Act Now to save our parks from budget cuts!

Fairfax County’s County Executive is currently drafting a budget proposal for the Board to consider. Your voice can make a real difference for our parks!

Why your voice is so important right now:
Numerous residents, along with Nature Forward, as part of the Fairfax Parks Coalition with Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN), and Friends of Holmes Run, have been advocating in support of park funding for the past three years. Parks have consistently seen small gains, but the upcoming budget threatens to roll back those gains.

Why submit comments now?
Fairfax County Executive Bryan Hill is asking all county departments to cut their budgets by 10%. Here’s the concern for parks: When you consider that the current Park Authority budget is less than 1% of the County budget, slashing already thin park funding by 10% would have devastating impacts. Let’s get ahead of this. As a concerned resident and parks user, our parks are depending on you to please speak up as soon as you can!

What do parks mean to you?
Cuts are being proposed for:

• Forest management
• Trail maintenance
• Eliminating an ecologist position
• Shutting down a nature center
• Closing Scott’s Run Nature Preserve parking lot (essentially closing this park)
• Cutting back on athletic field mowing, athletic court maintenance, and general park maintenance

You can see the full list here (on page 99), but you already get the idea. These would be major setbacks for our local parks and those who cherish them. Tell County Executive Hill to help, not hurt our parks!

Here’s what our parks need:

Be part of a tidal wave of support for our parks. Your contribution to this effort can be as simple as sending a quick email.

• Send an email – short and to-the-point!
  • Declaring your strong support for funding our parks is what matters most!
• Tell County Executive Hill why parks are personally important to you.