Crow's Nest Natural Area Preserve / Virginia’s State Natural Area Preserves

Crow’s Nest Natural Area Preserve occupies a peninsula between Accokeek and Potomac creeks in Stafford County and contains extensive mature coastal plain hardwood forests and wetland communities. Much of the site retains original, intact soil layers that support exemplary natural communities including Mesic Mixed Hardwood Forest, Basic Mesic Forest, Oak-Beech / Heath Forest, Oak / Heath Forest, Coastal Plain Bottomland Forest, Tidal Hardwood Swamp, and Tidal Freshwater Marsh, as well as a globally rare Coastal Plain Dry Calcareous Forest / Woodland endemic to local areas of coastal Virginia and Maryland. Covering 2,872 acres, the preserve rises to about 160 feet above the surrounding tidal marshes and is deeply cut by ravines on its northern and southern sides. Within the Lower Potomac Important Bird Area, it provides habitat for 60 species of neotropical songbirds, while its tidal marshes support over-wintering waterfowl and serve as spawning, nursery, and feeding habitat for various fish and mussel species. The preserve also has important connections to Virginia’s Native American, Colonial, and Civil War history, and it takes its name from the Crow, a black schooner owned by the colonial family that managed a plantation on the peninsula in the 18th and 19th centuries. Virginia’s Natural Area Preserves System was established in 1989 to protect the Commonwealth’s most significant natural areas through legally binding dedication, and as of October 2012 it included 61 dedicated preserves totaling 51,678 acres and protecting 615 natural community and rare species locations.

Virginia · United States