$1.1M Gift to Nature Conservancy Protects Southeastern Wildlands

The Dominion Foundation is the charitable arm of Dominion Power, one of the nation's largest energy producers.

The gift will be split among three Conservancy preserves - $700,000 will go to support Warm Springs Mountain Preserve in Virginia, $300,000 will go to Bear Rocks Preserve in West Virginia, and $100,000 will go to Nags Head Woods Preserve in North Carolina.

"Dominion is pleased to provide this contribution to The Nature Conservancy," said William C. Hall Jr., vice president corporate communications and president of the Dominion Foundation. "It is vitally important for businesses to support environmental stewardship. We are proud to be able to help the Nature Conservancy preserve pristine areas of Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina."

"The Nature Conservancy of Virginia is very appreciative of this gift from the Dominion Foundation," said Michael Lipford, director of The Nature Conservancy of Virginia. "Their support will help protect one of the finest forested landscapes in the Allegheny Highlands and in the Commonwealth, at Warm Springs Mountain."

The Conservancy purchased Warm Springs Mountain Preserve in 2002 for $6.2 million, the group's single largest land purchase in Virginia.

Footbridge over the pristine Cowpasture River on Warm Springs Mountain, Virginia (Photo by Pam Ramsey)

"Virginia's lands and waters are being changed at unprecedented rates," said Lipford. But here, streams cross the mountain, and rare plants such as bunchberry still flourish. In places, the hardwood forest gives way to a globally rare montane pine barren arid terrain blanketed with stunted pitch pine and shrubs.

Migratory songbirds, raptors, black bear, bobcat, wild turkey, ruffed grouse, timber rattlesnakes and wood frogs inhabit this preserve.

This diversity of habitats and species led the Conservancy to target Warm Springs Mountain as the focal point of its work in the Allegheny Highlands. Now the group's conservation planners have identified the entire surrounding Central Appalachians, from Virginia north to Pennsylvania, as one of the Conservancy's top global priorities.

In West Virginia, this gift continues Dominion's commitment to the Conservancy's work on the Dolly Sods plateau, including at Bear Rocks, a 477-acre preserve that was donated by Dominion in 2000.

The Conservancy has protected over 21,000 acres of this high country of spruce forests, heathlands, and cranberry bogs.

Rodney Bartgis, director of The Nature Conservancy of West Virginia said the gift will help the group protect habitat for animals such fishers and snowshoe hares, black bear and bobcats, as well as the Cheat Mountain salamander that lives only on a few West Virginia mountaintops.

In North Carolina, the Dominion gift will help the Conservancy build a trail for people with disabilities, so they can experience the Nags Head Woods Preserve. A National Natural Landmark operated by the Conservancy, it attracts more than 10,000 visitors a year.

North Carolina's most biologically diverse maritime forest, the Nags Head Woods Preserve encompasses 640 acres of wetland, dune and hardwood forest with some trees that are 500 years old.

Located on one of North Carolina's barrier islands, the preserve is frequented by more than 100 species of birds, otters, muskrats, turtles and salamanders. An extensive marsh system bordering Roanoke Sound on the western side of the preserve supports a wealth of wildlife.

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