Biodiversity of the George Washington Memorial Parkway

On November 14, National Park Service biologist Brent Steury will give a presentation summarizing the George Washington Memorial Parkway’s eleven-year biodiversity inventory of its 4,580 acres. 

NPS experts have documented 5,563 species: 101 species new to the flora or fauna of Virginia, seven species new to the District of Columbia, three species new to North America, at least 71 species new to science, 106 species state listed for rarity, three federally-threatened species and 58 peer-reviewed journal articles published in the last 11 years. 

Steury has worked for the National Park Service (NPS) for over 20 years. For the past 15 years, he has overseen the all-taxa biodiversity inventory.

This event is free and open to the public. 

The program is sponsored by the Friends of Dyke Marsh, the American Horticultural Society, the Friends of Little Hunting Creek and the Four Mile Run Conservancy Foundation. It will be held at the Huntley Meadows Park Visitor Center, located at 3701 Lockheed Blvd., Alexandria, VA 22306.

Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve is a 485-acre tidal freshwater marsh on the Potomac River one mile south of Old Town Alexandria, administered by the National Park Service and part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway. The Friends of Dyke Marsh is a 40-year old conservation advocacy organization. Visit Friends of Dyke Marsh website: www.fodm.org