Reserve Components

As the largest estuary in the continental U.S., Chesapeake Bay contains a diverse collection of habitats and salinity regimes. In order to address the diversity of habitats in the southern Chesapeake Bay subregion, the NERRS established a multi-component reserve network along the salinity gradient of the York River estuary.

Reserve components include Sweet Hall Marsh, Taskinas Creek, Catlett Islands, and Goodwin Islands.

The York River estuary is the Chesapeake Bay’s fifth largest tributary in terms of flow and watershed area - on the order of  6900 km2 (2662 mi2).  The York River basin is located within Virginia’s Coastal Plain and Piedmont physiographic provinces, and includes all of the land draining into the Mattaponi, Pamunkey and York rivers.  The York River estuary is classified as microtidal and partially mixed.  The mean tidal range is 0.7 m (2.3 ft) at its mouth, 0.9 m (1.0 ft) at West Point, and increases to more than 1 m (3.3 ft) in the upper tidal freshwater regions of the Mattaponi and Pamunkey rivers.  Salinity distribution along the York River estuary ranges from tidal freshwater to polyhaline regimes.  

 

Find Reserve Component Natural Resources Management Plans here.