Ragged Island Wildlife Management Area, also known as Ragged Island Wildlife Refuge, is a

Wildlife Management Area A wildlife management area (WMA) is a protected area set aside for the conservation of wildlife and for recreational activities involving wildlife. New Zealand There are 11 wildlife management areas in New Zealand: * Horsham Downs Wildlife Ma ...

(WMA) in

Isle of Wight County, Virginia Isle of Wight County is a county (United States), county in the Hampton Roads region of the U.S. state of Virginia. It is named after the Isle of Wight, England, south of the Solent, from where many of its early colonists had come. As of the ...

. Within a few miles of one of Virginia's busiest and most populated regions is the Ragged Island Wildlife Management Area, a largely unspoiled area of marshland and scattered woody hummocks. It includes unspoiled

brackish marsh Brackish marshes develop from salt marshes where a significant freshwater influx dilutes the seawater to brackish levels of salinity. This commonly happens upstream from salt marshes by estuaries of coastal rivers or near the mouths of coastal riv ...

and small pine islands adjacent the south bank of the

James River The James River is a river in Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows from the confluence of the Cowpasture and Jackson Rivers in Botetourt County U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowli ...

. The area is dominated by vegetation such as marsh mallow,

smartweed ''Polygonum'' is a genus of about 130 species of flowering plants in the buckwheat and knotweed family Polygonaceae. Common names include knotweed and knotgrass (though the common names may refer more broadly to plants from Polygonaceae). In the ...

saltmarsh cordgrass ''Sporobolus alterniflorus'', or synonymously known as ''Spartina alterniflora'', the smooth cordgrass, saltmarsh cordgrass, or salt-water cordgrass, is a perennial deciduous grass which is found in intertidal wetlands, especially estuarine salt ...

, and black needlerush, with

loblolly pine ''Pinus taeda'', commonly known as loblolly pine, is one of several pines native to the Southeastern United States, from East Texas to Florida, and north to southern New Jersey. The wood industry classifies the species as a southern yellow pi ...

as the most common tree species. Impenetrable areas of

wax myrtle ''Myrica'' is a genus of about 35–50 species of small trees and shrubs in the family Myricaceae, order Fagales. The genus has a wide distribution, including Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America, and missing only from Antarc ...

and greenbriar are also found on the property. The area is known in particular for its wide range of waterfowl. Ragged Island WMA is managed by the

Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) is a state agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia responsible for the management and conservation of wildlife and inland fish, as well as the regulation of hunting, fishing, and boating activiti ...

. The area is open to the public for hunting, trapping, fishing, and hiking. A boardwalk allows access for viewing the marsh and its wildlife. The WMA may accessed from two parking areas on

U.S. Highway 17 U.S. Route 17 or U.S. Highway 17 (US 17), also known as the Coastal Highway, is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that spans in the Southeastern United States. It runs close to the Atlantic Coast for much of its len ...

just south of the

James River Bridge The James River Bridge (JRB) is a four-lane divided highway lift bridge across the James River in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Owned and operated by the Virginia Department of Transportation, it carries U.S. Route 17 (US 17), US 258 ...

. Access for persons 17 years of age or older requires a valid hunting or fishing permit, or a WMA access permit.

References

External links

Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries: Ragged Island Wildlife Management Area
Wildlife management areas of Virginia Wetlands of Virginia Protected areas of Isle of Wight County, Virginia Landforms of Isle of Wight County, Virginia {{IsleofWightCountyVA-geo-stub

See also

References

External links