Learn about the plan to improve Rock Creek Park’s Nature Center complex

National Park Service News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 18, 2019

Contact: Dana Dierkes OR Katie Liming

Learn about the plan to improve Rock Creek Park’s Nature Center complex

Public invited to open house on Wednesday, April 3, 2019

WASHINGTON – Calling all visitors, neighbors and fans of Rock Creek Park! The National Park Service (NPS) invites you to review and share feedback on a plan to improve the Rock Creek Park Nature Center complex in upper Northwest Washington, D.C. The Nature Center complex includes the Nature Center and planetarium, horse center, maintenance area, picnic areas 13 and 14, and a network of pedestrian pathways and trails.

Learn about the plan and offer feedback at our open house on Wednesday, April 3, 2019, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Rock Creek Park Nature Center (5200 Glover Road NW, Washington, D.C., 20015). You can also submit comments online or by mail.

The proposed plan/Environmental Assessment (plan/EA) describes three alternatives for the Nature Center complex. The NPS preferred alternative includes the following improvements:

• Redesigning the Nature Center to improve accessibility, increase spaces for visitors and large groups, create a protected outdoor classroom space and address flooding issues.
• Improving the Horse Center by repairing riding surfaces within the indoor riding ring and outdoor turnouts, constructing two new horse turnouts and adding public viewing areas and educational exhibits.
• Improving pedestrian connections by constructing new paved paths and unpaved trails near the Nature Center.
• Repairing current paths and providing new directional signs.
• Repairing the picnic shelter and constructing restrooms at picnic area #13.
• Upgrading the planetarium by increasing accessibility, improving the dome to allow for better resolution of planetarium projections and installing new seats, lighting and electrical and HVAC systems.
• Relocating the historic Miller Cabin from its current location in a floodplain near the east bank of Rock Creek, to picnic area #14.
• Rehabilitating maintenance buildings to improve functionality for park maintenance operations.
  
  

How to read the plan and comment:

The NPS welcomes your feedback and suggestions as we move forward with this project. The plan/EA are available online through the Planning, Environment and Public Comment (PEPC) system from March 18, 2019 to April 18, 2019. Please submit written comments online through PEPC or mail comments by April 18, 2019 to the following address:

Superintendent

Rock Creek Park

Attn: Rock Creek Park DCP

3545 Williamsburg Lane NW

Washington, DC 20008

Please note: Before including an address, phone number, email address or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment including your personal identifying information may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.

– NPS –

About Rock Creek Park: Rock Creek Park is America’s first urban national park. It exists to preserve and perpetuate for this and future generations the ecological resources of the Rock Creek Valley in as natural a condition as possible, the archeological and historic resources in the park, and the scenic beauty of the park. The park is visited annually by almost 2,500,000 people. For more information, visit www.nps.gov/rocr.  

About the National Park Service: About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for the 419 parks in the National Park System and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Visit us at www.nps.gov, on Facebook www.facebook.com/nationalparkservice, Twitter www.twitter.com/natlparkservice, and YouTube www.youtube.com/nationalparkservice.