The City of Alexandria's plan to use natural channel restoration on Taylor Run has drawn a significant amount of concern from environmentally-conscious residents — and they're showing up with money.
The Environmental Council of Alexandria has been leading the charge to stop Alexandria officials from proceeding with a controversial method of restoring the run's channel to slow pollution and erosion.
Alexandria officials say that based on feedback, they have adjusted the plans to avoid disturbance to the wetlands, an acidic seepage swamp located along the stream, and address other concerns. They plan to plant hundreds of native trees to replace those that are dead or will be affected by the project.
Now, the City has accepted the Environmental Council of Alexandria's offer to bring in an independent scientist with significant channel restoration experience. But the Environmental Council of Alexandria has to pay for that.
A GoFundMe to do that has raised more than $5,100 of its $6,000 goal, as of Sunday night, a portion of which would pay for the scientist's travel and time. Andrew Macdonald, president of the Environmental Council of Alexandria, is leading the GoFundMe.
"The city is using your tax dollars to pay for high-priced consultants, while we have to pay out of our own pockets to hire independent experts for a balanced assessment of the project. We have no choice if we want to keep the bulldozers out of Chinquapin Park and protect its fragile ecosystem," wrote Vineeta Anand, a board member of the group.
The Taylor Run project covers about 1,900 feet of stream near the Chinquapin Recreation Center and in Chinquapin and Forest Parks. Natural channel restoration is a way to restore the historic, naturally-occurring path of a waterway before humans and development changed it. However, the use of heavy equipment, the removal of trees and fundamentally changing the draining flow can itself cause damage.
The Taylor Run project and another project at Strawberry Run are both paid for with local stormwater fees and funding from the Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality.
