2026 SESSION
ENROLLED
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 37
Commending the Friends of Dyke Marsh.
Agreed to by the Senate, January 22, 2026
Agreed to by the House of Delegates, January 26, 2026
WHEREAS, for 50 years, the Friends of Dyke Marsh has supported the preservation, restoration, and enhancement of Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve, a 480-acre freshwater tidal wetland on the Potomac River in Fairfax County and one of the last freshwater tidal marshes in the Washington, D.C., area; and
WHEREAS, in 1959, the United States Congress designated Dyke Marsh as an “irreplaceable wetland” and added it to the National Park System “so that fish and wildlife development and their preservation as wetland wildlife habitat shall be paramount”; and
WHEREAS, Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve is currently managed by the U.S. National Park Service as a unit of the George Washington Memorial Parkway; and
WHEREAS, the Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve has diverse habitats of open water, tidal, narrowleaf cattail marsh, and deciduous swamp forest, that are home to at least 300 species of plants, thousands of arthropods, 38 fish, 25 reptiles, 22 amphibians, and more than 294 species of birds, including 40 species of marsh-breeding birds; and
WHEREAS, Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve is one of the most significant temperate, climax, riverine, narrowleaf cattail marshes in the National Park System, a remnant of marshes that once lined the Potomac River; and