Cape Charles Coastal Habitat Natural Area Preserve

Cape Charles Coastal Habitat Natural Area Preserve is a fifty-acre protected area on the Chesapeake Bay side of Virginia’s Eastern Shore near Cape Charles. Despite its small size, it preserves a diverse stretch of beach, dunes, and maritime forest. The site is especially significant as habitat for the threatened northeastern beach tiger beetle, Cicindela dorsalis. Its dunes also support coast bedstraw, Galium hispidulum, and it serves as a staging area for migratory birds moving south in the fall. Owned and maintained by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, it allows limited public access by boardwalk while reserving the beach for research and management.

Cape Charles, Virginia · United States