We couldn’t agree more with Elizabeth Fribush’s Sept. 13 letter, “Making a climate change,” concerning the importance of retaining trees, especially mature ones. We all know how trees preserve the environment, fight global warming, control soil erosion, maintain an environment rich in the beauties of nature, etc. So why, oh why, does Fairfax County continue to approve the destruction of perfectly beautiful mature trees and undergrowth for the sake of widening some virtually unused roads?
We’re speaking about Hickory Hollow Lane in Oakton.
This is a lovely, 70-year-old, single-lane gravel road in a parklike setting nestled among trees, within a Resource Protection Area (RPA). This road is frequented not by cars but by dog walkers, hikers, bikers, birders, nature lovers, Madison and Oakton high school cross-country teams, et al. There has never been a car accident on this road. It serves only two residences, including ours.
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A culvert on the road needs replacement, but the county has decided to also pave and triple the width of the road, and, in doing so, is taking down scores of mature trees. The county claims that road-building can ignore the RPA, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly’s Tree Action Plan and many other environment-protective legislated policies. County engineers have refused to find a way to fix the culvert without destroying the road and are going against county and environmental policy.
This egotism is hurting the environment, county residents and taxpayers. Ms. Fribush nailed it.
John and Donna Repetski, Oakton
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