Dragon Run Preservation

Photo Courtesy of Friends of Dragon Run

Protecting the Dragon Run Watershed

Photo Courtesy of the Friends of Dragon Run

The Friends of Dragon Run (FODR) have added 14 acres to the total protected portion of the Dragon Run watershed, which runs through the Middle Peninsula and drains to the Piankatank River and the Chesapeake Bay. Named in honor of one of the group’s founders, the Morgan Tract is the group’s first property in Gloucester County.

The group owns and manages a total of 617 acres of land in the watershed, all of it protected by Virginia Outdoors Foundation easements. Thanks to their work and that of other conservation partners such as the Nature Conservancy and the Virginia Department of Forestry, 23 percent of the nearly 90,000 acres of farmland, forests and swamps that make up the watershed is protected, either by conservation easements held by VOF and TNC, or under the management of VDOF, which owns the nearly 10,000-acre Dragon Run State Forest. The watershed provides habitat for more than 55 species of fish and 90 species of birds.

Photo Courtesy of the Friends of Dragon Run