D.C. has new plans for Kingman, Heritage islands

House gives OK to environmental reserve, educational center

The U.S. House of Representatives has given the District permission to use two islands in the Anacostia River as an environmental reserve and educational center, rather than as a children's theme park as the federal government mandated 14 years ago. Kingman and Heritage islands, which stretch from Northeast to Southeast D.C. near RFK Stadium, are the focus of an ongoing, $8.5 million restoration effort. The plan is to transform the roughly 90-year-old habitats into a 45-acre park and 9,000-square-foot environmental education center featuring self-guided trails and a memorial tree grove dedicated to the D.C. schoolchildren killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Congress deeded Kingman and Heritage to the District in 1995 on the condition that they become "National Children's Island," a "cultural, educational and family-oriented recreation park, together with a children's playground." If National Children's Island failed to materialize, the law ordered, the land would revert to the federal government. The House last week passed legislation, introduced by D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, reversing the 1995 law and allowing D.C. to go ahead with its blueprint for an oasis in the Anacostia. The bill is now with the Senate. "As times have changed, the District no longer believes that a theme park is the highest and best use of the space," Norton said as she introduced the measure.

The majority of both islands, accessible via a relatively new pedestrian bridge located near RFK lot 6, is managed by Living Classrooms of the National Capital Region under a contract with the District. Visitors can bike, boat, bird-watch, fish, hike or picnic there.

The National Park Service owns and operates Langston Golf Course on the north end of Kingman.

Sean Madigan, spokesman for the D.C. deputy mayor for planning and economic development, said the city expected to start building trails, "eliminating invasive plants" and planting the memorial grove before the end of the year. Funding for the environmental center, he said, has not yet been identified.

Living Classrooms has received more than $660,000 over the past two years from four D.C. agencies: the deputy mayor's office, Department of the Environment, Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services and the Office of the State Superintendent of Education.

mneibauer@washingtonexaminer.com