The Value of Barrier Islands

From Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge:

If you study a map of the Atlantic coast, you’ll quickly notice that Assateague is but one of many barrier islands in the United States. You'll notice the bustling beach towns of Surf City and Ocean City in New Jersey & Maryland as well popular coastal getaways in the Carolinas such as Emerald Isle and the Outer Banks. But sandwiched between these highly developed vacation hubs are a series of small islands with big value for people and wildlife alike. The Mid-Atlantic coast features a series of protected lands (shown here), including Assateague Island. The value of these barrier islands is described by The Nature Conservancy as an, “extraordinary natural infrastructure [that] helps to buffer Eastern Shore communities from storms, as well as thousands of acres of pristine salt marshes, vast tidal mudflats, shallow bays, and productive forest uplands.” Essentially, these barrier islands are protected for the benefit of people and wildlife.
But our refuge can’t achieve this scale of protection alone. As this map shows, we work to manage Virginia’s barrier islands in cooperation with DC, MD, VA - Nature Conservancy, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Eastern Shore of VA and Fisherman Island NWR, and NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.




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