At the May 13, 2025 Fairfax City Council meeting residents near the proposed George Snyder Trail sought to defeat the project, complaining that they cannot endure the loss of any more trees in their neighborhood on the heels of tree loss from an ongoing stream restoration project.

     The Stafford Drive Stream Restoration Project has residents near the proposed George Snyder Trail upset Stream Project. Over 90 years ago the area of the project was farmland. As time went on, trees grew there, and the Accotink Creek meandered through the forest. However, the stream banks have become eroded to the point that once healthy trees are falling into the stream, and the stream has lost its capacity to filter out sediment and pollutants which are now passed on downstream to the Chesapeake Bay. To remedy this the City of Fairfax launched a restoration project this spring. However, to accomplish this task trees have had to be removed to widen the bank. The good new was that through site work with the city arborist leading to engineering modifications 82 fewer trees had to be removed than had been anticipated.  By the time the project is completed in the fall 1,400 new trees, 1,200 shrubs, and 4,600 herbaceous plants will have been planted.  The video of the completed project shows the nicely landscaped stream bed. Video

    The Snyder Trail project has been designed to mitigate tree loss, and trees lost will be replaced with native trees.