Department of Conservation and Recreation
Conserve. Protect. Enjoy.
Department of Conservation and Recreation
DCR acquired 870 acres of forests and wetlands in the City of Suffolk from The Nature Conservancy last week as the first step of a multi-phase project to protect a global hotspot for biodiversity and restore native longleaf pine savannas.
With support from Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, DCR is working closely with TNC to bring one of the largest unprotected blocks of contiguous forest in the nationally significant Albemarle-Pamlico watershed region into Virginia’s natural area preserve system.
The site is located about a mile east of South Quay Sandhills Natural Area Preserve.
DCR expects to add another 1,046 acres adjacent to the first site in a phase later this year. Together, most of the 1,900 acres is considered to have “very high” ecological value.
The combined acreage, when completed, would provide the first stepping stone in a conservation corridor identified in the Virginia Wildlife Corridor Action Plan between the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge and the existing South Quay Sandhills Natural Area Preserve.
Funding sources for the current land acquisition project include a $5.6 million habitat protection and restoration grant awarded in 2023 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.
The project also received substantial acquisition funding from the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation.
Conservation partners across southeastern Virginia have been working for decades to restore longleaf pine communities on thousands of acres across natural area preserves and other lands within the northern parts of the species’ native range.
Learn more about The Nature Conservancy's Virginia Pinelands Program.
Categories
Conservation | Land Conservation | Natural Heritage | Nature
