TIDAL-POTOMAC RESERVE FOR THE NATION’S CAPITAL

08/12/2003 12:21 PM GMT
To: Glenn_Eugster@nps.gov
cc:
Subject: (DRAFT) TIDAL-POTOMAC RESERVE FOR THE NATION’S CAPITAL



TIDAL-POTOMAC RESERVE FOR THE NATION’S CAPITAL

Taken together, Mason Neck National Wildlife Reserve, Chapman Forest, and
contiguous preserved lands comprise 13,500 acres, larger than any other
reserve within twenty miles of either Washington DC or Baltimore,
Maryland, (second largest within 30 miles of Washington DC or Baltimore).
There are many opportunities to increase the size of this secured reserve
area, by easements or the purchase of contiguous lands not yet preserved,
for example creating a greenway connecting Chapman Forest to Piscataway
National Park.
Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge, Mason Neck State Park, and Potomac
Shoreline Regional Park together are the long-established core of the
Virginia side of the reserve, providing important protected habitat for
the American Bald Eagle, among many other species, and tidal freshwater
marshes. The core on the Maryland side, and directly across from Mason
Neck, is recently preserved Chapman Forest, a diverse reminder of the
great woodlands that once cradled the Potomac River, comprising Chapman
State Park and the Glendening Natural Environment Area. Two thirds of
Chapman Forest drain into Mattawoman Creek, the richest nursery for
anadromous fish known in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay system.
These lands, together with the waters that drain them and the Potomac
River, function as a major provider of ecological services down river from
the National Capital. Formal recognition of the reserve as a defined
entity will increase the possibilities for maintaining it, enlarging it,
and enhancing its appreciation by government and the public throughout the
region. The economic benefit to our region would be immeasurable, and we
believe the public is ready to embrace such a project and provide solid
political support.

This proposal can be successfully undertaken only by individuals and
organizations who have among them, collectively, the personal and
institutional knowledge, background, and contacts to help those in
government to understand the importance of the task.
Proposal:
We need to build support for continued preservation along the tidal
Potomac River. The Nation's Capital Reserve would be a core concept to
ring the bell for the value of further protection.
RESERVE MANAGEMENT TEAM

To realize the Tidal Potomac River Reserve, we must establish a management
team, and give it a home. An excellent facility exists on the north side
of Chapman Forest, within its Chapman State Park segment (as the north 800
acres of Chapman Forest has been named by Maryland’s Department of Natural
Resources). That facility is Longshadows lodge, a good sized, attractive
and beautifully situated log structure perched on a small, elevated
terrace overlooking the Potomac River. The lodge is situated among
sensitive shell marl ravines, a highly rare, calcareous, coastal-plain
habitat associated with a few large mid-Atlantic river systems such as the
Potomac and James Rivers. Chapman Forest's shell marl ravine forest hosts
a multitude of state-rare plants. The vulnerability of the site demands
use by a sensitive and responsible party that has as one aspect of its
mission, to protect the shell marl ravines.
We believe this facility could be the home of the management team of the
reserve, protecting the surrounding assets, while providing a visible
presence for the reserve. Fortunately, other structures near the historic
Mount Aventine manor house, located beyond the shell marl ravine forest,
and with better public access, are available within Chapman State Park for
implementing the environmental education mission of this Tidal Potomac
River Reserve proposal, which is in part to develop a larger understanding
of how nature serves the public.
As E. O. Wilson wrote, in a 1998 letter about Chapman Forest, “To save a
remnant of America's natural heritage of this nature would be a gift to
future generations unmatchable by any other that could be provided in the
same place, on the same land there is no better use for the public that
such land could be put to.”

Note:
Eventually there should be a research center implemented in the Tidal
Potomac Reserve.

There has not yet been a component of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS)
established on the Potomac. Mason Neck and Chapman Forest, together with
the intervening tidal Potomac River and its many nearby bays and creeks,
could be established as a bi-state Reserve of the NERRS. This would
benefit the estuary and the region.

Friends of Chapman Forest invite you to help shape the concept of the
TIDAL-POTOMAC RESERVE FOR THE NATION'S CAPITAL.


Bonnie Bick, Friends of Chapman Forest, (301) 839-7403, bonnie@radix.net