Carvins Cove Natural Reserve is a

city park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to resi ...

in Botetourt and Roanoke counties,

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 ...

. Managed by the Western Virginia Water Authority and the City of Roanoke, it is the fifth-largest city park in the United States, and the second-largest city park managed by a municipality. Within the park's boundary is Carvins Cove Reservoir and also the main ridgeline of Brushy Mountain, which rises about 1200 feet above the lake's waterline.

History and ownership

In the 1930s, Carvins Creek was dammed to create the Carvins Cove Reservoir, which for many decades served as the primary water source for the City of Roanoke. A small rural community (called Carvins Cove) was displaced by the reservoir's creation, and some of its roads and housing foundations still become visible during

droughts A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

. A series of droughts in the late 1990s spurred the City of Roanoke and Roanoke County to create the Western Virginia Water Authority, which consolidated their water delivery systems. The reservoir and the land below the contour are owned by the Authority; the land above the contour is owned by the City of Roanoke. In April 2008, Roanoke City Council placed of Carvins Cove under a

conservation easement In the United States, a conservation easement (also called conservation covenant, conservation restriction or conservation servitude) is a power invested in a qualified private land conservation organization (often called a "land trust") or gove ...

donated to the Western Virginia Land Trust and the

Virginia Outdoors Foundation The Virginia Outdoors Foundation is a quasi-state agency formed by the Virginia General Assembly in 1966 "to promote the preservation of open space lands and to encourage private gifts of money, securities, land or other property to preserve the nat ...

. The easement protects much of the Cove from inappropriate development and is the largest ever recorded in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Recreation

Recreational activities, such as

mountain biking Mountain biking is a sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, usually using specially designed mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and pe ...

hiking Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A Histor ...

, and

equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or Riding in British English) Examples of this are: * Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes i ...

activities, are allowed around the reservoir. Several mountain bike races are held at Carvins Cove each year, including the "XXC" endurance race which covers 43 miles of trails and involves climbs totalling over 6000 feet."XC / XXC Mountain Bike race"
Roanoke Parks and Recreation (2018).Vince Reinhart
"OG Line (Carvins Cove, VA)"
via Flickr (October 11, 2018). Some downhill trails are considered expert-level only, and involve overall descents of over 1000 feet. Boating and fishing are allowed on the reservoir itself, but there are strict limits to preserve water quality. The fear of

zebra mussels The zebra mussel (''Dreissena polymorpha'') is a small freshwater mussel. The species originates from the lakes of southern Russia and Ukraine, but has been accidentally Introduced species, introduced to numerous other areas and has become an inv ...

motivated the city to apply the first restrictions in the early 1990s.''Encyclopædia Britannica Almanac 2006'', pg. 272

References

External links

Roanoke Parks and Recreation: Carvins Cove Natural Reserve
Regional parks in Virginia Parks in Botetourt County, Virginia Parks in Roanoke County, Virginia Roanoke, Virginia Nature reserves in Virginia Reservoirs in Virginia Landforms of Botetourt County, Virginia Landforms of Roanoke County, Virginia Virginia municipal and county parks {{RoanokeCountyVA-geo-stub