Audubon At Home in Northern Virginia THE NATURE OF CHANGE Preserving the Natural Heritage of a Dynamic Region Audubon At Home in Northern Virginia — The Nature of Change : Preserving the Natural Heritage of a Dynamic Region Copyright ©2005 by National Audubon Society, Inc. and The Audubon Society of Northern Virginia. All rights reserved. The Audubon Society of Northern Virginia 4022 Hummer Road Annandale, VA 22003 Telephone: (703) 256-6895 Fax: (703) 256-2060 Email:
[email protected] www.asnv.org Audubon At Home in Northern Virginia www.audubonathomenva.org Front cover photos, clockwise from top left: Mouth of Marumsco Creek (J. WAGGENER); Bald Eagle (K. MUNROE); Butterfly class, Meadowlark Gardens (J. WAGGENER); New residential street (J. WAGGENER); Manassas Battlefield Park (ASNV / L. STEPHENS); Young fox (J. WAGGENER) Back cover photo: J. WAGGENER J. WAGGENER J. Preface This book is concerned with Northern Virginia and a natural environment that seems destined to become more and more unnatural. Happily, it is also about people who are taking steps, large and small, to reverse this trend. That Northern Virginia is known as one of the fastest growing regions in the nation isn’t news to anyone who has lived or visited here in the past few decades. A swelling population and changing landscape of spreading suburbs, satellite cities and ever expanding highways, the daily increase in traffic and seemingly insoluble issues of air and water quality — it might be thought that this is the true “nature” of life in Northern Virginia. We’re fortunate it is not, at least not yet. Even in the midst of such rapid, widespread change, there are places where remnants of this region’s natural heritage persist and places that determined people are making hospitable again to native wildlife.