| Fast Facts |
location
Allegheny Mountains, 90 miles west of Charlottesville
ecoregion
Central Appalachian Forest
project size
562 square miles
preserves
Warm Springs Mountain
public lands
George Washington National Forest, Douthat State Park
partners
U.S. Forest Service, Cowpasture River Preservation Association, Valley Conservation Council, Virginia Outdoors Foundation, state government, private landowners
conservancy initiatives
Invasive Species
natural events
spectacular foliage display, fall | |
 | |
 |
|
|
|
A keystone land acquisition on Warm Springs Mountain knits together thousands of acres of undeveloped land in the central Appalachians. |
|
 |
The view from Warm Springs Mountain.
© Byron Jorjorian |
|
The view from Warm Springs Mountain is a rolling sea of mountain and vale clear to the western horizon—an unexpected, unbroken forest in a well-traversed part of America. For the Algonquin people, who were here before all others, the view was similarly infinite. These mountains still bear their word for “endless”: Allegheny
Following bison trails as did the Native Americans before them, colonists in the 1720s discovered the warm springs that gave the mountain its name. The reputed medicinal properties of their waters drew scores of colonial Americans, notable among them a young George Washington. The springs eventually gave rise to The Homestead, one of the country’s grandest resorts, and to the tradition of retreating to these gentle mountains to let nature renew body and spirit. More than a dozen U.S. presidents would later find refreshment and quietude in these highlands, including Thomas Jefferson, who visited the area frequently while planning the University of Virginia. |
Flame azalea.
© Byron Jorjorian |
|
Another sort of history pervades the mountain and the pristine Cowpasture River cutting along its toe. Ecologically, the area offers a window to the past, when all the eastern mountain ranges were as untrammeled as Warm Springs Mountain is today. Plants like bunchberry and unusual moths, increasingly rare in the central Appalachians, still flourish here. Common |
| hardwood forest gives way to rare montane pine barrens—a drier terrain of stunted pitch pine and other fire-dependent species. | |
Such biological richness drew the attention of Nature Conservancy scientists, who marked a large tract on Warm Springs Mountain as one of the keystone privately held parcels in the Central Appalachian Forest ecoregion. When the 9,000-acre tract came on the market in March 2002, we acquired it, securing a 13-mile boundary with undeveloped national forestlands and lots of room for migratory birds and black bear to roam. Battling invasive species and reintroducing fire to the landscape are the next challenges.
Learn more about The Nature Conservancy's work in Virginia. |
|
| Conservation Profile |
targets
montane pine and shale barrens, high-elevation wetlands, black bear, ruffed grouse, flame azalea, lady’s slippers, rare moths, dragonflies and damselflies, bunchberry, Fraser’s marsh St. John’s-wort
stresses
incompatible timber harvesting, invasive species, fire exclusion, residential development
strategies
combat invasive species, acquire land, secure conservation easements, encourage conservation management of public land, restore ecosystems through fire management
results
360,000 acres in conservation management; last large, privately owned parcel now protected | | | | |
