Our Partners for Sustainable Communities

Our Partners for Sustainable Communities


Many individuals and organizations are working with the National Park Service to make sustainability a reality. Talented, knowledgeable, dedicated leaders are partnering with us to prevent pollution, restore native vegetation, monitor water quality, and use sustainable building practices. Our partnerships with local and regional governments, private companies and federal agencies are making a real difference in our parks and communities.

Each year, NPS works with the Alice Ferguson Foundation on the Potomac River Watershed Cleanup. Typically three thousand volunteers fourteen public agencies and private organizations and over one hundred non-profit and citizen associations pull 40 tons of trash from the Potomac and its tributaries. In 2001 the cleanup target 110 sites and removed 679 tires, a treadmill, plastic bottles, and nearly 2,000 rubber balls--among other interesting finds, from the river.

In Northern Virginia NPS worked with the Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment, the Alexandria Seaport Foundation, Arlington County, the Friends of Four Mile Run, the Friends of the Potomac, and others used a workshop to develop a community action-plan for how to restore Four Mile Run watershed. Workshop attendees saw a preview of a new movie "Run Four Mile, Run", learned about ways that communities can deal with urbanization, stormwater flows, stream bank erosion, and made suggestions for restoration projects.

NPS and the Electric Vehicles Association of the Americas co-sponsored a forum on "National Parks & Electric Vehicles" at Rock Creek Park. More than one hundred NPS, and other government, employees listened to presentations on the use of alternative-fuel vehicles, test drove vehicles and helped to develop an action plan to increase the use of electric vehicles in our parks. Rock Creek Park received a national "Local Hero Award" from the Association.

NPS worked with the National Park Foundation to secure a donation of ten mountain bikes from Mercedes Benz. The mountain bikes are being used by the U.S. Park Police, C&O Canal National Historic Park, Antietam & Monocacy National Battlefield, Harpers Ferry National Historic Park, and Manassas National Battlefield.

The Nature Conservancy and the NPS are collaborating on the Potomac Gorge Site Conservation Plan focusing on a segment of the Potomac from Bear Island to Key Bridge. The partnership identify unique plants, animals and habitats, analyzed threats to the gorge and agreed on strategies to work with landowners, manage recreation use, restore native vegetation, and reduce pollution.

The Green Marina Initiative is a partnership between the District of Columbia, NPS, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Green Marina Workgroup, private industry, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It promotes and recognizes the voluntary adoption of measures to reduce waste and prevent pollution from marinas, boatyards and recreational boats along the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers in Washington, DC.

The NPS is working with the US Environmental Protection Agency's Office of International Activities and the Glynwood Center on a Potomac Urban Watershed Management Exchange Program. The Exchange is a collaborative effort between the U.S. and Germany to exchange technical information and experiences in urban watershed management. A team of Potomac leaders will visit Germany to meet with their counterparts and then look for ways to apply what they learned in the metropolitan region.

The Washington Metropolitan Council of Governments and NPS are partnering on a "Green Infrastructure Demonstration Project" to recognize the public values and services that waterways, wetlands, woodlands, wildlife habitats, greenways and parks to the public and the region's quality of life. The project is developing a green infrastructure map of the Washington metropolitan region, holding technical forums to share approaches for identifying, protecting and restoring green infrastructure, and sharing local "best management practices".

The Potomac Conservancy has worked with the NPS, the State of Maryland, Commonwealth of Virginia and the District of Columbia on an educational campaign to encourage sustainable fishing practices. The partnership has developed bi-lingual educational materials to promote "low-impact" fishing and river conservation as a way to counter illegal fishing, littering, fires and alcohol use.


The Alice Ferguson Foundation, NPS parks, other federal agencies, elementary schools, universities, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Student Conservation Association, work with NPS on "Bridging the Watershed". The partnership offers high school students in Washington, DC metro area, and opportunities to study real world science in national parks. The effort promotes national parks as learning laboratories and provides students with multidisciplinary learning modules related to resources and issues of the Potomac River watershed.


Contact Information

Alexandria Seaport Foundation
Phone: (703)549-7078
Web/ E-mail: ASFOffice@aol.com

Alice Ferguson Foundation
Phone: (301)292-6665
Web/ E-mail: www.fergesonfoundation.org

Arlington County, Virginia, Environmental Planning Office Phone: (703) 228-3610
Web/ E-mail: www.co.arlington.va.us/

Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment
Phone: (703) 228-6427
Web/ E-mail: www.arlingtonenvironment.org

Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Phone: (301) 261-1131
Web/ E-mail: www.cbf.org

Chesapeake Bay Trust
Phone: (410) 974-2941
Web/ E-mail: www.chesapeakebaytrust.org

City of Alexandria, Virginia, Division of Environmental Quality
Phone: (703) 519-3400, Ext. 166
Web/ E-mail: www.ci.alexandria.va.us

City of Falls Church, Virginia
Phone: The web-site isn't accessible today.
Web/ E-mail: www.ci.fallschurch,va.us/

Commonwealth of Virginia, Department of Environmental Quality, Richmond, Virginia
Phone: (804) 698-4113
Web/ E-mail: www.deq.state.va.us/regions/

District of Columbia, Department of Health
Phone: (202) 442-5999
Web/ E-mail: www.dchealth.com

Electric Vehicle Association of the Americas
Phone: (202) 508-5995
Web/ E-mail: www.evaa.org

Fairfax County, Virginia, Department of Urban Forestry
Phone: Not available
Web/ E-mail: www.co.fairfax.va.us/

Fairfax Tree Commission--I don't have this one. Perhaps Mike has it.

Fairfax ReLeaf
Phone: (703) 324-1409
Web/ E-mail: www.geocities.com

Friends of Dunbarton and Montrose Park--Perhaps Mike

Friends of Four Mile Run
Phone: (703) 503-9462
Web/ E-mail: www.erols.com/wayes/friends

Friends of the Potomac
Phone: (202) 467-4000
Web/ E-mail: www.potomacfriends.org

Glynwood Center, New York
Phone: (845) 265-3338
Web/ E-mail: www.glynwood.org

Green Marina Advisory Group, District of Columbia
Phone: (202) 535-2305
Web/ E-mail: None

Maryland Department of the Environment
Phone: 410-631-3906
Web/E-mail: www.mde.state.md.us

Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, District of Columbia, Department of Environmental Programs
Phone: (202) 962-3393
Web/ E-mail: www.mwcog.org

National Park Foundation, Greater Washington National
Parks Fund
Phone: (202) 238-4170
Web/ E-mail: www.nationalparks.org

The Nature Conservancy
Phone: (800) 628-6860
Web/ E-mail: http://nature.org

Northern Virginia Regional Commission
Phone: (703) 642-0700
Web/ E-mail: www.novaregion.org

1000 Friends of Alexandria
Phone: None listed
Web/ E-mail: www.civicalexandria.com

Potomac Conservancy
Phone: (703) 276-2777
Web/ E-mail: www.potomac.org/index.html

U.S. Coast Guard, National Response Center
Phone: (800) 424-8802
Web/ E-mail: www.uscg.mil

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region III, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Phone: (215) 814-5000
Web/ E-mal: www.epa.gov

Virginia Native Plant Society
Phone: (540) 837-1600
Web/ E-mail: www.nps.org