Suitland Parkway was constructed through a natural valley during World War II to connect the Bolling and Andrews Air Force Bases. It runs through Ward 8 for three miles, from I-295 to the Maryland state line at Southern Avenue. With only two street crossings in between, the parkway effectively divides Ward 8 in half.

Known as a busy commuter route from central Washington to its eastern suburbs, the parkway also happens to be a nature preserve, flanked on each side by over 100 acres of forested hillside. These woods shelter the area’s many hilltop apartment buildings from the noise and pollution of the roadway below. In places, the valley is so narrow and the hills so steep that, viewed from above, the road seems to disappear. Numerous streams and unusual rock outcroppings add interest to the landscape.  

Unlike Ward 8’s other three major wooded areas, which belong to the National Park Service, most of Suitland Parkway is controlled by the District Department of Transportation (DDOT). Not surprisingly, given its “transportation” designation, it has never been managed as a public green space. 

One exception is the George Washington Carver Nature Trail, an easy half-mile loop running through a remarkably secluded and pristine area along the north side of the Parkway near the  Anacostia Community Museum. 

The proposed Suitland Parkway Northside Trail would extend east and west from the Carver Trail for the full 2.4 mile-length of the Parkway.  We hope to build not only this trail but, eventually, a parallel one through the woods on the south side, creating a nearly five-mile loop. This vision has been on hold since 2022 due to DDOT opposition, but the proposed Office of Natural Areas Conservation Establishment Act could breathe life into it. 

The steep hillsides that make Suitland Parkway so striking have also made it the target of decades of illegal dumping. In places where apartment buildings back up to the forest and streets dead-end at the forest’s edge, all manner of household items, furniture, car parts, and construction materials cover the ground. ​Invasive plants like English ivy, bush honeysuckle, multiflora rose and alanthus are rampant, meanwhile, undermining the diversity of native plants and animals found here.

​Since 2018 we have removed more trash from Suitland Parkway than any other area. In 2023 we began extending  that work across Southern Avenue into Prince George’s County, Maryland’s, portions of the Parkway.