Friends of Dragon Run

10/24/2026

🚨🗓️ Coming up next week: Listening Tour hosted by The Rappahannock Tribe at their Indigenous Environmental Education Center. Their facility is located within the Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge’s Cat Point Creek Unit. Feel free to explore the property and walk the trails before the meeting! We hope you will come and let your voice be heard 🥾🚣🏻‍♀️🍂

Meeting address: 2570 Newland Road, Warsaw, VA 22572

Please RVSP to [email protected] if you plan to attend.

10/17/2026

Our organization will be attending, and we hope you will be too! Stop by and say hi when you pick up your trees 🌳 We have a lot to share with the community about our recent conservation work 🌎

💥 Attention residents of Mathews and Middlesex counties, Community Conservation Day is approaching and we want to see YOU 💥

🍂 At Community Conservation Day, residents have the opportunity to learn from and become involved with a various local conservation and recreation organizations. 🛶

📍Where: Deltaville Library
📆 When: October 24
🕛 Time: 9am - 2pm

🌳 Registration for FREE trees is required - https://riverfriends.org/product/york-river-mathews-middlesex-fall-2026/

Virginia Department of Forestry

09/24/2026

It’s not too late to register! We still have 6 fall paddle slots left. Paddle tours are $60 and last 3 hours and come with all gear included. That’s a great deal!

Head to our website to check availability: https://dragonrun.org/2026-fall-paddle-registration/

09/10/2026

Fall paddle season is upon us! This Saturday, September 12 at 9am registration opens for our fall season! This year our season runs from October 14-November 1st. As always, all gear is provided for the tour.

For all the details on our fall paddle season and to register, head to our homepage at https://dragonrun.org/paddles/

Don’t hesitate to sign up, as fall seats fill quickly. 🚣🏻‍♀️ We look forward to guiding you on the water!

09/06/2026

🚨 Big News!! 🎉

The offer that Friends of Dragon Run submitted last month for the purchase of a new property has been accepted! For the past couple of months FODR has been asking for donations to help with the purchase of this property. We still need your help, but we are now so much closer to our first matching benchmark! We have less than $5000 to go before we get a matching total of $160,000 (yielding $260,000 toward the acquisition or 40% of the $650,000 goal).

The property includes mixed hardwood and bald cypress swamps in the riparian buffer, and thinned loblolly pine plantations and regenerating clearcut forests in the uplands. The uplands have great potential for habitat restoration, and future sites for trails to lead guided member hikes. Citizen science and place-based education opportunities will also be available in the future. Lastly, a potential launch spot looks promising for future kayak tours.

With your assistance we can increase the Mascot Wildlife Corridor owned and protected by FODR to 1,592 acres (from 1,197 acres), and increase the total lands owned and protected by FODR to 2170 acres. With the expectation that the contract will be signed soon, we will have 60 days to come up with the cash for the purchase and need to raise the funds by the end of October. With the acceptance of our offer for the property and the knowledge that your donations will directly fund the purchase of the 395 acres, we hope you will act now! Donors who wish to protect more of the Dragon watershed have already contributed $95,106 toward this purchase.

Head to our website to learn about how you can contribute: https://dragonrun.org/donate/

Thank you to everyone who has donated so far!

08/22/2026

Why is protecting the Dragon Run important to you? Is it to safeguard water quality throughout the watershed? So many living things, including us, depend on clean, unpolluted waters. Low sediment and nutrient loads that enter the water directly affect the health of submerged aquatic vegetation, which then directly influences habitat for all trophic levels of aquatic ecosystems, including macroinvertebrates and the fish that eat them! Did you know that 62 species of fish have been documented in the Dragon Run? According to the inventory completed by Virginia Commonwealth University in 2003, the "Dragon Run watershed remains one of the most ecologically intact aquatic ecosystems of the
Chesapeake Bay Region", based on the high diversity of native fish species and the low density of nonnative species. All of us at FODR plan to do our part to keep it that way 🐟

Friends of Dragon Run aims to purchase another property that protects a large tract of upland habitat directly adjacent to the Dragon Run. Owning uplands means we have a direct influence on maintaining clean water that enters the Dragon Run and its tributaries. We need help from donors to raise $650,000 to safeguard this important habitat. As a kick-off to this fundraiser, the first $100,000 in donations will generate a match of $100,000 AND an additional $60,000. We thank two generous contributors for these matching grants! We are getting close to this first goal: so far, over $71,000 has been raised! With your help we can hit it this $100,000 benchmark. Head to our website to learn how you can contribute to our fundraiser: https://dragonrun.org/donate/

Thank you so much to everyone who has donated so far!

📸 1: Dragon Run with Water Tapegrass (Vallisneria americana) seen underwater in the foreground, Maeve Coker
📸 2: Yellowbelly Pirate Perch, Anne Parker
📸3: Dragonfly naiad emerging into adult stage, Maeve Coker

08/18/2026

And that's a wrap on another year of FODR's DREAM program!

The Dragon Run Environmental Academy Mentorship program immerses teachers in hands-on fieldwork, describes the importance of the Dragon Run ecosystem, and coaches them to develop a Meaningful Watershed Education Experience with their students. Grant-sourced funds enable FODR to compensate the teachers for their time and give them materials to use at their schools. The DREAM team consists of five retired teaching professionals.

This year's program included two new teachers, bringing our total to date to 15 educators. Renee Hypes teaches agriculture and dual enrollment Environmental Science at Gloucester High School. Kate Anderson is an Earth Science and Environmental Systems teacher at George C. Marshall High School in Fairfax County. This year's program included a two-hour paddle on the Dragon Run, water quality assessment techniques, macroinvertebrate sampling, wildlife survey techniques, and much more!

The DREAM Team also offers graduates of the program mentorship both inside and outside the classroom and field trips for their students. If you are a teacher or know a teacher who would enjoy and profit from DREAM, it is not too early to apply for our 2027 class! Contact Terry Skinner, [email protected], for more information and an application. Dragon Run appreciates all the teachers who have signed up for the program with the desire to use their educational reach
to promote greater engagement with environmental studies!

For more on our DREAM program, visit our website at https://dragonrun.org/d-r-e-a-m/ and check the links on our page!

08/06/2026

Why do YOU care about protecting the Dragon Run? Maybe you love the recreational opportunities it provides. Paddling through bald cypress swamps is the perfect way to unwind, get some exercise, and recharge with nature. Whatever your reason though for wanting to protect the Dragon Run, we hope you'll consider donating to our property acquisition fundraiser so that the Dragon Run continues to be a one-of-a-kind paddle destination. Friends of Dragon Run now owns, protects, and manages over 1800 acres of land on the Dragon, and we aim to continue growing that number with your help. We hope that future generations of paddlers get to enjoy what we experience today.

We have our sights set on another wonderful property, and our fundraising goal to protect this land is $650,000. As a kick-off to this fundraiser, the first $100,000 in donations will generate a match of $100,000 AND an additional $60,000. We thank two generous contributors for these matching grants!

There are several ways to donate. Head to our website for details on how to contribute: https://dragonrun.org/donate/

Without support from donors like you, land protection on this beautiful waterway wouldn't be possible. Thanks to everyone who has donated so far!

07/20/2026

Wilderness areas and wetlands are irreplaceable treasures that connect our past, enrich our present, and safeguard our future. Today, these remarkable landscapes face unprecedented threats. Protecting them requires urgent action and a stronger commitment to preserving the habitats they support and the natural beauty they offer for generations to come.

For forty years, Friends of Dragon Run has helped to preserve the Dragon Run by purchasing land, managing the land to increase biodiversity, and protecting the wetlands and all the plants and animals who live there. We do this through fundraising, educational programs, volunteer activities, grant applications, and by working with other conservation organizations. FODR now owns and protects 1818 acres along the Dragon. Our fundraising for land acquisition is dependent on the generous donations from environmentalists like you!

An opportunity to purchase another property has presented itself to our organization, and with your contributions we can save this property from development.

As a kick-off to this fundraiser, the first $100,000 in donations will generate a match of $100,000 AND an additional $60,000. We thank two generous contributors for these matching grants!

Our goal for this campaign is $650,000.

Head to our website to learn about multiple ways to contribute! https://dragonrun.org/donate/

Thank you all to have donated so far!

07/08/2026

Coming up next week! 🗓️

On Wednesday, July 15, from 6-7pm, a Panel Discussion will take place presenting "Mapping the Dragon: An Indigenous History of Bacon's Rebellion". This event is both virtual and in person at the Jamestown Settlement Museum Building in Williamsburg.

Rarely acknowledged in historical narratives, Virginia’s Indigenous nations shaped American history in countless ways. A panel of experts highlight the Indigenous perspectives of what is now known as Bacon’s Rebellion, an event which occurred in the Dragon Run swamp in 1767.

The moderator for this event is Dr. Julie King, the George B. and Willma Reeves Endowed Chair in the Liberal Arts at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Panelists include Allyson Gray, a Pamunkey Citizen, Dr. Edward D. Ragan, the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Rappahannock Tribe, and Jeffrey W. Wright, Past President of Friends of Dragon Run and retired Army Colonel in Military Intelligence.

The Panelists will draw on traditional ecological knowledge alongside military history, environmental and archaeological evidence, and both traditional and non-traditional documents to highlight the Indigenous perspectives of Bacon’s Rebellion. This program is hosted at Jamestown Settlement.

To register for in person or virtual attendance, head to our Events page: https://dragonrun.org/events/