The Otter Creek Wilderness is a

U.S. Wilderness The National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS) of the United States protects federal government of the United States, federally managed Wilderness, wilderness areas designated for preservation in their natural condition. Activity on formally ...

area located in the Cheat-Potomac Ranger District of

Monongahela National Forest The Monongahela National Forest is a national forest located in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia, USA. It protects over of federally managed land within a proclamation boundary that includes much of the Potomac Highlands Regi ...

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

, USA. The Wilderness sits in a bowl-shaped valley formed by Otter Creek, between McGowan Mountain and

Shavers Mountain Shavers Mountain, is a high and rugged ridge situated in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia. It is about long, north to south, and several of its peaks exceed in elevation. Shavers Mountain is notable for being "bookended", at its ...

Tucker Tucker may refer to: Places United States * Tucker, Arkansas * Tucker, Georgia * Tucker, Mississippi * Tucker, Missouri * Tucker, Utah, ghost town * Tucker County, West Virginia Outer space * Tucker (crater), a small lunar impact crater in the s ...

and Randolph Counties.Otter Creek Wilderness page, GORP web site, accessed April 15, 2008
/ref> It is crossed by of hiking trails. Otter Creek Trail is the longest, at .

History

By 1914, almost all of the virgin forest in the Otter Creek watershed had been timbered, mostly by the Otter Creek Boom and Lumber Company, but also by the owners of several small farms and homesteads. In 1917 key land purchases were made by the U.S. Forest Service as part of the formation of the national forest system. The Otter Creek area was managed as a multiple use forest, including some second growth logging, until the passage of the Eastern Wilderness Act in 1975.
/ref> The last private in-holding was acquired the same year.

2009 addition

The

Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009 The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (, ) is a land management law passed in the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 30, 2009. The bill designates millions of acres in the US as protected a ...

added to the original of the Otter Creek Wilderness. This addition is situated on the northern and eastern flanks of

McGowan Mountain McGowan is an Irish and Scottish surname. It is an Anglicization of the Irish Mac Gabhann and Scottish surname ''Mac Gobhann''. Belonging to the Uí Echach Cobo, located in modern-day County Down in the east of Ulster, they produced several o ...

leading down to Dry Fork. It provides much of the scenic view for this popular river which contains excellent whitewater paddling and trout fishing.

Ecology

The

Shavers Mountain Spruce-Hemlock Stand Shavers may refer to: Surname *Charlie Shavers (1920–1971), American swing era jazz trumpet player * China Shavers (born 1977), American actress *Dinerral Shavers (born 1981), jazz drummer and educator from New Orleans, Louisiana *Earnie Shavers ...

, a

red spruce ''Picea rubens'', commonly known as red spruce, is a species of spruce native to eastern North America, ranging from eastern Quebec and Nova Scotia, west to the Adirondack Mountains and south through New England along the Appalachians to western ...

- hemlock stand of

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 ...

, is partly within the Otter Creek Wilderness.

History

2009 addition

Ecology

References

Further reading