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Cinder Bed Road Bikeway -
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Can't get enough pavement in our parks, floodplains and stream valleys? Then here's a plan for much more! In 2021, Friends of Accotink Creek became aware of the revival of proposals to pave the currently untouched Long Branch south stream valley, promoted as fulfillment of the county Comprehensive Plan. This plan seemed to have been buried in 2015, but it has risen to haunt us again. 
This is part of an ongoing pattern of pitting two worthy goals – enhanced non-motorized transportation and habitat preservation - against each other, always choosing the path of least resistance that leads through our dwindling reserve of wooded habitat. Worse in this case is the plan for 24-hour lighting of the path, stressing and disrupting the lives of wildlife large and small. Other county "plans" need to be fulfilled, too, such as the Cheaspeake Bay Protection Ordinance, the Accotink Creek Watershed Plan, and the Fairfax County Tree Plan. All these plans sanguinely assure the preservation of trees and streams while other County, Commonwealth, and private interests continue to clear them away. Why should the environmental preservation mandates of these other plans not take priority? Improved opportunities for bicycle and pedestrian travel are welcome, but the proposed route of the extension means this opportunity would come at the expense of forests and streams. We have plenty of streets that need to be made people-friendly first! The comments by Friends of Accotink Creek to Fairfax County supervisors, below, are a statement of the principles we hope to see applied whenever we are faced with the temptation to take “just one more bite”, to lay just one more burden on our irreplaceable natural heritage.
Let your supervisor know this is not the way to use our natural or financial resources:
Friends of Accotink Creek Transportation Priorities Plan comments 7/22/2025 Concerned citizen's letter 6/18/2025 Nature Forward webinar video 5/6/2025 FFX now article 4/9/2025 ★ Letter from Public Works changes the paradigm! 3/10/2025 Letter from Friends of Accotink Creek 3/6/2025 Joint Letter to Supervisors from Audubon Naturalist Society, Sierra Club Great Falls Group, Audubon Society of Northern Virginia, Friends of Accotink Creek, Virginia Native Plant Society Potowmack Chapter, and Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions Nature Forward blog article Presentation to Amberleigh residents, April 19, 2023 - Slideshow - Video Connection articles on our site visits March 2 2022 - June 24, 2022 Potomac Flier article December 2021 Friends of Accotink Creek Comments to Supervisors Friends of Accotink Creek Additional Comments Friends of Accotink Creek Remarks to EQAC Audubon Society of Northern Virginia Presentation to EQAC Audubon Society of Northern Virginia Comments to Supervisors Catherine Ledec Comments to Supervisors Catherine Ledec Farewell Address to Supervisors Photo essay of observations along the current and proposed routes Alternate on-street routes Aborted 2015 attempt to build this trail Fairfax County Cinder Bed Road Bikeway website A brief evaluation of the proposal from Stormwater Planning Division:
"Of all the paths you take in life, make sure some of them are dirt." - John Muir |
