Youngkin’s Director of DCR responds to Weir Point controversy

Following ShoreDailyNews.com’s report on the Virginia Department of Conservation Resources Staff informing locals enjoying a beach day on Memorial Day Weekend that they would no longer be allowed do several traditional beach activities, Governor Youngkin’s Director of the agency involved has weighed in. The incident took place at Weir Point, the beachfront section of Parker’s Marsh Natural Area Preserve at the mouth of Onancock Creek.

Matthew S. Wells, Director of DCR, explained that Weir Point has been part of the state’s Natural Area Preserve system since 1999. The area is “protected in perpetuity to preserve sensitive habitats for a range of plant and animal species, including the American oystercatcher, willet, diamondback terrapin, and the federally threatened northeastern beach tiger beetle—which was once found all over beaches along the Atlantic Ocean but has experienced dramatic habitat loss and population declines.”

In his statement, Wells confirmed that protecting birds and tiger beetles was a primary factor behind the enforcement of long-standing rules that had gone unenforced, whose breeding season runs from April 15 through August 30.

The northeastern beach tiger beetle is a small, sand-colored insect found on Atlantic coast beaches. Once widespread, its numbers have declined due to habitat loss and disturbance. Now federally threatened, it survives in only a few areas, including Virginia’s Eastern Shore, where it helps control insect populations and signals the health of fragile beach ecosystems.

He said the preserve remains open to the public for low-impact activities such as birdwatching, hiking, and wildlife photography. According to the DCR website, “This preserve prohibits sand disturbance, tents, kites, umbrellas, or rolling carts or coolers. Bicycles, camping, fires, unleashed pets, hunting, off-road vehicles, and removal or destruction of plants, animals, minerals, or historic artifacts are prohibited on all Virginia Natural Area Preserves.”

Parker’s Marsh is one of nine natural area preserves managed by two full-time DCR staff members on the Eastern Shore. The agency emphasized its ongoing commitment to balancing public access with the need to protect the rare and fragile ecosystems these preserves were created to safeguard.

Parker’s Marsh has been a popular beach destination for locals for more than 80 years. It was donated to the Commonwealth of Virginia by Dr. John Robertson, a doctor who is known for his photography of the Shore in the early 1900s. He released a book of his photography, “On Land And Sea, A Pictorial Review of the Eastern Shore of Virginia” which included an entire page of photographs of families enjoying beach days on Weir Point in the 1960s.