About Meadowood
Meadowood Recreation Area lies on the southern flank of the Mason Neck Peninsula, in the Belmont Bay drainage. (Belmont Bay combines with the Occoquan River estuary to empty into Occoquan Bay.) The peninsula is shaped like a foot, with the toes pointed south; Meadowood is in the ankle. Meadowood is in the interior of the peninsula: It does not include any shoreline.
The Mason Neck Peninsula is a great place to learn about local history and the nature of the mid-Atlantic coastal plain. Most of Mason Neck is protected for conservation. In addition to Meadowood, the peninsula is home to Pohick Bay Regional Park, Gunston Hall Plantation, Mason Neck State Park, and the Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge. Meadowood is Mason Neck’s newest protected area; it was designated in 2001.
Most of Meadowood is covered by magnificent beech and oak-hickory forests. The forests cover about 600 of Meadowood’s 800 acres; another 150 acres is ungrazed field. Horse pastures account for nearly all of the remaining land. The pastures are grazed by the horses boarded at the property’s large barn. The property is drained by three streams and their tributaries (Giles Run, South Branch, and Thompson Creek); there are also two small ponds and, in the forest, one depression that may qualify as a vernal pool. In 2009, Meadowood was recognized as an “Important Bird Area,” meaning that the property provides essential habitat for vulnerable bird species.
But Meadowood has its share of ecological problems—which is hardly surprising, given its location just one and a half miles from the Route 1 / I-95 corridor. At least three of this region’s most pervasive ecological problems are affecting the property:
1. Stream-channel instability caused by heavy stormwater runoff. Heavy runoff is eroding Meadowood’s streams and has silted up the downstream reach of Thompson Creek, thereby raising the water table and killing many of the trees in the floodplain. (The dying trees had put out their roots many years ago, when the water table was lower; the roots are now submerged and the trees are, in effect, drowning.)
2. Invasive alien plants. Many invasive alien plant species are well established in Meadowood’s fields; their presence is likely to interfere with the re-emergence of native meadow. In addition to these “invasive weeds,” intentionally introduced alien fescue grasses still dominate most of the property’s fields and are probably locking out many native meadow plants. (The fescues were introduced for grazing.) Invasives have also made their way into Meadowood’s forests but, for the most part, the forests remain fairly clean—infestations are not nearly as common, as large, or as dense as they are in many other northern Virginia parks. The one exception to this favorable diagnosis is an extensive infestation of Japanese stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum) in the Thompson Creek floodplain.
3. Very heavy deer browsing. An unnaturally large population of deer appears to have suppressed native understory in much of Meadowood’s forest. And by eating so many tree saplings, the deer also seem to be interfering with the forest’s ability to renew itself—that is, there are no longer enough little trees in the forest to replace the big trees when they eventually die. And because deer favor certain species over others—they browse oak and hickory saplings heavily, for example, but tend to avoid American beech (Fagus grandifolia)—heavy browsing is eventually likely to reduce the diversity of Meadowood’s forest canopy. (To learn more about deer browsing, read our Backgrounder on White-Tailed Deer and Our Plant Communities.)
Meadowood is managed by the Lower Potomac Field Station of the Bureau of Land Management, a federal agency within the Department of the Interior. Meadowood has a small staff—and an enormous agenda. Here are the main items:
Managing the horse program,
Maintaining the property’s trails and various facilities,
Conducting biological inventories (or working with other organizations on these activities),
Conducting watershed studies,
Managing invasive alien plants,
Managing the ponds and streams for native wildlife,
Improving terrestrial habitat,
And developing a wide range of environmental education events and projects.
Where to Find More Information
For a detailed description of our project activities at Meadowood, see the Meadowood Sites page, and the slide shows listed in the Links panel of the main Meadowood page. For recent activities, check the Meadowood News.