4MR Park Tree Mulching & Clean-up: Tuesday, November 11th!

The 4MR Park Tree Planting Plan

Bring work gloves and what ever shovels and rakes you have handy to Four Mile Run Park on the morning of Veterans Day. We're prepping over a dozen newly planted trees for winter. 

Where: 
Meet at the cul-de-sac
Edison Street
Alexandria, VA 22305

Contact: 
Kevin Beekman, kevin.beekman@arlandria.org
703.822.5741

(Please RSVP to the 4MR Park Event on Facebook or at the email above to help us prepare).

Over the past summer, in conjunction with the citizen-run Four Mile Run Farmers & Artisans Market, the City of Alexandria launched its first-ever crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to kick-start the recently adopted Four Mile Run Park Improvement Plan by planting new trees in the park. Citizens responded with contributions large and small by donating tax-deductibly via the crowd-funding website.

With the arrival of tree planting season, over a dozen new trees were planted Thursday in the portion of Four Mile Run Park along the Mark Drive alleyway. A community mulching and park cleaning day is planned for the morning of Veterans Day, November 11th at 9am to prepare the trees for winter.

The 4MR Park Community Fall Tree Planting is a community initiative together with the City of Alexandria's Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities and funded in part by the Four Mile Run Farmers & Artisans Market and Action Alexandria who each awarded $1,000 to the project. Citizens contributed another $1,000 that the City was able to further combine with tree donations from other sources in order to advance the project. 

The 4MR Park Tree Planting is a continuation of the work begun over the last few years by a group of community volunteers in the Arlandria neighborhood who came together to perform various improvement projects in and around Four Mile Run Park to complement the work of the Four Mile Run Restoration Plan and the new Four Mile Run Park Improvement Plan. The projects include: the Four Mile Run Farmers & Artisans Market, the Four Mile Run Park Expansion, Commonwealth Park (the rehabilitation of a former electrical substation at 3550 Commonwealth Avenue) and a large tree planting last fall. All of these activities have been documented here on The Arlandrian (www.arlandria.org).

The new alley of trees along the edge of Four Mile Run Park

“A group of folks in the community have been engaged with stream mitigation work, park improvements and stream cleanups for a number of years and the farmers market we started was an outgrowth of that,” says organizer Kevin Beekman. “Money we raise at the market from t-shirt sales and market vendor fees typically amounts to around $1,000 a year. We always donate all proceeds to the City for the park, but this year we’re leveraging the funds to attract more grants and donations.”