Shoreline Situation Report Stafford County, Virginia

W&M ScholarWorks Reports 1975 Shoreline Situation Report Stafford County, Virginia Carl H. Hobbs III Virginia Institute of Marine Science Gary F. Anderson Virginia Institute of Marine Science Dennis W. Owen Virginia Institute of Marine Science Peter Rosen Virginia Institute of Marine Science Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/reports Part of the Environmental Monitoring Commons, Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons, and the Water Resource Management Commons Recommended Citation Hobbs, C. H., Anderson, G. F., Owen, D. W., & Rosen, P. (1975) Shoreline Situation Report Stafford County, Virginia. Special Report In Applied Marine Science and Ocean Engineering Number 79. Virginia Institute of Marine Science, William & Mary. https://doi.org/10.21220/V5PB01 This Report is brought to you for free and open access by W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Reports by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Shoreline Situation Report ST AFFORD COUNTY, VIRGINIA Special Report In Applied Marine Science and Ocean Engineering Number 79 Chesapeake Research Consortium Report Number 13 Supported by the National Science Foundation, Research Applied to National Needs Program NSF Grant Nos. GI 34869 and GI 38973 to the Chesapeake Research Consortium, Inc. Published With Funds Provided to the Commonwealth by the Office of Coastal Zone Management National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Grant No. 04-5-158-50001 VIRGINIA INSTITUTE OF MARINE SCIENCE Gloucester Point, Virginia 23062 1975 Shoreline Situation Report ST AFFORD COUNTY, VIRGINIA Special Report In Applied Marine Science and Ocean Engineering Number 79 Chesapeake Research Consortium Report Number 13 Prepared by: Carl H. Hobbs Ill and Gary L. Anderson Dennis W. Owen Peter Rosen Project Supervisors: Robert J. Byrne John M. Zeigler Supported by the National Science Foundation, Research Applied to National Needs Program NSF Grant Nos. GI 34869 and GI 38973 to the Chesapeake Research Consortium, Inc. Published With Funds Provided to the Commonwealth by the Office of Coastal Zone Management National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Grant No. 04-5-158-50001 VIRGINIA INSTITUTE OF MARINE SCIENCE William J. Hargis Jr., Director Gloucester Point, Virginia 23062 1975 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATiONS Page Page CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 FIGURE 1: Shorelands components 5 1.1 Purposes and goals 2 FIGURE 2: Marsh types 5 1 .2 Acknowledgments 2 FIGURE 3: Aerial view of Youbedamn Landing 14 FIGURE 4: Ground view of Youbedamn Landing 14 CHAPTER 2: APPROACH USED AND ELEMENTS CONSIDERED 3 FIGURB 5: Aerial view north of Marlboro Point 14 2. 1 Approach to the problem 4 FIGURE 6: Ground view near Marlboro Point 14 2.2 Characteristics of the shorelands included in the study 4 TABLE 1: Shorelands physiography 15 TABLE 2: Subsegment summaries 21 CHAPTER 3: PRESENT SHORELANIJS SITUATION 9 MAPS 1A, 1B, 1C: Stafford County 16 3. 1 The shorelands of Stafford County 10 MAPS 2A, 2B, 2C: Quantico 29 3.2 Shoreline erosion 10 MAPS 3A, 3B, 3C: Brent Marsh 33 3.3 Potential use enhancement 11 MAPS 4A, 4B, 4C: Lower Aquia Creek 37 MAPS 5A, 5B, 5C: Upper Aquia Creek 41 CHAPTER 4: TABULATED RESULTS 19 MAPS 6A, 6B, 6C: Marlboro Point 45 4. 1 Table of subsegment summaries 21 MAPS 7 A, 7B, 7C: Rappahannock River 49 4.2 Segment and subsegment descriptions 22 MAPS 8A, 8B, 8C: Rappahannock River 53 Segment 1 22 Segment 2 22 Segment 3 23 Segment 4 24 Segment 5 25 Segment 6 26 4.3 Segment and subsegment maps 27 CHAPTER 1 Introduction CHAPrER 1 Recreation may be most useful at a higher governmental level. INTRODUCTION Transportation The Connnonwealth of Virginia has traditionally Waste disposal chosen to nlace as much as possible, the regula 1 • 1 PURPOS E3 AND GOALS Extraction of living and non-living tory decision processes at the county level. The It is the objective of this report to supply resources Virginia Wetlands Act of 1972 (Chapter 2.1, Title an assessment, and at least a partial integration, Aside from the above uses, the shorelands serve 62.1, Code of Virginia), for example, provides for of those important shoreland parameters and char various ecological functions. the establishment of County Boards to act on ap acteristics which will aid the planners and the The role of planners and managers is to opti plications for alterations of wetlands. Thus, our managers of the shorelands in making the best de mize the utilization of the shorelands and to min focus at the county level is intended to interface cisions for the utilization of this limited and imize the conflicts arising from competing demands. with and to support the existing or pending county very valuable resource. The report gives partic Furthermore, once a particular use has been decided regulatory mechanisms concerning activities in the ular attention to the problem of shore erosion and upon for a given segment of shoreland, both the shorelands zone. to reconnnendations concerning the alleviation of planners and the users want that selecten use to the impact of this problem. In addition we have operate in the most effective manner. A park 1 • 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS tried to include in our assessment some of the po planner, for example, wants the allotted space to This report was prepared with funds provided tential uses of the shoreline, particularly with fulfill the design most efficiently. We hope that by the Research Applied to National Needs Program respect to recreational use, since such informa the results of our work are useful to the planner (RANN) of the National Science Foundation adminis tion could be of considerable value in the way a in designing the beach by pointing out the techni tered through the Chesapeake Research Consortium particular segment of coast is ~erceived by poten cal feasibility of altering or enhancing the pres (ORO), Inc. Publication funds were provided tial users. ent configuration of the shore zone. Alternately, through the Coastal Zone Management Act, P.L. The basic advocacy of the authors in the prep if the use were a residential development, we would 92-583, as administered in the Connnonwealth of aration of the report is that the use of shore hope our work would be useful in specifying the Virginia, Grant Number 04-5-158-50001. George lands should be planned rather than haphazardly shore erosion problem and by indicating defenses Dawes, Ken Moore, and Gene Silberhorn of the VIMS developed in response to the short term pressures likely to succeed in containing the erosion. In Wetlands Research Section contributed to the data and interests. Careful planning could reduce the sunnnary our objective is to provide a useful tool collection. Gaynor Williams, Martha Patton, and conflicts which may be expected to arise between for enlightened utilization of a limited resource, Mike Carron assisted with the data reduction and competing interests. Shoreland utilization in the shorelands of the Connnonwealth. editing. Beth Marshall typed the manuscript. many areas of the country, and indeed in some Shorelands planning occurs, either formally or Russell Bradley, Joe Gilley, Mike Carron, Ken places in Virginia, has proceeded in a manner such informally, at all levels from the private owner of Thornberry, and Bill Jenkins prepared the graphics. that the very elements which attracted people to shoreland property to county governments, to We also thank the numerous other persons who have the shore have been destroyed by the lack of planning districts and to the state and federal assisted us with criticism, connnents, ideas, and planning and forethought. agency level. We feel our results will be useful information. The major man-induced uses of the shorelands at all these levels. Since the most basic level of are: comprehensive planning and zoning is at the county Residential, connnercial, or industrial or city level, we have executed our report on that development level although we realize some of the information 2 CHAPTER 2 Approach Used and Elements Considered 3 CHAPTER 2 the subsegment. Segments are a grouping of subseg be considered as being composed of three inter APPROACH USED ANTI ELEl\!IENTS CONSIDERED ments. The boundaries for segments also were se acting physiographic elements: the fastlands, the lected on physiographic units such as necks or shore and the ~earshore. A graphic classifica 2. 1 APPROACH TO THE PROBLEl\!I peninsulas between major tidal creeks. Finally, tion based on these three elements has been de In the preparation of this report the authors the county itself is considered as a sum of shore vised so that the types for each of the three ele utilized existing information wherever possible. line segments. ments portrayed side by side on a map may provide For example, for such elements as water quality The format of presentation in the report fol the opportunity to examine joint relationships characteristics, zoning regulations or flood haz lows a sequence from general summary statements for among the elements. As an example, the applica ard, we reviewed relevant reports by local, state, the county (Chapter 3) to tabular segment summaries tion of the system permits the user to determine or federal agencies. Much of the desired informa and finally detailed descriptions and maps for each miles of high bluff shoreland interfacing with tion, particularly with respect to erosional char subsegment (Chapter 4). The purpose in choosjng iarsh in the shore zone. acteristics, shoreland types, and use was not this format was to allow selective use of the report Definitions: available, so we performed the field work and de since some users' needs will adequately be met with Shore Zone veloped classification schemes. In order to ana the summary overview of the county while others will This is the zone of beaches and marshes.

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