Caledon State Park is a 2,579-acre (10.44 km2) state park located in King George, Virginia. As of 2010, the yearly visitation was 49,328. The property was initially owned by the Alexander brothers, founders of the city of Alexandria, and was established in 1659 as Caledon Plantation. Ownership passed, in 1974, to the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Bethel Beach Natural Area Preserve is a 105-acre (42 ha) Natural Area Preserve located in Mathews County, Virginia, near the Chesapeake Bay. It contains beach, low dune, and salt marsh habitats, and provides a haven for rare marsh and colonial nesting birds, The preserve also protects habitat for two globally rare species, the northeastern beach tiger beetle and sea-beach knotweed.
Cherry Orchard Bog Natural Area Preserve is a 354-acre (143 ha) Natural Area Preserve located in Sussex and Prince George counties, Virginia. The preserve is owned and maintained by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). It does not include improvements for public access, and visitors must make arrangements with a state-employed land steward prior to visiting. The preserve is located along the right of way for a power line, receiving acidic, low-nutrient groundwater.
Cleveland Barrens Natural Area Preserve is a 1,288-acre (5.21 km2) Natural Area Preserve located within the Clinch River Valley in Russell County, Virginia.
Clover Hollow Natural Area Preserve is a Natural Area Preserve located in Giles County, Virginia. The 25-acre (10 ha) preserve protects Stay High Cave, which houses seven rare cave-dwelling invertebrate species, three of which are only known from the county's Sinking Creek Valley. More common species, such as salamanders, crickets, harvestmen, spiders, crayfish, and bats, also live within the cave's streams, riparian mud banks, and drip pools. Most water in the cave stream comes from forested slopes.
Cowbane Prairie Natural Area Preserve is a 156-acre (63 ha) Natural Area Preserve located in Augusta County, Virginia, along the western slope of the Blue Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley. It preserves both mesic and wet prairie habitats, as well as a calcareous spring-fed marsh; these areas contain eleven regionally rare plants such as queen-of-the-prairie, blueflag iris, and marsh-speedwell. Although common in the Midwest, these plants occur only at a handful of sites in Virginia.
Elklick Woodlands Natural Area Preserve is a 226-acre (91 ha) Natural Area Preserve located in Fairfax County, Virginia. Owned by the Fairfax County Park Authority, it is protected with a local conservation easement, and preserves a globally rare natural community known as a "northern hardpan basic oak-hickory forest". This kind of forest occurs on diabase soil with an underlay of dense plastic clay; such terrain is called "shrink-swell soil" due to extreme variations in moisture availability exhibited throughout the year. Trees which grow in such an environment are stunted, and their relatively open canopies encourage the growth of a wide variety of grasses and herbs in the understory. Such forests were once common around northern Virginia, but many have been lost due to increasing suburbanization of the area.
Grassy Hill Natural Area Preserve is a 1,440-acre (5.8 km2) Natural Area Preserve located in Franklin County, Virginia, just to the west of the town of Rocky Mount. The site is composed of rocky slopes with various hardwood species and patches of Virginia pine. Shallow basic soils, typified by heavy clay, are found among bedrock outcrops rich in magnesium. Rare woodland communities live upon these substrates, and numerous rare plants may be found within grassy forest clearings near the summit. Evidence at the preserve suggests that the majority of the site was once more open, and may have historically been maintained through a natural fire regime that has been suppressed during modern times.
Johnsons Creek Natural Area Preserve is a 99-acre (40 ha) Natural Area Preserve located in Alleghany County, Virginia. It contains a variety of trees, including ancient red cedars, oaks, and pines, all of which stand on steep shale bluffs overlooking Johnsons Creek.
Naked Mountain Natural Area Preserve is a 356-acre (1.44 km2) Natural Area Preserve located in Nelson County, Virginia. The preserve was dedicated in 2006.
North Landing River Natural Area Preserve is a 3,441-acre (13.93 km2) Natural Area Preserve located in Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States. It almost entirely consists of wetlands, including five wetland types considered rare in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The preserve protects pocosins, an increasingly scarce type of wetland in the southeastern United States; also in the area are a number of forested swamps and freshwater tidal marshes, all found along the lower North Landing River and supporting numerous rare species. Breeding and wintering waterfowl also make their home in the area.
Ogdens Cave Natural Area Preserve is a 131-acre (53 ha) Natural Area Preserve located in Frederick County, Virginia. The preserve protects a cave that carries a below-ground branch of Buffalo Marsh Run, which also flows overland through the preserve.
Parkers Marsh Natural Area Preserve is a 759-acre (307 ha) Natural Area Preserve located in Accomack County, Virginia. The preserve incorporates beach habitat along the Chesapeake Bay as well as low marsh, high marsh, shrubland, and forest vegetation; the wetlands provide a home for many different species of animals and plants. About 75% of the site is saltmarsh. Marsh elder and black cherry may be found on old dune ridges on the site, as may loblolly pine. Some lower dunes support various grassland species. Peregrine falcons have nested in the area since 1998, and the rare saltmarsh sparrow has been observed nesting at the site. In addition, the beach provides a home for the northeastern beach tiger beetle, listed as threatened in the United States.
Pinnacle Natural Area Preserve is an 1,147-acre (464 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.
Poor Mountain Natural Area Preserve is a 1,404-acre (568 ha) Natural Area Preserve located on Poor Mountain in Roanoke County, Virginia. The preserve protects the world's largest population of piratebush, a globally rare parasitic shrub. The mountain derives its name from the fact that the soils on its slopes are poor, due to their base of metamorphosed sandstone bedrock. The preserve's pine-oak/heath woodlands include Table Mountain pine, eastern hemlock, several species of oak, and shrubs including huckleberry, mountain laurel, and fetterbush.
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.
Unthanks Cave Natural Area Preserve is a 171-acre (69 ha) Natural Area Preserve in Lee County, Virginia. It protects the entrance to Unthanks Cave, which houses significant biological diversity and a wide variety of invertebrate life. The cave's streams drain a significant karst area south of the Powell River.
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.
Goshen and Little North Mountain Wildlife Management Area is a protected area located in Rockbridge and Augusta counties, Virginia. At 33,697 acres (136.37 km2), it is the largest Wildlife Management Area managed by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. The area comprises two parcels of land bisected by the Maury River; the lowest terrain is 1,326 feet (404 m) above sea level, while the highest is 3,400 feet (1,000 m). Three major mountains are found within the heavily forested area, in addition to a lesser amount of native herbaceous habitat.
Virginia Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) are state-managed protected areas that exist primarily for the benefit of wildlife. Within the Commonwealth of Virginia, 46 tracts of land have been protected as WMAs, covering a total of over 216,000 acres. They are managed and maintained by the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources.
