Virginians celebrate creation of Crow's Nest Natural Preserve

Posted September 16, 2009
By Jerry Rogers
Norfolk District Public Affairs

9/16/2009 - STAFFORD COUNTY, Va. — Federal, state and local officials, community members and environmental agencies celebrated Sept. 14, their decades-old efforts to transform most of the 5-mile long Crow's Nest peninsula into a state natural area preserve.

"It's nothing less than miraculous, in my opinion," said Sen. Richard Stuart, R-Stafford. "Three thousand acres; 750 acres of that are wetlands. To those of us who care about their natural beauty and water, it's so, so incredibly important."

The celebration, held at Belle Plains Boat Club here, and hosted by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Stafford Board of Supervisors, heralded the final acquisition and founding of Virginia's 54th natural area preserve, Crow's Nest Natural Preserve.

Named for the big, black schooner, "The Crow," which was used by the Daniel family for trans-Atlantic trade in the early 1800s, the peninsula has been virtually uninhabited since Union forces ended their occupation of south Stafford in the 1860s. Today, Crow's Nest is home to 60 Neotropical migratory bird species and more than 700 acres of wetlands, some of which contain the oldest unfragmented mature tree hardwood stands in the state. Crow's Nest is also home to a globally threatened plant community, rare plants and early woodland Native Indian, colonial and Civil War-era history.

The Norfolk District Regulatory Office, led by project manager Nick Konchuba, served as one of several key agencies involved in the review, funding, acquisition and founding of the preserve.

Working closely with the Nature Conservancy, which manages the Virginia Aquatic Resources Trust Fund, Konchuba's team helped with approving partial funding that allowed the Trust to generate $4.4 million of the $33.2 million needed to purchase the 2,870-acre preserve.

In December 2008, Stafford County and the Virginia Department of Conservation, using county, state and federal funding, purchased the preserve land in two phases.

Hal Wiggins, a Norfolk District environmental scientist here, has long worked with the Stafford County government, state and federal agencies to identify Crow's Nest peninsula as an ecologically sensitive area.

In 1997, then project manager for the Stafford Regional Airport project, Wiggins facilitated a Corps permit that included a 70-acre wetland/stream mitigation site at Crow's Nest. Today, this site is one of the largest great blue heron colonies in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

"This day represents the completion of a process of acquisition of Crow's Nest that is long overdue," said Wiggins. "It is extremely gratifying to have been involved in this project as Crow's Nest peninsula is an ecological treasure worthy of protection by all local, state and federal agencies. We all came together to make this happen."