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Natural Resources Metrics

Natural resources such as trees, wetlands, streams, farms, and parks enhance our community’s quality of life, health, and aesthetic beauty. Natural resources also help us mitigate climate change and improve resilience to climatic hazards. The Community-wide Energy and Climate Action Plan (CECAP) includes one strategy dedicated to natural resources preservation and restoration, with a sector-based goal to increase tree canopy throughout the county. Resilient Fairfax has one of the four pillars devoted to the role of natural resources in promoting resilience.

This page highlights natural resource sector specific metrics for progress in implementing both CECAP and Resilient Fairfax, along with general statistics about natural resources in Fairfax County. For more information and a list of partner agencies, please see the Natural Resources topic page.

General Natural Resources Statistics

The existing forest and neighborhood trees in Fairfax County cover 55% of the county's land area.
Fairfax County is also home to over 68 square miles of parkland, including both county and non-county parks. Fairfax County Park Authority manages roughly 23,884 acres (over 37 square miles) across 424 parks.
According to the Trees Community of Practice survey, 16,000 trees were planted in FY 2024.

Use our Interactive Climate Action Viewer to view where these resources are located in Fairfax County. You can view county and non-county parks and tree cover by census tracts for the whole county. If you zoom in, you can also view tree canopy in specific neighborhoods.

EMISSIONS REDUCTION METRICS FOR NATURAL RESOURCES

Tree Canopy in Fairfax County

Trees help to mitigate climate change by absorbing (sequestering) carbon dioxide (CO2) and other pollutants. Fairfax County’s existing trees sequester approximately half a million metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year, or about 5% of the annual greenhouse gas emissions in Fairfax County. Trees also provide other climate benefits. For example, trees that shade our buildings reduce the amount of fossil-fuel based power we use for air conditioning.

The CECAP goal for the Natural Resources is to expand the tree canopy (from 55%) to 60% with a minimum of 40% tree canopy coverage in every census tract* by 2030 and a minimum of 50% tree canopy coverage in every census tract by 2050, prioritizing areas of highest socioeconomic need first. This goal accounts for 2.4% of the emissions reduction needed to meet the CECAP goal. (*Note: While this CECAP sector goal refers to census “blocks,” the county’s socioeconomic data are analyzed at the larger census “tract” or census “block group” level.)

COMMUNITY (CECAP) GOAL: Expand tree canopy to 60% coverage overall in the county by 2030

COMMUNITY (CECAP) GOAL: 100% of Census Tracts have at least 40% canopy by 2030

COMMUNITY (CECAP) PROGRESS TO DATE: Currently, approximately 55% of the land area in Fairfax County is covered in tree canopy. There are many tree-planting programs that are working towards increasing this coverage. Preservation of existing tree canopy is also important in reaching this goal. Tree canopy coverage varies across the county, with some areas being urbanized and other areas forested. Therefore, tracking progress at the census track level helps prioritizing and promote tree preservation and planting programs. Currently, 65.7% of census tracts are meeting the goal of having 40% tree canopy by 2030. This decrease from the previously reported value is due to changes in measurement methodology using the same data.

In alignment with One Fairfax, tree plantings are prioritized in census tracts that have high socioeconomic need and inadequate tree canopy. More information on trees in Fairfax County can be found on Fairfax County's Urban and Community Forestry page.

RESILIENCE METRICS FOR NATURAL RESOURCES

Resilience Benefits of Natural Resources

Natural resources also help us adapt to the effects of climate change and boost our climate resilience by absorbing floodwater, reducing storm-related erosion, and reducing urban heat island effects.

For example, Fairfax County’s existing trees are estimated to intercept 7.3 billion gallons of rainfall per year, helping us to avoid 945 million gallons of stormwater runoff, and saving us $8.4 million in stormwater mitigation, according to iTree. Trees also greatly reduce the Urban Heat Island effect, keeping our communities cooler during extreme heat. Similarly, healthy wetlands and living shorelines help to absorb storm surge and other types of flooding.

The Resilient Fairfax Plan includes several strategies to protect and restore natural resources for climate resilience purposes. These strategies include protection of sensitive land, tree plantings and reforestation, green infrastructure, living shorelines, wetland and floodplain restorations, stream restoration, regenerative agriculture, and more.

Tree Planting in Urban Heat Islands

The figure below shows Fairfax County Government, Public Schools, and Parks sites where trees were planted in 2023 and 2024. Each tree icon on this map represents one site. Each site received multiple tree plantings. For example, 46 trees were planted at Lincolnia Senior Center. The tree planting sites are overlaid on a map of Urban Heat Islands in the county. The Urban Heat Island base layer is based on NASA satellite temperature measurements from the hottest month of the year (June, July, August) averaged over multiple years (2013-2020). Temperatures are land surface temperatures, which are not equivalent to air temperatures. Planting trees helps reduce the Urban Heat Island effect, so UHIs are one consideration for tree planting locations.

Vulnerabilities of Natural Resources

To get these benefits from our natural resources, they need to be protected and made more resilient. Natural resources are themselves vulnerable to the effects of climate change. They are often severely damaged or weakened by severe storms, heat waves, and flooding.

A summary of these vulnerabilities to natural resources can be found in the table below. These vulnerability scores are based on a combination of exposure (how exposed is the resource to the hazard, and is the hazard increasing or decreasing?), sensitivity (is the resource damaged by the hazard?), and adaptive capacity (can the resource adapt to this hazard?). For a detailed description of vulnerabilities, please see the Climate Vulnerability and Risk Assessment. An interactive map of these natural resources and certain climate hazards can be found in the Resilient Fairfax Interactive Map Viewer.

Tree Losses During Storms

Downed trees are the most common reason for weather-related road closures in Fairfax County, according to VDOT data from 2019-2023. Downed trees caused even more road closures than vehicular accidents. The chart and map below show all weather-related road closures for that four-year period. In the map, downed trees are shown with the green tree symbol. There were 917 road closures due to downed trees between July 2019 and November 2023, and an additional 9 road closures due to tree removals. For comparison, there were 646 road closures due to vehicular accidents and fires and 57 road closures due to downed power lines in the same time period. Improving the resilience of our trees can help from both environmental and safety perspectives. To help address this issue, the county is working on a Resilient Trees initiative. For more information, please email ResilientFairfax@fairfaxcounty.gov.

Join the Sustain Fairfax Challenge

Fairfax County is encouraging residents to take climate action into their own hands using BrightAction! This new climate engagement platform makes it simple, easy, and fun to learn about climate solutions and take action through an interactive dashboard. Sign up now to start reducing your environmental impact through progress tracking, daily reminders, and collaboration with friends, family, and colleagues!

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