In December 2003, the Virginia Chapter of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) purchased 2,440 acres of working forest and sensitive lands in the Dragon Run watershed from the Hancock Timber Resource Group. These tracts protect rare plants and insects, and contain portions of the northernmost tidal influenced bald-cypress forest. The Dragon, a blackwater system, is part of the largest unfragmented forest block in the Chesapeake Bay, and will serve as a demonstration site for effective conservation strategies which may be replicated at other priority sites. A significant grant from the Forest Legacy Program will provide funding to transfer 1,700 acres to the Virginia Department of Forestry, creating a foothold for a new state forest. The Nature Conservancy will retain more than 700 acres and work with private landowners to protect high-quality wildlife habitat; promote sound land use policy in the Chesapeake region; address the impacts of non-native plant and fish species through research, control and monitoring programs; and reconnect forest systems through promoting the growth of longer rotations in working forests.