City Presenting Taylor Run Stream Restoration Update at Virtual Meeting

The city will conduct a virtual presentation on the Taylor Run stream restoration on Tuesday, September 29, as a local group has launched a GoFundMe campaign to hire independent experts to review the city’s plan.

The Environmental Council of Alexandria is led by former Vice Mayor Andrew Macdonald and calls the stream a “natural gem.” The group states that 269 native trees will be cut down and that the proposed plan will destroy adjacent wetlands.

While the city says that the project is intended to reduce erosion and clear deadwood, ECA says that the plan will “result in the loss of hundreds of native plants and trees and not provide significant improvement in water quality in the Potomac and the Chesapeake Bay.”

The meeting starts at 7 p.m.

The GoFundMe campaign has raised $1,050 out of a $5,000 goal, and the group recently published a letter to the editor with the Alexandria Gazette Packet. ECA also conducted tours of the stream, which is located near Chinquapin Park and T.C. Williams High School.

The city says that 22% of the 269 trees are already dead.

“The City anticipates re-planting 2,280 trees for this stream restoration including oaks, maples, dogwoods, and sycamores,” according to the City’s stream restoration page. “An additional 7,200 shrubs are expected to be planted which include buttonbush, winterberry, and spicebush.”

Construction is expected to start in mid-to-late 2021.