Comeback Kid National Forests | The Nature Conservancy

West Virginia: The Comeback Kid

Protecting National Forests

How we're helping to expand the Monongahela National Forest.

Winter scene along Spruce run in the Thunderstruck Conservation area of Randolph County, West Virginia. The Nature Conservancy purchased a 272 acre conservation easement on this property from Thunderstruck Conservation, LLC. The easement will permanently prevent commercial logging, mining and residential development on the property, which is surrounded by the Monongahela National Forest, not far from the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area and the proposed Roaring Plains Wilderness Area, as well as, the Conservancy’s Bear Rocks Preserve. © Kent Mason

A broad swath of West Virginia’s iconic mountain landscape was protected earlier this year when the Conservancy helped the U.S. Forest Service add 1,100 acres to the Monongahela National Forest.

The land, bordering Roaring Plains Wilderness and Mount Porte Crayon, includes red spruce and hardwood forests and subterranean sinkholes, and is home to rare species like the Cheat Mountain salamander and Virginia big-eared bat, as well as native brook trout.

The agreement was funded through the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund and is just the most recent example of how the Conservancy is helping to restore West Virginia’s most beautiful landscapes by encouraging the growth of national forests, which protect more than a million acres in the Mountain State.

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Celebrate More Comebacks:
Restoring High Elevation Spruce Habitat
Keeping Canaan Valley Wet
West Virginia Is A Prairie State, Too

November 07, 2011