Big Spring Bog Natural Area Preserve

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Big Spring Bog Natural Area Preserve
USA Virginia location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location within Virginia
Location Grayson County, Virginia
Coordinates 36°34′4.2″N80°55′39.5″W / 36.567833°N 80.927639°W / 36.567833; -80.927639 Coordinates: 36°34′4.2″N80°55′39.5″W / 36.567833°N 80.927639°W / 36.567833; -80.927639
Area 50 acres (20 ha)
Governing body Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation

Big Spring Bog Natural Area Preserve is a 50-acre (20 ha) Natural Area Preserve located in Grayson County, Virginia. The terrain is hilly, and within its borders is Chestnut Creek, a tributary of the New River. The preserve features a rare wetland known as a "cranberry glade". [1]

Virginia Natural Area Preserve System

The Virginia Natural Area Preserve System is a system of protected areas in the state of Virginia. It is managed by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Grayson County, Virginia County in the United States

Grayson County is a county located in the southwestern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 15,533. Its county seat is Independence. Mount Rogers, the state's highest peak at 5,729 feet (1,746 m), is in Grayson County.

Chestnut Creek is a river in the state of Virginia.

Contents

The preserve is owned and maintained by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, and is open to public visitation only through prior arrangement with a state-employed land steward. [1]

The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation is a department of the government of Virginia; it oversees all Virginia state parks and Natural Area Preserves.

See also

Cranberry Glades

Cranberry Glades — also known simply as The Glades — are a cluster of five small, boreal-type bogs in southwestern Pocahontas County, West Virginia, United States. This area, high in the Allegheny Mountains at about 3,400 feet (1,000 m), is protected as the Cranberry Glades Botanical Area, part of the Monongahela National Forest. This site is the headwaters of the Cranberry River, a popular trout stream, and is adjacent to the nearly 50,000-acre (200 km2) Cranberry Wilderness.

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Folly Mills Creek Fen Natural Area Preserve

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Mutton Hunk Fen Natural Area Preserve

Mutton Hunk Fen Natural Area Preserve is a 516-acre (2.09 km2) Natural Area Preserve located in Accomack County, Virginia. Fronting on the Atlantic Ocean's Gargathy Bay to the east, it is also bounded by Whites Creek and Mutton Hunk Branch to its north. The property contains a rare "sea level fen" community, one of only four in Virginia. Despite the proximity to the ocean's saltwater, freshwater wetland plants are able to survive in this environment due to the influence of freshwater springs. Acidic conditions also encourage the growth of plants normally found in bogs, in addition to tidal freshwater wetland plants; five of the species found at the preserve are regionally rare.

Pinnacle Natural Area Preserve

Pinnacle Natural Area Preserve is an 891-acre (361 ha) Natural Area Preserve in Russell County, Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Clinch River and Big Cedar Creek, the preserve's namesake and centerpiece is the Pinnacle, a dolomite formation rising 400 feet (120 m) above the creek.

Pedlar Hills Glades Natural Area Preserve

Pedlar Hills Glades Natural Area Preserve is a 1,036-acre (4.19 km2) Natural Area Preserve located in Montgomery County, Virginia. Rising over the South Fork of the Roanoke River, it supports numerous rare plants and natural communities, including a dolomite barren. Among the species found within the preserve are tall gay-feather and Addison's leatherflower, the latter endemic to Virginia.

Redrock Mountain Natural Area Preserve

Redrock Mountain Natural Area Preserve is a 640-acre (260 ha) Natural Area Preserve located in Smyth County, Virginia. The preserve is named for the 4,413-foot (1,345 m) Redrock Mountain, which itself is named for its red siltstone cliffs. It supports a number of rare natural features, and two natural community types, including examples of "mountain/piedmont basic woodlands" upon the mountain's slopes, and "rich cove/slope forests" in the preserve's lowlands. Five rare plant species are found on the property, including spring blue-eyed Mary, fringed scorpion-weed, and Carey saxifrage.

Savage Neck Dunes Natural Area Preserve

Savage Neck Dunes Natural Area Preserve is a 298-acre (121 ha) Natural Area Preserve located in Northampton County, Virginia on the Chesapeake Bay. Fifty-foot-tall (15 m) dunes within the preserve are among the highest points on Virginia's Eastern Shore. The preserve contains beach, dune, and maritime forest natural communities of various sorts, as well as habitat for migratory songbirds and northeastern beach tiger beetles. Regionally rare plants at the preserve include Engelmann's umbrella-sedge, dwarf burhead, and southern bladderwort.

The Cedars Natural Area Preserve

The Cedars Natural Area Preserve is a Natural Area Preserve located in Lee County, Virginia. It protects rare plant and animal species adapted to the unique conditions of a karst landscape.

References

  1. 1 2 "Big Spring Bog Natural Area Preserve". Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. Retrieved December 13, 2016.