By Lillian Kafka

Published: April 10, 2008

Editor’s note: Merrimac Farm Wildlife Management Area is located 14712 Deepwood Lane in Nokesville.
For more information, visit www.pwconserve.org/merrimacfarm

Merrimac Farm Wildlife Management Area, the first of its kind in Northern Virginia, officially opens today in Prince William County.

Dozens of federal and state officials, as well as dozens of volunteers and conservationists are celebrating the preservation of the farm, a plot of 300 acres that's aglow with bluebells this time of year.

The public is invited to attend a dedication ceremony and subsequent tours of the property starting at 10 a.m. today.

Jerry Sims, regional wildlife manager for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said it's going to be a "glorious day" to dedicate the state's 37th wildlife management area.

"We're excited because wildlife management areas are a place for wildlife and their habitat and for people to enjoy them," Sims said. The property will be open for selected hunting excursions, fishing and bird watching.

The public is invited to fish in Cedar Run and observe native flowers, such as native Virginia bluebells, whose blossoms peak in mid April.

"If the sun is shining and they all open up, when you head toward Cedar Run, they actually glow blue," said Kim Hosen, executive director of the Prince William Conservation Alliance and a Prince William County planning commissioner.

The unique partnership between the land's former owner, the McDowell family, and nonprofit and governmental agencies proved to be the only way to create this nature preserve, Hosen said.

The Department of the Navy, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Prince William Conservation Alliance purchased the land earlier this year for $2.8 million.

"It really demonstrated to me the importance for all of those parties to be at the table and for a nonprofit organization to be involved," she said. "They could respond at a time when the government didn't have time to. Everyone had a role and everyone was essential."

Today they will dedicate Merrimac Farm and commend the partnerships and dedication of those who persevered through at least five years of negotiations to preserve a span of varied habitats adjacent to the Marine Corps Base. The Department of the Navy's Federal Military Encroachment Partnering Program paid for $1,429,750 of the land. Another $820,773 came from a Virginia Land Conservation Foundation grant won by the Prince William Conservation Alliance. The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries paid $608,997, money that comes from hunting license fees.

The land provides a buffer to the Marine Corps base and is opens to the public thanks to volunteers that cleaned up the property. Informal tours will be given for the entire coming weekend, Sims said.

A Department of Game and Inland Fisheries biologist will live at Merrimac Farm and the Prince William Conservation Alliance plans on housing educational programs and wetland tours in the future.

Merrimac Farm will be Virginia's northernmost wildlife management area—the next closest is in Fauquier County.

"It's truly on the edge of suburbia and this is a place we spend a lot of time in," Sims said. "Now we have our roots planted there."

"The bluebells and the hardwood forests, they're unique communities and they're communities that when we put them under land easements we'll have forever," Sims said. "One of the good things about Merrimac is there's plenty of opportunity to just walk and enjoy."

Merrimac Farm is a combination of wetlands, fields and hardwood forest.

Visitors are encouraged to wear boots.

Staff writer Lillian Kafka can be reached at 703-878-8065 or .