A group of black environmental leaders from around the world, including several leaders active in the Anacostia River watershed, have published this statement in which they demand an end to the systemic and pervasive racism within the environmental field.

Danielle Burs, chair of the Anacostia Park & Community Collaborative’s Policy Working Group, submitted testimony to the Council of the District of Columbia Committee on Recreation and Youth Affairs Virtual Public Oversight Hearing on the Department of Parks and Recreation.

The Anacostia Park and Community Collaborative has updated it’s meeting schedule for the year, and these meetings have been posted on our calendar of upcoming events.

Mayor Bowser announced that starting this week, the National Park Service (NPS) and the United States Park Police (USPP) will close Beach Drive in Rock Creek Park and roads in Anacostia Park and Fort Dupont Park to vehicle traffic so that residents can access these roads for essential exercise.

With non-essential services shutting down and people staying at home, parks became an obvious destination to get out of the house, get some fresh air, shake off that cabin fever, and relax a little in the face of a crisis while still maintaining “physical distancing” recommendations. Yet at the same time that leaving the house became less encouraged, it suddenly seemed like everyone was going to the park. As the Times reported, “Too many people were socially distancing in the same places, and therefore not at all.”

APACC member organizations have been sharing resources that can support you and other community members during this crisis and we have compiled them here. If you have additions to this page, please email mbochynski [at] cleanwater .org.

The Anacostia Park and Community Collaborative recently hosted a webinar featuring Marianne Krasny, founder of the Cornell University Civic Ecology Lab. The online event introduced the principles of “Civic Ecology,” a practice grounded in the overlap between community development and environmental restoration. You can download the materials from the webinar event and watch a recording of the event.

As roomfuls of professionals discuss plans for the Anacostia River and postulate how restoration of the river and its parks might also help lift up under-served residents, we need to recognize that we are being paid to have those conversations.

The Anacostia Park and Community Collaborative hosted its first meeting of the decade on January 10 at THEARC. Members reviewed our progress in 2019 and brainstormed next steps for our work in 2020. You can download the full meeting notes here, or review a summary below.

The District Department of Energy and Environment has released a Proposed Plan for the cleanup of the sediment at the bottom of the Anacostia River. You can read more background about the project here, and you can download the proposed plan here. There will be meetings on January 23, 27, 29 and February 4.

This is the second part of a series exploring the “return on investment” (ROI) for cleaning up the Anacostia River and improving its parklands in Washington, DC and Maryland. In these articles, I am exploring answers to the question: “what do we get for all the time and money we are collectively spending on restoring the Anacostia River?”