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Seven Sisters (conservation Area)
Seven Sisters, a wildland in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests of western Virginia, has been recognized by the The Wilderness Society (United States), Wilderness Society as a special place worthy of protection from logging and road construction. The Wilderness Society has designated the area as a "Mountain Treasure". The Seven sisters Trail, following the crest of Little Walker Mountain, offers good views of nearby Griffith Knob, the Big Bend of Walker Mountain and the Stony Fork Valley. The area is part of the ''Walker Mountain Cluster''. Location and access The area is in the Appalachian Mountains of Southwestern Virginia, east of adjoining US 52 and about 5 miles north of Wytheville, Virginia. A tunnel on Interstate 77 passes under its northeast corner. The only trail in the area is Forest Service Trail 6509, the Seven Sisters Trail, a 4.8 mile, yellow-blazed, difficult, hiking-and-mountain-bike trail that climbs from 2500 feet to 3300 feet while passin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wythe County, Virginia
Wythe County is a county located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 28,290. Its county seat is Wytheville. History Wythe County was formed from Montgomery County in 1790. It was named after George Wythe, the first Virginian signer of the Declaration of Independence. During the Civil War the Battle of Cove Mountain was fought in the county. Prior to Wythe County's creation, what is now the Wythe County community of Austinville served as the county seat for Fincastle County, an extinct Virginia county whose borders stretched from Roanoke, Virginia, to the Mississippi River – a county roughly the size of half the State of Texas. Wythe County's Austinville community was founded by Stephen and his brother Moses Austin, father of the famous Stephen F. Austin. In the 1790s the Austins took over the mines that produced lead and zinc; the town was named for the Austin surname, and not for any one particular Austin of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wytheville, Virginia
Wytheville is a town in, and the county seat of, Wythe County, in southwestern Virginia, United States. It is named after George Wythe, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, and mentor to Thomas Jefferson. Wytheville's population was 8,211 at the 2010 census. Interstate Highways 77 and 81 were constructed to intersect at the town, long a crossroads for travelers. During the American Civil War, Wytheville had a strategic importance. It was attacked in 1863 ( Toland's Raid) and 1865 (Stoneman's 1865 Raid). The town is the birthplace of Edith Bolling Wilson, second wife of President Woodrow Wilson. History Wythe County was created in 1789 and named for George Wythe, the "father of American Jurisprudence" and signer of the Declaration of Independence. In May 1790, Chris Simmerman donated 90 acres, along with John Davis's 10 acres, to establish a town and county seat. Robert Adams completed a town survey in November of that year, dividing the area into half-a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Washington And Jefferson National Forests
The George Washington and Jefferson National Forests is an administrative entity combining two U.S. National Forests into one of the largest areas of public land in the Eastern United States. The forests cover of land in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky. Approximately of the forest are remote and undeveloped and have been designated as wilderness areas, which prohibits future development. History George Washington National Forest was established on May 16, 1918, as the Shenandoah National Forest. The forest was renamed after the first President on June 28, 1932. Natural Bridge National Forest was added on July 22, 1933. Jefferson National Forest was formed on April 21, 1936, by combining portions of the Unaka and George Washington National Forests with other land. In 1995, the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests were administratively combined. The border between the two forests roughly follows the James River. The combine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Wilderness Society (United States)
The Wilderness Society is an American non-profit land conservation organization that is dedicated to protecting natural areas and federal public lands in the United States. They advocate for the designation of federal wilderness areas and other protective designations, such as for national monuments. They support balanced uses of public lands, and advocate for federal politicians to enact various land conservation and balanced land use proposals. The Wilderness Society also engages in a number of ancillary activities, including education and outreach, and hosts one of the most valuable collections of Ansel Adams photographs at their headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Wilderness Society specializes in issues involving lands under the management of federal agencies; such lands include national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges, and areas overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. In the early 21st century, the society has been active in fighting recent politic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walker Mountain Cluster
The Walker Mountain Cluster is a region in the Jefferson National Forest recognized by The Wilderness Society for its diversity of habitats extending along Walker Mountain. The mountain, part of the Appalachian Mountains in southwest Virginia, borders the western side of the Great Valley of Virginia. Interstate 81 traverses the Great Valley as it takes travelers between Tennessee and West Virginia. Description The Walker Mountain Cluster contains four wildlands recognized by the Wilderness Society as “Mountain Treasures”, areas that are worthy of protection from logging and road construction. The areas in the cluster are: * Big Walker Mountain * Little Walker Mountain (conservation area) * Long Spur (conservation area) * Seven Sisters (conservation area) * Crawfish Valley (Bear Creek) Nearby wild areas: * Big Survey Wildlife Management Area Location and access The cluster extends along Walker Mountain from its southern end near Rural Retreat, Virginia to its northern e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They once reached elevations similar to those of the Alps and the Rocky Mountains before experiencing natural erosion. The Appalachian chain is a barrier to east–west travel, as it forms a series of alternating ridgelines and valleys oriented in opposition to most highways and railroads running east–west. Definitions vary on the precise boundaries of the Appalachians. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) defines the ''Appalachian Highlands'' physiographic division as consisting of 13 provinces: the Atlantic Coast Uplands, Eastern Newfoundland Atlantic, Maritime Acadian Highlands, Maritime Plain, Notre Dame and Mégantic Mountains, Western Newfoundland Mountains, Piedmont, Blue Ridge, Valley and Ridge, St. Lawrence Valley, Appalac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Big Walker Lookout
Big Walker Lookout is a observation tower located in the Blue Ridge Highlands Region atop Big Walker Mountain in Bland County, Virginia. Location The tower is accessed from the Big Walker General Store, just off US Route 52 about from Wytheville, Virginia. The first store building burned in 2003 and a new store was built just to the right of the first. Originally, visitors crossed to the tower by way of a swinging bridge that connected to the back of the old general store. The swinging bridge was not destroyed in the fire and still stands. Visitors can cross to the edge where the original staircase connected to the bridge. Big Walker Lookout hosts traditional arts demonstrations on weekends. The lookout tower is open to the public with payment of an admission fee. Views Located at an elevation of , the view from the top of the tower encompasses mountain peaks in five different states. History The tower was originally built in 1947 and has been run continuously by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization's work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The USGS is a fact-finding research organization with no regulatory responsibility. The agency was founded on March 3, 1879. The USGS is a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior; it is that department's sole scientific agency. The USGS employs approximately 8,670 people and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia. The USGS also has major offices near Lakewood, Colorado, at the Denver Federal Center, and Menlo Park, California. The current motto of the USGS, in use since August 1997, is "science for a changing world". The agency's previous slogan, adopted on the occasion of its hundredt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wildlife Crossing
Wildlife crossings are structures that allow animals to cross human-made barriers safely. Wildlife crossings may include underpass tunnels or wildlife tunnels, viaducts, and overpasses or green bridges (mainly for large or herd-type animals); amphibian tunnels; fish ladders; canopy bridges (especially for monkeys and squirrels); tunnels and culverts (for small mammals such as otters, hedgehogs, and badgers); and green roofs (for butterflies and birds). Wildlife crossings are a practice in habitat conservation, allowing connections or reconnections between habitats, combating habitat fragmentation. They also assist in avoiding collisions between vehicles and animals, which in addition to killing or injuring wildlife may cause injury to humans and property damage. Similar structures can be used for domesticated animals, such as cattle creeps. Roads and habitat fragmentation Habitat fragmentation occurs when human-made barriers such as roads, railroads, canals, electric ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Habitat Fragmentation
Habitat fragmentation describes the emergence of discontinuities (fragmentation) in an organism's preferred environment (habitat), causing population fragmentation and ecosystem decay. Causes of habitat fragmentation include geological processes that slowly alter the layout of the physical environment (suspected of being one of the major causes of speciation), and human activity such as land conversion, which can alter the environment much faster and causes the extinction of many species. More specifically, habitat fragmentation is a process by which large and contiguous habitats get divided into smaller, isolated patches of habitats. Definition The term habitat fragmentation includes five discrete phenomena: * Reduction in the total area of the habitat * Decrease of the interior: edge ratio * Isolation of one habitat fragment from other areas of habitat * Breaking up of one patch of habitat into several smaller patches * Decrease in the average size of each patch of habitat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
