Article Text
Fairfax County is battling hundreds of acres of invasive bamboo, but part of that unwanted growth has found a useful destination: the National Zoo, where giant pandas Bao Li and Qing Bao need a steady supply of fresh food.
Bamboo accounts for about 99 percent of a giant panda’s diet. Because it has little nutritional value, pandas spend 10 to 16 hours a day eating and can consume between 26 and 84 pounds daily. They occasionally eat other foods, but bamboo remains their primary meal.
The Fairfax County Park Authority estimates that bamboo covers at least 250 acres across 190 known sites. The agency manages roughly 25,000 of the county’s 31,000 publicly owned acres, giving it a major role in controlling the rapidly spreading plant.
Patricia Greenberg, an ecologist who manages the Park Authority’s new Invasive Plant Management Program, is mapping and prioritizing bamboo patches for removal. The program was established after Fairfax County’s bamboo ordinance took effect Jan. 1, 2023.
Eliminating bamboo from county parkland could take 15 years and cost an estimated $9.25 million. The work is intended both to comply with the ordinance and to protect native trees and other vegetation that invasive bamboo can crowd out.
Officials are ranking sites according to accessibility, the size of the bamboo and its stalks, proximity to homeowner treatment areas, the presence of sensitive or rare natural resources, connections to other invasive-plant projects and social or political considerations. Contractors have begun using lethal removal methods at a small number of locations.
Park Bamboo Becomes Panda Food
While Fairfax County wants bamboo removed, National Zoo keepers need a regular supply of it. Zoo employees spotted a patch covering about 1.5 acres near Dogue Creek in Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria and received a park-use permit to harvest it.
Workers now cut stalks there several times a week to help feed Bao Li and Qing Bao. Other zoo animals also eat the fibrous plant, so the harvest may support more than the pandas. The permit remains valid through the end of 2025.
Greenberg said the arrangement is a significant help because it removes plant material from the park. Park Authority Executive Director Jai Cole described the partnership as a sustainable way to dispose of unwanted bamboo while providing essential nutrition for the zoo’s popular pandas.
Not every bamboo species or growing location is equally suitable for harvesting. Growing conditions and the pandas’ preferences will help determine whether the partnership can expand. Park Authority Planning Director Torsha Bhattacharya called the arrangement a “two-for”: Fairfax eradicates bamboo while the zoo turns it into panda food.
Property Owners Must Contain Running Bamboo
Growing bamboo is not prohibited in Fairfax County, but property owners must prevent running bamboo from spreading into a public right-of-way or onto neighboring property.
Owners who receive a notice of violation and fail to comply can face a civil penalty of $50 for every day the bamboo remains uncontained, up to $2,000 within a 12-month period. The containment requirement has become an increasing concern for homeowners, homeowners associations and faith communities.