Del Ray Outdoors: Remembering Ellen Pickering, Alexandria’s Quintessential Environmentalist

Do you know who Ellen Pickering was? If you do, you probably remember her as a City Councilwoman in the late 1970s, a past Chair of the Alexandria Beautification Commission and, most importantly, an activist for environmental and women’s issues.

Look around town, and you will see parks and trees and trails with her fingerprints all over them. More than 30 years ago, she advocated for the creation of the continuous Mount Vernon Trail through Old Town to Washington, D.C. She helped protect Founders Park along the Old Town waterfront from development. And if there is a mature cherry tree on city lands in your neighborhood, her efforts with the Beautification Commission were likely behind its planting. 

In 2009, Alexandria’s Environmental Policy Commission honored her local legacy with an annual Environmental Excellence Award in her name—see http://alexearthday.org/award.html. The deadline for nominations for this year’s Ellen Pickering Environmental Excellence Award is March 30, 2012.

Ellen and I became friends through a year of intense work in 2006 visiting and prioritizing over 25 open spaces across the city as part of the Open Space Steering Committee. Ellen’s top open space priority was, of course, the Old Town Waterfront—including the Mirant Power Plant, if it ever happened to close down.

While negotiating priorities, Ellen joined with me in advocating for the purchase of two tiny parcels on the corner of Commonwealth and Del Ray avenues to create a much-needed Pocket Park in Del Ray. Every time I see that tiny park and playground filled with children, I think of Ellen. I no longer know the ins-and-outs of park naming, but I certainly hope that the city’s Parks and Recreation Committee considers naming our little Del Ray Pocket Park after Ellen. Pickering Park has a nice ring to it.