Whitetop Laurel is a wildland 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 that has been recognized by the 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".Virginia's Mountain Treasures, report issued by The Wilderness Society, May, 1999 The

Appalachian Trail The Appalachian Trail (also called the A.T.), is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.Gailey, Chris (2006)"Appalachian Tr ...

and

Virginia Creeper Trail The Virginia Creeper Trail is a multi-purpose rail trail. Located in southwestern Virginia, the trail runs from Abingdon to Whitetop, Virginia, near Mount Rogers National Recreation Area and the North Carolina state line. The trail accommodate ...

follow Whitetop Laurel Creek through a gorge with rich cove hardwood forests and thick rhododendrons. The area is one of the most popular recreational hubs in the

Mount Rogers National Recreation Area Mount Rogers National Recreation Area is a United States national recreation area (NRA) in southwestern Virginia near the border with Tennessee and North Carolina. It centerpiece is the Lewis Fork Wilderness containing Mount Rogers, the highest p ...

. Whitetop Laurel Creek is a popular wild trout stream with wildlife viewing platforms and streamside access by wheelchair. The area is part of the ''

Mount Rogers Cluster The Mount Rogers Cluster is a region recognized by The Wilderness Society for its unique high elevation mountains, vistas, trout streams and wildlife habitat. The heart of the region is Mount Rogers, the highest mountain in Virginia. The area e ...

''.

Location and access

The 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 ...

of Southwestern Virginia about 4.2 miles east of

Damascus, Virginia Damascus is a town in Washington County, Virginia, United States. The population was 814 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Kingsport– Bristol (TN)– Bristol (VA) Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is a component of the Johnson ...

between Va 859 (Grassy Ridge Road) on the east, US 58 on the north, and Va 726 (Chestnut Mountain Road) on the south. It lies on the east side of the Feathercamp wild area. The Appalachian Trail extends for 9.2 miles through the area, entering from Va 859 on the east and exiting onto US 58 on the west. The

, a 34-mile trail following an old railroad grade, is used by horse-back riders, bicyclers and hikers. From Abingdon, it runs to Whitetop, Virginia near the North Carolina border. The original railroad carried lumber from Konnarock, Va where a sawmill employing more than 400 workers with 20 logging camps produced more than 15 million board feet of lumber annually. Little remains of the sawmill, which operated from 1906 to 1928. Other trails into the area include: *Chestnut Mountain Trail, FS 4566, 2.4 miles, has been decommissioned *Taylors Valley Trail, FS 4555, 2.6 miles *Saunders Trail, FS 4628, 2.1 miles Parker Road also provides access to the area. WhiteTopLaurelVA Wytheville 188819 1982 100000 geoScaledAreaUpdate

WhiteTopLaurelVA Wytheville 188819 1982 100000 geoScaledAreaUpdate

The boundary of the wildland as determined by the Wilderness Society is shown in the adjacent map. Additional roads and trails are given on National Geographic Maps 786 (Mount Rogers). and Map 318 (Mount Rogers High Country) A great variety of information, including topographic maps, aerial views, satellite data and weather information, is obtained by selecting the link with the wild land's coordinates in the upper right of this page. Beyond maintained trails, old logging roads can be used to explore the area. The Appalachian Mountains were extensively timbered in the early twentieth century leaving logging roads that are becoming overgrown but still passable. Old logging roads and railroad grades can be located by consulting the historical topographic maps available from the

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, ...

(USGS). The Whitetop Laurel wild area is covered by USGS topographic maps ''Konnarock'' and ''Grayson''.

Natural history

Whitetop Laurel Creek provides habitat for many unusual and threatened wildlife. These include the

greenfin darter The greenfin darter (''Etheostoma chlorobranchium'') is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish, a darter from the subfamily Etheostomatinae, part of the Family (biology), family Percidae, which also contains the perches, Gymnocephalus, ruffes and ...

, the sharphead darter, the fatlips minnow, and the

hellbender The hellbender (''Cryptobranchus alleganiensis''), also known as the hellbender salamander, is a species of aquatic giant salamander endemic to the eastern and central United States. It is the largest salamander in North America. A member of the ...

, the largest salamander found in the U. S. Unusual flora includes the umbrella leaf and the streambank mock-orange, and possibly the Carolina saxifrage. There may be 150 acres of old growth forest. About 2.7 miles of Whitetop Laurel Creek is classified as an "Exceptional State Water" thus protecting its water quality from new or increased point source discharges.

Topography

As part of the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains Subsection within the Central Appalachian Broadleaf Coniferous Forest-Meadow Province, there are tectonic uplifted mountain ranges composed of igneous and metamorphic rock with many high gradient, deeply incised streams. Whitetop Laurel Slopes is a special biological area with underlying calcium bearing rocks that supports a fertile forest ecosystem. Parts of Whitetop Laurel Creek and Green Cove Creek pass through geological formations composed of

tillite image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

and

rhythmite A rhythmite consists of layers of sediment or sedimentary rock which are laid down with an obvious periodicity and regularity. They may be created by annual processes such as seasonally varying deposits reflecting variations in the runoff cycle, b ...

, rare sedimentary rocks associated with past glacial activity.

Forest Service management

The Forest Service has conducted a survey of their lands to determine the 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. Whitetop Laurel was not inventoried in the roadless area review, and therefore not protected from possible road construction and timber sales. The forest service classifies areas under their management by a recreational opportunity setting that informs visitors of the diverse range of opportunities available in the forest. Most of the area is part of the "Whitetop Laurel Special Area". On the south there are two areas designated as "Mix of Successional Habitat".

References

External links