About two dozen local residents took a walk Saturday morning through Bull Run Regional Park to admire the largest stand of bluebells on the East Coast in full bloom.
But if the Centreville alternative for the planned Tri-County Parkway is approved, these delicate flowers and their surroundings will eventually be decimated — paved over by a six-lane highway.
"We've been trying to tell people, 'Let's stop this madness,'" said Dan Cruz, president of the Gate Post Estates Homeowners Association. "There really isn't a need for this road — and especially for it to go through something as beautiful, unspoiled and serene as this."
The Tri-County Parkway is proposed to link Prince William, Fairfax and Loudoun counties, improving traffic flow while reducing congestion. But its roughly 10-mile alignment through Fairfax County goes south of Route 29 in Centreville, takes a nearly 90-degree jag eastward and then turns south again to bisect Bull Run Regional Park and the residential area along Bull Run Post Office Road north.
Nicola Wood, Northern Virginia organizer for the Coalition for Smarter Growth — which arranged Saturday's event — called the parkway idea a "controversial proposal to build a massive, north-south highway." But, she added, "Experts say that traffic in the next 20 years will be moving east-west, not north-south."
Instead of bisecting this park with a major thoroughfare, she said, "We need to better manage growth and protect our natural resources. We need to upgrade I-66, upgrade Route 28 near Dulles Airport and have rail to Centreville — not an Outer Beltway.
WOOD'S GROUP believes the highway's construction through Bull Run park would not only destroy the bluebells and other natural resources, but would also cause "added noise, loss of open space near homes and increased traffic for residents, [while opening up] more land for sprawling development in Loudoun and Prince William counties."
Bluebell expert Nicky Staunton, with the Virginia Native Plant Society, said bluebells are "spring ephemerals" — blooming for just four weeks, each April, and returning the following spring. "They'll be back again next April — if the road isn't here," she said. "But destroy their habitat, and you remove the species."
She said Bull Run's stand is unique because of its density and noted that the flowers support butterflies and wildlife. After a week of commuting, said Staunton, people need recreation without traffic, and families need some green space where they can relax and enjoy nature.
Furthermore, she said, "Bull Run Regional Park is a watershed. The vegetation along Bull Run is the final, natural-filtration system before runoff water reaches Bull Run on its way to the Chesapeake Bay."
Staunton said the parkway would "fragment the land, causing major problems for species survival. It will bring undesirable, through-truck traffic near homes, increasing smog, and will decimate important natural systems — such as the floodplain forests — that should be supported, not destroyed."
SHE SAID IT would ruin the struggling riparian banks of the waterways, and the cars and trucks traveling through the wildlife area would stress and kill the mammals, birds, insects, amphibians and reptiles there. And, said Staunton, the road would "infringe on the right of nearby homeowners for the peaceful use of their land."
Lorelei Pagano of Gate Post Estates said the parkway would also cause local residents to lose some of Bull Run park's equestrian and hiking trails, historical sites and recreation uses. Instead of "robbing future generations of peaceful places," she said, "why aren't road improvements, better public transportation, lane controls and smarter road designs all better alternatives to paving over undeveloped lands?"
She said improving quality of life isn't just about cutting commuting times, but also about preserving and enhancing what people value. "For me, the most frustrating aspect of this road is that it seems so unnecessary," said Pagano.
"VIRGINIANS consistently express their desire and willingness to pay for the preservation of parklands, yet our public officials seem not to hear," she explained. "The officials give incentives to developers to save small snippets of green space within their developments, yet seem to eagerly offer public lands to build more roads to facilitate more and more development."
The result, said Pagano, is a never-ending cycle of added roads and development. "Instead of developing a sense of community in this area, our officials have planned a thoroughfare through our park," she said. "We have missed so many opportunities to make this area a better place. Let's ensure we don't waste this opportunity to preserve and protect Bull Run Regional Park."
Basically, said Fairfax Station's Sue Wakefield, "This is a dumb place for a road. These flowers are so pretty, people should come see them." Added her husband Jim: "There's so little public land. It's a shame to put a road through such a resource."