About

The Potomac Sentinel Landscape spans 1.6 million acres and includes a variety of land cover (forests, grasslands, wetlands, farmland, rivers, and shorelines) that support essential military missions across Northern Virginia.

The Potomac Sentinel Landscape contains three critical military installations that play a vital role in defense readiness: Marine Corps Base Quantico, Fort A.P. Hill, and Fort Lee. These strategically located assets enable rapid transition from training to battlefield operations, delivering critical force projection capabilities for national security. Quantico, known as the “Crossroads of the Marine Corps,” spans 54,000 acres and 184 square miles of airspace, supporting joint live-fire and aviation training. Fort Walker provides 76,000 acres for year-round, multi-branch training and room to maneuver, while Fort Lee, the Army’s third busiest training site, trains over 70,000 soldiers annually.

Rapid development and infrastructure expansion in this high-growth region of Virginia increasingly threaten the training capacity and operational readiness of these military installations. These bases depend on surrounding open lands to preserve dark skies, reduce noise conflicts, and maintain critical maneuver space. Safeguarding working farms, forests, and open space within the Potomac Sentinel Landscape is essential to protecting them from incompatible development. Through supporting land conservation, compatible land use, and mission-critical green and grey infrastructure enhancement, the Potomac Sentinel Landscape helps to ensure operational flexibility, uninterrupted training access, and continuity of operations.