NOVA Parks

NOVA Parks (formerly named Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority) is an inter-jurisdictional organization that owns and operates more than 10,000 acres of woodlands, streams, parks, trails, nature reserves, countryside and historic sites in Northern Virginia in the United States. The Authority was organized in 1959. NOVA Parks presently operates 30 regional parks.

A 12-member policy-making Board governs NOVA Parks. The city council or county board of each member jurisdiction appoints two representatives to the Board. Three counties (Arlington, Fairfax, and Loudoun) and three cities (Alexandria, Falls Church and Fairfax) currently have representation on the Board.

NOVA Parks was founded in 1959, when Arlington and Fairfax Counties and the City of Falls Church decided to create an agency to protect the drinking water sources of the area, as well to provide passive recreation.

NOVA Parks purchased its first parkland shortly thereafter in Centreville, VA from Gardiner Means and his wife Caroline F. Ware, in what would become Bull Run Regional Park. The pair later donated their farm home in Vienna, VA, which would eventually become Meadowlark Botanical Gardens.

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