Response to Sept. 26 Taylor Run story

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Response to Sept. 26 Taylor Run story
(Graphic/Jessica Kim)
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To the editor:

The “City, residents reach consensus on Taylor Run” article in the Sept. 25 issue of the Alexandria Times illustrates the serious disconnect between public administration officials and natural resource management staff charged with native biodiversity conservation and stewardship in Alexandria. Both groups are taxpayer funded, but all too often the natural resource professionals are stymied from performing the duties of their jobs. It doesn’t have to be this way.

More than two decades ago up to, say, early 2017 when high-density development became the singular focus in Alexandria, some highlights and accomplishments of the Natural Lands Management office I headed in Alexandria were: Natural Resources Management Plan, Native Vascular Flora of the City of Alexandria, Geologic Atlas of the City of Alexandria and Vicinity, and numerous technical reports, professional papers and best practices. All of these are science-based, peer-reviewed planning tools for long-term conservation and quality stewardship of Alexandria’s rapidly dwindling natural resources.

Unfortunately, much of this is often seen as an inconvenient truth and liability by senior management and elected officials who, in turn, selectively suppress the information in attempts to keep it from impacting their agendas. Ethical standards and adherence to scientific and professional integrity come into play at this point, compelling public servants to act as whistleblowers as a stop-loss.

For example, it should be noted that all the stream bank soil samples for Alexandria’s three stream projects referenced in the above article were collected in my capacity as a private citizen and not in my official role as City Natural Resource Manager, because such activities were forbidden in that capacity. Here, we have an example, among many, of Alexandria taxpayers funding and expecting such duties for many years but only realizing them from a pro-bono source and not appropriately from the budget-allocated job position.

The city clearly doesn’t want to uphold its own environmental policies, initiatives and best practices, let alone support and empower its formerly threadbare, now nonexistent environmental staff.

Currently, there is no natural resource manager, Natural Lands Management section or science-based regional leaders as there once were in Alexandria. Yet, unchecked, high-density development continues to spread throughout the city, exacerbating existential climate change impacts, degrading water resources, wetlands and forested stream valleys and decimating native wildlife and biodiversity.

The answer is not merely repopulating a decimated natural resource management staff, all of whom have left the city in the past two years. Now, the management of the city’s community garden plots is a core duty of the natural resource manager position.

The city should allow environmental staff to perform their jobs, as stated in official job descriptions, unencumbered by the whims of elected officials and senior management.

-Rod Simmons, retired City of Alexandria Natural Resource Manager, Alexandria

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