On December 21, 2001, BLM and the State of Maryland jointly acquired about 1,270 acres of land known as Douglas Point, lying along the Potomac River in Charles County. This area, one of the last remaining undeveloped tracts along the Potomac River, near fast-growing Washington, DC, offers outstanding potential for recreation, wildlife habitat, and cultural resources. The Douglas Point tract contains magnificent hardwood forests. Other unique resources in the general vicinity include the site of a Civil War encampment of approximately 25,000 troops; archeological sites; wildlife habitat for a wide variety of terrestrial and aquatic species; and unique wetland, woodland, and aquatic habitat including evolving ecosystems at the Mallows Bay shipwrecks.

The first BLM designated Heritage National Scenic Trail segment in the east can be found in the recently acquired Douglas Point Special Recreation Management Area, part of the Nanjemoy Natural Resource Management Area, managed jointly by the BLM and the State of Maryland, Department of Natural Resources. The Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail BLM segment loops through the 540 acre Douglas Point property, and is open to all non-motorized travel. The highlights of the trail include the colonial era Chiles homesite, deer, wild turkey, numerous waterfowl and waterbirds, a diversity of coastal plain migratory song birds, and a mixed hardwood forest with a diversity of understory wildflowershere is also a spur trail to a small beach and a Potomac river overlook at the north end of the property. This beach is also a designated as a water stop for the State of Maryland water trail component of the PHNST.

For more information about the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail, please visit the Potomac Trace website.