Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program in Virginia: Potomac Gorge
Virginia's 2005 CELCP Award
Potomac Gorge
The Potomac Gorge is a 15-mile river corridor from just above Great Falls to Georgetown. It includes portions of the Fairfax County Potomac River shoreline, two National Park lands, and county parkland.
Despite being located in a suburban landscape of four million people, the Potomac Gorge remains one of the country’s most biologically diverse areas, with more than 200 rare species and natural communities. Ecologists have identified 30 distinct natural communities, or groupings of vegetation, in the Potomac River Gorge, several of which are believed to be globally rare. The area also provides habitat to animal species characteristic of the region, from songbirds in decline like the Cerulean warbler, to water birds like the Great blue heron, to the federally listed Bald eagle. The Potomac Gorge is also a prime spawning and nursery area for migratory fish species, including striped bass and American shad.
Congress allocated $2,968,432 in federal Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program funds to purchase conservation easements along the Virginia shoreline of the Potomac Gorge. These federal funds will be matched by cash, in-kind donations, and easement donations from willing land owners.
A portion of these funds have already gone to the purchase of a conservation easement on the Timblin property, a 5-acre tract along the Potomac River in the northwest section of McLean, VA. Fairfax County, The Potomac Conservancy, and the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust co-hold the conservation easement and will be party to a Stewardship Agreement.
Back to Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program in Virginia Web page
