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Dominion Energy plans to remove 19 hazardous trees along a 2.7-mile section of the Washington & Old Dominion Trail near Reston, part of a new round of vegetation work expected to begin Jan. 20.
The work will extend from Dominion’s Hunter Mill Road substation in Wolf Trap to its Reston substation on Sunset Hills Road. It is expected to take approximately two to three months.
Amanda Keyes, Dominion Electric Transmission forestry manager, described the marked trees as dead, dying, diseased or otherwise structurally unsound. In a Dec. 16 letter to NOVA Parks Executive Director Justin Wilson, she said they could threaten both high-voltage transmission lines and trail users if they fell.
Dominion also plans to prune trees near transmission lines and substations and clear tall brush it considers undesirable from its right of way. Residents near the project area were set to receive mailed postcards early in the month, and signs will be posted along the trail.
NOVA Parks, which owns and manages the W&OD Trail, participated in planning the work. Dominion officials walked the trail with agency representatives in December, and NOVA Parks communications director Kelly Gilfillen confirmed the agency’s involvement.
The selective approach follows controversy over Dominion’s extensive tree clearing between the Clark substation in Vienna and the Idylwood substation in Dunn Loring. That work, completed alongside a new transmission-line project, drew criticism from residents, elected officials and NOVA Parks.
Dominion now plans targeted removal of invasive plants that spread along the Vienna section after the clearing. The utility also recently replanted affected areas in Vienna and Dunn Loring with pollinator meadows and low-growing native trees and shrubs. Approval delays involving several Town of Vienna sites extended that restoration effort slightly, though it was expected to finish before Christmas.
Dominion spokesperson Aisha Khan said the more recent maintenance—including the planned Reston removals—has not been extensive enough to require native-plant restoration under a draft agreement being negotiated with NOVA Parks.
The proposed memorandum of understanding would replace a voluntary vegetation-management agreement dating to 2005. That earlier deal generally limited cutting to trees directly at risk of interfering with power lines, typically those reaching at least 15 feet, and called for replacing removed trees.
Dominion withdrew from the agreement in fall 2024 after NOVA Parks challenged the scope of the Vienna and Dunn Loring clearing. The utility agreed in March 2025 to reconsider its W&OD Trail maintenance plans and began negotiating a new long-term arrangement. NOVA Parks submitted an initial draft on April 25.
Khan said the new agreement was expected to be finalized in January.