The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) is a state agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, situated in the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. It is best known for its parks and parkways. The DCR's mission is "To protect, promote and enhance our common wealth of natural, cultural and recreational resources for the well-being of all." The agency is the largest landowner in Massachusetts.
The Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves is an agency of the Commonwealth of Kentucky in the United States dedicated to the protection of Kentucky's natural heritage. The agency's primary focus is protecting rare and endangered species habitat. It oversees a statewide program of nature preserves, the Kentucky Wild Rivers Program, and the "Nature's Finest" license plate program of the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund Board. The program was formerly known as the "Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission", from 1976 until a reorganization in 2018.
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.
The Antioch Pines Natural Area Preserve is a 1,157-acre (4.68 km2) Natural Area Preserve located along the Blackwater River near Zuni, Virginia. It contains growths of loblolly pine and turkey oak, and supports various species that are rare in Virginia, including Plukenet's flatsedge, sandy-woods chaffhead and viperina; in addition, swales support various species of wildflowers, including orchids, trilliums, bellworts and lilies. Also on the property are a pair of longleaf pines which represent some of the last of the species in Virginia; they are currently the subject of a breeding program by the Virginia Department of Forestry designed to restore the pines to their former habitat.
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.
Chestnut Creek Wetlands Natural Area Preserve is a 244-acre (99 ha) Natural Area Preserve located in Floyd County, Virginia. Local wetlands support several rare species, while the upland slopes support northern hardwoods including beech, birch, and maple. The area has a long farming and grazing history, but the wetlands have survived, dominated by sedges and grasses with few trees and shrubs. The property was acquired using a voter-approved state government bond and a recovery grant from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
Chotank Creek Natural Area Preserve is a 1,108-acre (4.48 km2) Natural Area Preserve located in King George County, Virginia. The preserve is situated east of Caledon State Park, and borders the Potomac River to which the preserve's namesake, Chotank Creek, is a tributary. It is part of the larger Cedar Grove farm, which is protected by a conservation easement. The preserve was dedicated in 2001 through an agreement with the property's private landowner.
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.
Dameron Marsh Natural Area Preserve is a 316-acre (128 ha) Natural Area Preserve located in Northumberland County, Virginia. It is one in a series of protected areas lining the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, and contains one of the region's most significant wetlands for marsh-bird habitats. Its pristine beaches serve as a home for the northeastern beach tiger beetle. Some of the land had been used in the past for agriculture, however these former fields were restored to forest through the combined efforts of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, The Nature Conservancy, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
Deep Run Ponds Natural Area Preserve is a 907-acre (3.67 km2) Natural Area Preserve in Rockingham County, Virginia. The preserve contains one of the largest remaining systems of Shenandoah Valley sinkhole ponds in Virginia. Such ponds are found in Rockingham and Augusta counties; their water levels fluctuate throughout the year. The preserve's eight sinkhole ponds support a variety of rare plant and animal life; two ponds support the rare Virginia sneezeweed, while others contain black-fruited spikerush, northern St. John's-wort, Buxbaum's sedge, and northern bog clubmoss.
False Cape Natural Area Preserve is a 3,573-acre (14.46 km2) Natural Area Preserve located in Virginia Beach, Virginia, just north of the state border with North Carolina. The preserve covers a one-by-six-mile strip of largely undeveloped land located on False Cape between the Atlantic Ocean and Back Bay, and is one of the most undisturbed areas of coastal habitat remaining in the Mid-Atlantic.
Folly Mills Creek Fen Natural Area Preserve is a Natural Area Preserve located in Augusta County, Virginia. The preserve was dedicated in 1998, and was the first privately owned Natural Area Preserve to be dedicated in the state.
Goshen Pass Natural Area Preserve is a 936-acre (3.79 km2) Natural Area Preserve located in Rockbridge County, Virginia. The oldest state-managed natural area in Virginia, it was first acquired in 1954 to help protect views of the gorge along the Maury River. The site contains stands of chestnut oak, pine-oak-heath woodland, rocky scrub communities, regionally rare plants such as freshwater cordgrass, and habitat for the Appalachian jewelwing, a locally rare damselfly. The site was dedicated as a preserve in 2001.
Mount Joy Pond Natural Area Preserve is a 359-acre (1.45 km2) Natural Area Preserve located in Augusta County, Virginia in the United States. Located on the western side of the Blue Ridge Mountains, it supports a large population of the rare Virginia sneezeweed. This and other plants are associated with a large sinkhole pond, the centerpiece of the property; fewer than two dozen such ponds remain in Augusta and neighboring Rockingham County. Much of the surrounding landscape consists of hardwoods and pines.
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.
Pedlar Hills Glades Natural Area Preserve is a 1,177-acre (4.76 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.
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.
Clinch River State Park is a river-based state park in Tazewell, Russell, Wise, and Scott counties in Southwest Virginia. It was dedicated by Gov. Ralph Northam on 16 June 2021 as the 41st park in the Virginia State Park system. The park preserves some of the most scenic and ecologically diverse parts of the Clinch River. It is the first "blueway" park in the Commonwealth.
