When he got down to the river’s edge in Belle Haven to talk about the “Great American Outdoors Act,” recently passed in the Senate 73-25, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) looked through a spotting scope to see an osprey nesting offshore.
Glenda Booth, one of the Friends of Dyke Marsh, pointed out the bird. “In Dyke Marsh, we probably have 10 osprey nests,” she said.
Warner was on site to talk about a bill that will soon be up for a house vote to address the $12 billion maintenance backlog at national park sites nationwide and provide permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The bipartisan bill includes Sen. Warner’s “Restore Our Parks Act,” which would help fund much-needed repairs at Virginia national park sites such as the George Washington Memorial Parkway, which currently has more than $700 million in maintenance needs. The bill was reintroduced with Rob Portman (R-OH), Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Angus King (I-ME) as bipartisan legislation to address the maintenance backlog, which has delayed the upkeep of visitor centers, rest stops, trails, campgrounds and transportation infrastructure operated by the National Park Service in the Commonwealth and across the country.