The Nature Conservancy Protects Dragon Run Forest

A Press Release from TNC
Acquisition represents Conservancy's first step in conservation of largest intact forest in Chesapeake Bay region.

The Nature Conservancy has completed its first land acquisition along Dragon Run, at the heart of the Chesapeake Bay region's largest intact forest. The three contiguous Middlesex County tracts comprise 452 acres of forest and wetland habitats.

"Dragon Run provides critical habitat, especially for migratory birds and aquatic species," said Andy Lacatell, director of the Conservancy's Chesapeake Rivers Program. "But maintaining the Dragon's forest cover also means enhancing the quality of the water flowing into the Chesapeake Bay."

Dragon Run forms the headwaters of the Piankatank River, a Bay tributary. It is surrounded by a quarter-million-acre matrix of forest land that has remained intact due largely to a strong regional forest products market and responsible landowner stewardship. Development pressures, however, are increasing within the Dragon Run watershed.

Dragon Run supports a high diversity of aquatic and terrestrial species. In all, the site is home to more than 165 plant species, 90 bird species, 45 tree species, and 55 fish species. It also harbors five rare natural communities and 22 rare animal and plant species.

Dragon Run also marks the northernmost range of tidally influenced bald cypress swamp communities in the United States. The Conservancy property contains about 110 acres of wetlands, approximately half of which features towering old-growth cypress trees. The Conservancy property also hosts at least one state-rare plant, the pineland tick-trefoil (Desmodium strictum). The blackwater bluet, a damselfly considered rare in Virginia, has been documented in the area, and bald eagles nest nearby in old-growth cypress trees.

"The property represents a little of everything we're working to protect along Dragon Run," said Lacatell, "It's part working forest, it has a significant cypress swamp community, it captures a mile and a half of waterfront and it helps link other areas under conservation management."

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science owns a 125-acre research preserve directly across Dragon Run from the Conservancy property. Also nearby is Dragon's Lair, which is managed by the Friends of Dragon Run and offers public access.

The money raised by the Conservancy to purchase its Dragon Run property will be applied as matching funds toward a pending $3 million federal Forest Legacy grant to Virginia's Department of Forestry. This public-private partnership will multiply the funding available for additional land conservation along the Dragon.