Swamplands the Size of Manhattan Protected

The conservation easement protects almost 60 miles of stream frontage on the Dragon in Virginia, part of the Chesapeake Bay estuary.

The Nature Conservancy has placed 13,350 acres of Dragon Run Swamp into a conservation easement, reportedly the largest land protecting parcel in
Virginia history.

Dragon Run, mostly in Middlesex County, drains into the Piankatank River and is considered one of the most ecologically important areas in the Chesapeake Bay region. The conservation easement protects almost 60 miles of stream frontage on the Dragon and requires 100-foot forested buffers along all streams and wetlands.

Prior to the easement the property could have been divided into approximately 140 new parcels; the easement permits the property to be divided into only 40 new parcels, or about one parcel for every 333 acres.

Friends of Dragon Run www.dragonrun.org report this easement is the result of ?EUR??,,????'?????<