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The Potomac Conservancy acquired Sharpshin Island via charitable donation in 1996. The 5.3-acre island lies in the Potomac River in Montgomery County, MD, opposite a point north of Seneca Creek. The island is about two hundred yards long and very narrow, not more than fifty feet at its widest point. Like many of the islands on the Potomac, it usually has a flat beach at its head, a fairly open area, then denser foliage and trees toward the middle and to the foot. On the Maryland side, there is a small sandy beach about fifty feet downstream of the head. Fauna and flora include: painted turtles, great blue herons, Canada geese and ducks, and poison ivy. Sharpshin Island supports primarily a floodplain forest ecosystem of the sycamore-green ash-box elder-silver maple association with many mature deciduous trees and an understory of saplings, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, including a variety of native wildflowers. In spring, may apple, Virginia bluebell, spring beauty, wild violet, wild ginger, trillium sessile, and false Solomon’s seal are prevalent. Fauna: Sharpshin Island provides excellent waterfowl habitat, due to its high shoreline to land ratio. The shoreline is also important for mollusks, crustacea, amphibians, and reptiles. Various freshwater mussel (clam) species can be found on the island’s beaches. Mallard and wood ducks are quite common, as are Canada geese, great blue herons, green herons, and double-breasted cormorants. Fish inventories have not been conducted near the island, but species common to the Potomac islands include large and small mouth bass, rock bass, walleye, chain pickerel, tiger muskie, redbreast, sunfishes, bluegill, channel catfish, bullheads, black crappie, fallfish, yellow perch, carp, American eel, shorthead, several suckers, and variety of minnows, darters, and dace (Islands of the Potomac, MD DNR 1999).

The Potomac Conservancy acquired Sharpshin Island via charitable donation in 1996. The 5.3-acre island lies in the Potomac River in Montgomery County, MD, opposite a point north of Seneca Creek. The island is about two hundred yards long and very narrow, not more than fifty feet at its widest point. Like many of the islands on the Potomac, it usually has a flat beach at its head, a fairly open area, then denser foliage and trees toward the middle and to the foot. On the Maryland side, there is a small sandy beach about fifty feet downstream of the head. Fauna and flora i...