Natural Resources of The Regional Park
Most of the landscaping in the park is left in a natural state to preserve green space and to provide wildlife habitat. Some natural areas within the park are contiguous to larger natural areas in adjacent public parks, including those in and around the Sparrow Pond wetland, Brandymore Castle and Four Mile Run in Arlington, Piney Branch and Difficult Run in Fairfax County, and the confluence of Goose Creek and Sycolin Creek in Loudoun County.
Park interpreters, local teachers, environmental groups and amateur naturalists use the park as a resource for plant and animal study. These groups have identified approximately 450 species of wildflowers and more than 100 species of birds in the park. Wildlife in the park includes mammals such as foxes, river otters and beavers, and reptiles such as turtles and snakes. A variety of hawks and owls and other resident, non-resident and migratory birds, both upland and aquatic, find habitat in the park.
Read more about this topic: Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park
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—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“The great object of Education should be commensurate with the object of life. It should be a moral one; to teach self-trust: to inspire the youthful man with an interest in himself; with a curiosity touching his own nature; to acquaint him with the resources of his mind, and to teach him that there is all his strength, and to inflame him with a piety towards the Grand Mind in which he lives. Thus would education conspire with the Divine Providence.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The park is filled with night and fog,
The veils are drawn about the world,”
—Sara Teasdale (1884–1933)