will go to Davis Metal Industries for recycling.