Roaring Plains West Wilderness | |
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Location | West Virginia, United States |
Coordinates | 38°56′17″N79°25′56″W / 38.93806°N 79.43222°W |
Area | 6,792 acres (27.49 km2) [2] |
Average elevation | 4,500 |
Max. elevation | 4,770 |
Established | 2009 [2] |
Operator | Monongahela National Forest |
The Roaring Plains West Wilderness is a U.S. Wilderness Area in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia, USA. It is part of the Monongahela National Forest and includes Mount Porte Crayon, the sixth highest point in the state.
Known as "Roaring Plains West" to the advocates of a much larger area (15,138 acres) of proposed wilderness preservation, the RPW consists of 6,820 acres (27.6 km2) set aside by the Wild Monongahela Act, which was made law on 30 March 2009. (There are also areas known as "Roaring Plains North" and "Roaring Plains East" not included in the WMA.) Along with neighboring Flatrock Plains, these areas comprise the highest plateau in the eastern United States.
The Roaring Plains and Flatrock Plains areas include portions of Randolph and Pendleton Counties. These high-elevation plateaux, which encompass the highest sphagnum bogs in West Virginia, consist of vast expanses of rocky, tree-studded plains surrounded by rock outcrops and cliffs offering impressive views of the surrounding mountain ridges. Elevations range from 2,360 to 4,770 feet (1,450 m) and the area includes the Allegheny Front, the name for the Eastern Continental Divide in this area. The bogs serve to regulate stream flow at the headwaters for both sides of the Front. Recreational trails provide loops within the area as well as connecting to Red Creek Plains, Dolly Sods Wilderness and even further north to Canaan Valley.
An average of 180 inches (15 ft) of snow falls on the area annually, affording opportunities for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. Snow typically falls from early October into early May. Blizzard conditions can frequent the high ground above 4,000 feet from November into April making travel perilous at times.
About 5.5 square miles (14 square km) lie at or above the 4,500 foot contour, making this the largest and highest flat-topped plateau in eastern North America.
The dominant vegetation in the RPW consists of a mesic habitat with red spruce, mixed hardwoods and open brush terrain. Extensive and virtually impenetrable mountain laurel and rhododendron thickets are also present. (The former bloom spectacularly in late June with pink and white blossoms.) The seven known high-elevation wetlands (sphagnum bogs) provide habitat to rare plants and animals such as the snowshoe hare, bog lemming, bobcat and fisher. The area provides protection to the federally threatened Cheat Mountain salamander. Deer, turkey, black bear and other native animals are abundant.
The Allegheny Mountain Range, informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less developed eras. The Allegheny Mountains have a northeast–southwest orientation, running for about 300 miles (480 km) from north-central Pennsylvania southward, through western Maryland and eastern West Virginia.
The Monongahela National Forest is a national forest located in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia, USA. It protects over 921,000 acres of federally managed land within a 1,700,000 acres proclamation boundary that includes much of the Potomac Highlands Region and portions of 10 counties.
The Allegheny Front is the major southeast- or east-facing escarpment in the Allegheny Mountains in southern Pennsylvania, western Maryland, eastern West Virginia, and western Virginia. The Allegheny Front forms the boundary between the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians to its east and the Appalachian Plateau to its west. The Front is closely associated with the Appalachian Mountains' Eastern Continental Divide, which in this area divides the waters of the Ohio/Mississippi river system, flowing to the Gulf of Mexico, from rivers flowing into Chesapeake Bay and from there into the Atlantic Ocean.
The Dolly Sods Wilderness is a U.S. Wilderness Area in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia and is part of the Monongahela National Forest of the U.S. Forest Service.
The Appalachian Plateau is a series of rugged dissected plateaus located on the western side of the Appalachian Mountains. The Appalachian Mountains are a range that run from Nova Scotia in Canada to Alabama in the United States.
Bald Knob is the highest summit of Back Allegheny Mountain in Pocahontas County, West Virginia and is part of Cass Scenic Railroad State Park. At an altitude of 4,843 feet (1,476 m) above sea level, Bald Knob is the third-highest point in West Virginia and the Allegheny Mountains.
Bear Rocks is a widely recognized symbol of West Virginia wilderness and among the most frequently photographed places in the state. It is a well-known landmark on the eastern edge of the plateau that includes the Dolly Sods Wilderness. It sits in a high-elevation heathland punctuated with wind-carved sandstone outcrops and is home to more than a dozen rare plant and animal species. Situated on the crest of the Allegheny Front, Bear Rocks afford vistas over the South Branch Potomac River. Visibility can extend eastward to the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.
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, 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.
The Potomac Highlands of West Virginia centers on five West Virginian counties in the upper Potomac River watershed in the western portion of the state's Eastern Panhandle, bordering Maryland and Virginia. Because of geographical proximity, similar topography and landscapes, and shared culture and history, the Potomac Highlands region also includes Pocahontas, Randolph, and Tucker counties, even though they are in the Monongahela River or New River watersheds and not that of the Potomac River.
Mount Porte Crayon is a mountain in the Roaring Plains Wilderness of the Monongahela National Forest in the northeastern corner of Randolph County, West Virginia, USA. It rises to an elevation of 4,770 feet (1,450 m), the elevational climax of the Allegheny Front. The mountain is named for 19th century writer and illustrator David Hunter Strother (1816–88), known as "Porte Crayon", who produced a wide array of early West Virginia landscapes in his work.
Shavers Fork Mountain Complex is the name given to the mountains on either side of Shavers Fork in the highlands portions of Randolph County, Pocahontas County, and Tucker County in West Virginia, USA. Much of the land surrounding the river and its adjacent mountains is protected by Monongahela National Forest including about 20,000 acres (81 km2) of designated wilderness.
The Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests is an ecoregion of the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund. It consists of mesophytic plants west of the Appalachian Mountains in the Southeastern United States.
The Appalachian–Blue Ridge forests are an ecoregion in the Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests Biome, in the Eastern United States. The ecoregion is located in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains, including the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians and the Blue Ridge Mountains. It covers an area of about 61,500 square miles (159,000 km2) in: northeast Alabama and Georgia, northwest South Carolina, eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and central West Virginia and Pennsylvania; and small extensions into Kentucky, New Jersey, and New York.
Canaan Valley is a large bathtub-shaped upland valley in northeastern Tucker County, West Virginia, USA. Within it are extensive wetlands and the headwaters of the Blackwater River which spills out of the valley at Blackwater Falls. It is a well-known and partially undeveloped scenic attraction and tourist draw. Since 1994, almost 70% of the Valley has become the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge, the nation's 500th National Wildlife Refuge, with Canaan Valley Resort State Park and Blackwater Falls State Park nearby.
The New England-Acadian forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregion in North America that includes a variety of habitats on the hills, mountains and plateaus of New England and New York State in the Northeastern United States, and Quebec and the Maritime Provinces of Eastern Canada.
Back Allegheny Mountain is a long mountain ridge in eastern West Virginia. It is part of the Shavers Fork Mountain Complex in the Allegheny Range of the Appalachians.
The Big Draft Wilderness is a 5,144-acre (2,082 ha) U.S. Wilderness area in the Monongahela National Forest of southeast West Virginia, USA. Its name derives from the nearby Big Draft, a tributary of Anthony Creek which is a tributary of the Greenbrier River. Big Draft Wilderness occupies the southernmost acreage of the Monongahela National Forest and is located just south of the Blue Bend Recreation Area. The town White Sulphur Springs lies about 5 miles south of the Wilderness and about 15 miles northeast of Lewisburg.
Hickory Flats is an area in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests of western Virginia that has been recognized by the Wilderness Society as a special place worthy of protection from logging and road construction. It is in a remote location at the headwaters of two streams with a wetland that contains rare plants and provides an unusual habitat for wildlife.
Beartown Wilderness is a U.S. wilderness area in the Eastern Divide Ranger District of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. The Wilderness consists of 5,613 acres (22.72 km2) of land with elevations ranging from 2,400 to 4,800 feet. It was created from existing National Forest lands in 1984 by the Virginia Wilderness Act of 1984.
Stone Mountain Wilderness is a U.S. wilderness area in the Clinch Ranger District of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. It is a small tract of land in western Virginia, consisting of an area of 3,273 acres (13.25 km2) next to the banks of the Powell River. It was designated as wilderness area in 2009 by Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009.