Virginia Coast Reserve

Last updated

Volgenau Virginia Coast Reserve
USA Virginia location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location Virginia's Atlantic coast
Coordinates 37°24′59″N75°41′20″W / 37.4163°N 75.689°W / 37.4163; -75.689 [1]
Area40,000 acres (160 km2)
Governing body The Nature Conservancy
Official website
Designated1979

The Volgenau Virginia Coast Reserve (prior to August 2020 known as the Virginia Coast Reserve) is a biosphere reserve created by The Nature Conservancy in the early 1970s. It consists of 40,000 acres across 14 of the Virginia Barrier Islands along the Atlantic coast of the Virginia portion of the Delmarva Peninsula, including Parramore Island, Hog Island, Virginia, Smith Island, Virginia, Assawoman Island, and Metompkin Island. These barrier islands play an important role in sheltering the mainland portions of the Eastern Shore of Virginia from the impact of coastal storms and are important for breeding and migrating beach nesting and colonial waterbirds, including piping plovers. It also serves as the research location for the Virginia Coast Reserve Long-Term Ecological Research (VCR LTER) project.

Contents

The reserve was designated a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service in 1979. [3]

In August 2020, the Nature Conservancy renamed the reserve in honor of multiple gifts by engineer Ernst Volgenau and his family over 30 years. [4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Watch Your Step" (PDF). Nature.org. The Nature Conservancy. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 31, 2013.
  2. ↑ "Watch Your Step" (PDF). Nature.org. The Nature Conservancy. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 31, 2013.
  3. ↑ "Virginia Coast Reserve". National Natural Landmarks. National Park Service. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
  4. ↑ The Nature Conservancy. "Newsroom: Volgenau Family Recognized for Decades of Support". Archived from the original on September 27, 2020. Retrieved September 7, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.