Cascades (conservation area) is an area in the

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 Mountai ...

of western

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, United States, that has been recognized by the Wilderness Society as a special place worthy of protection from logging and road construction The area is named after a 60-foot waterfall on Little Stony Creek which flows out of the area into the New River. With easily accessible trails, the area has become a popular destination. The area is part of the ''

Mountain Lake Wilderness Cluster The Mountain Lake Wilderness Cluster is a region recognized by The Wilderness Society for its unique waterfalls, vistas, trout stream and wildlife habitat. The heart of the region is the Mountain Lake Wilderness, the largest wilderness in the Ge ...

''.

Location and access

The Cascades Conservation Area is located in the

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 ...

in Giles County near Pembroke, Va. The area is bounded on the north by Pacers Gap Road (SR 714), on the west by Butt Mountain and on the south and east by Doe Mountain. The trailhead for the hike to the Cascades waterfall is about 4 miles from Pembroke on a well maintained road. The Forest Service collects a fee for parking at the trailhead. On weekends, there may be a wait required before entering the parking area. Driving directions to the trailhead are given below in the

external link An internal link is a type of hyperlink on a web page to another page or resource, such as an image or document, on the same website or domain. Hyperlinks are considered either "external" or "internal" depending on their target or destination. ...

. A second popular destination is Barney’s Wall, a tall cliff that gives a commanding view of the area. This trailhead is about 34 miles from Pembroke. However, the last part of the route is on a dirt road that can be difficult to manage for cars with a low suspension. Driving directions are given in the

. Roads and trails are shown on National Geographic Trail Map 788.

Natural history

The habitat of the southern Appalachians is rich in its biological diversity with nearly 10,000 species, some not found anywhere else. The great diversity is related to the many ridges and valleys which form isolated communities in which species evolve separately from one another. The region lies south of the glaciers that covered North America 11,000 years go. To escape the glaciers, northern species retreated south to find refuge in the southern Appalachians. When the glaciers retreated, many of these species remained along with the southern species that were native to the area. The diversity includes trees, mosses, millipedes and salamanders. Among interesting plants in the area are the walking fern and Jeffersonian twin-leaf. Walking fern (

asplenium rhizophyllum ''Asplenium rhizophyllum'', the (American) walking fern, is a frequently-occurring fern native to North America. It is a close relative of '' Asplenium ruprechtii'' (syn: ''Camptosorus sibiricus'') which is found in East Asia and also goes by the ...

) is a small fern with long, narrow tips that can touch the ground, then root to give a walking appearance. Jeffersonian twin-leaf (

Jeffersonia diphylla ''Jeffersonia'', also known as twinleaf or rheumatism root, is a small genus of herbaceous perennial plants in the family Berberidaceae. They are uncommon spring wildflowers and grow in limestone soils of rich deciduous forests. ''Jeffersonia'' ...

) has showy white flowers that emerge with the spring ephemerals before the forest canopy appears and blocks sunlight to the forest floor. Little Stony Creek is eligible for designation as a

Wild and Scenic River The National Wild and Scenic Rivers System was created by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 (Public Law 90-542), enacted by the U.S. Congress to preserve certain rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values in a free- ...

.Land and Resource Management Plan, Jefferson National Forest, Management Bulletin R8-MB 115A, January 2004, page 2-44 The area has 445 acres of potential

old growth forest An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featur ...

Topography

Upper-cascades - Virginia - ForestWander

The Cascades Conservation Area is in the

Ridge and Valley Province The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also called the Ridge and Valley Province or the Valley and Ridge Appalachians, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division and are also a belt within the Appalachian Mountains extending ...

of the

. The province consists of a thick layer of

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...

that has undergone folding and/or faulting to create a series of ridges and valleys. During the sedimentation process fossils were formed leaving evidence of life existing millions of years ago. The fossils can be seen in rock exposures throughout the mountains.

Forest Service management

The

U.S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...

has conducted a survey of their lands to determine their potential for wilderness designation. Wilderness designation provides a high degree of protection from development. The areas that were found suitable are referred to as

inventoried roadless area Inventoried Roadless Areas are a group of United States Forest Service lands that have been identified by government reviews as lands without existing roads that could be suitable for roadless area conservation as wilderness or other non-standard pr ...

s. Later a Roadless Rule was adopted that limited road construction in these areas. The rule provided some degree of protection by reducing the negative environmental impact of road construction and thus promoting the conservation of roadless areas. The Cascades Conservation Area was not included in the inventoried roadless areas, and therefore subject to possible road construction and timber sales.

Nearby Wildlands

* Cascades (conservation area) is in the

* Mottesheard * Hickory Flats

References

{{reflist

External links

Video of hike to the Cascades
George Washington and Jefferson National Forests