Except for certain specific situations, bicycles, camping, fires, unleashed pets, hunting, off-road vehicles and removal or destruction of plants, animals, minerals or historic artifacts are prohibited on all Virginia Natural Area Preserves. Learn more.
SITE DESCRIPTION:
This preserve is comprised of two tracts fronting on the Chesapeake Bay near Pickett's Harbor in Northampton County.
The protected properties provide permanent protection for a highly threatened coastal natural area supporting rare
species and high biological diversity on the Southern Tip of the Eastern Shore. The preserve contains exemplary
beach strand and dune communities. The Pickett's Harbor Natural Area Preserve supports a population of the
federally threatened northeastern beach tiger beetle (Habroscelimorpha dorsalis dorsalis). Behind the active dunes of the bayshore are stable Holocene
dune ridges which support maritime scrub and woodlands.
This preserve provides habitats that are critical for migrating birds, particularly songbirds, and for the
likelihood of maintaining viable populations of the northeastern beach tiger beetle. Migratory songbird stopover
habitats are especially critical because such huge numbers of birds must find places to rest and feed within such
small areas, or "bottlenecks", like the southern tip of Virginia's Eastern Shore. Breaks in suitable habitat such
as croplands and lawns create dangerous areas which the songbirds must cross at risk of being preyed upon by raptors
that are migrating along with them.
VISITATION:
This preserve has no public access facilities.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
The acquisition of this preserve was funded by the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program at the Department of Environmental Quality through Grant # NA12NOS4190168, NA12NOS4190168, NA13NOS4190135 and NA14NOS4190141 of the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, under the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, as amended.
CONTACT:
Shannon Alexander, Coastal Region Steward
Department of Conservation and Recreation
Division of Natural Heritage
Belle Haven, VA
(757) 710-3428.
Department of Conservation and Recreation
