So, maybe 25 years in the future will not yet be the utopian vision of “Star Trek,” but we can move toward a brighter future with the right focus. One only needs to look to the past to see how much positive change can happen in a few decades.
Fifty years ago, the W&OD Trail was just a vision with a mere 1.5-mile-long stretch of asphalt in Falls Church. Today, it is 45 miles long and serves close to 3 million per year. A few years ago, when the regulations were changed to allow electric bikes, William Shatner (Capt. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise) posted his appreciation on social media.
The W&OD Trail is, in many ways, the center of Northern Virginia. In 2021, the future came to the trail as “Dual Trails,” an approach with parallel paths for cyclists and pedestrians.
This new approach was created in the Falls Church section of the trail and serves to improve safety, make a more enjoyable experience, improve traffic flow and improve the environment with stormwater management and pollinator-supporting meadow grasses.
The vision is to replicate this great success in all the urban areas along the trail. By 2050, this will be the norm in Arlington, Falls Church, Vienna, Reston, Herndon and Leesburg. The trail will become more of a pedestrian promenade in these areas, making all of these urban nodes more vital and energized. It will also expand the use of this 45-mile trail for regional carbon-free commuting.
Speaking of carbon… by 2050, our region will be greener. While much-deserved attention is paid to cleaner fuel sources, the other half of the equation that addresses climate change is pulling carbon out of the air (sequestration).
Fortunately, the technology for this has been around for a while; it’s called photosynthesis. That’s right, trees and other plants pull carbon out of the air and store it in their woody matter.
By 2050, parkland will be greatly expanded, and the focus will be on creating forests. People will hike, camp and enjoy these natural environments, but they will be intentional systems to address the causes of climate change. Who will pay for this, you might ask? Corporations will. This will not be solely out of a sense of philanthropy, but because of market forces.
We are still in the early days of natural-resources credits and trades. Currently, wetland banks and stormwater credits promote vegetation to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. There is also an early volunteer carbon-credit system.
In the coming decades, this will be a major change as these systems grow and mature, and companies with a carbon footprint to offset contribute the funds to buy land and plant trees. The result is a cleaner, healthier and truly sustainable environment.
NOVA Parks is working on creating this brighter future today. The 2022-2027 Strategic Plan for NOVA Parks has the agency expanding Dual Trails sections of the W&OD Trail, growing our parkland significantly and working on natural-resources banking to enhance habitat areas and more. Northern Virginia will be a better place in 2050, and by 2350, when Star Fleet moves their headquarters to Tysons, it will be even better!
