Thank you for briefing Senator Rockefeller on the National Park proposal. The information below shows how the Blackwater Canyon and environs match so many of the National Parks Service’s proposed park evaluation examples. Much of this information is taken from the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy’s 90-page report of the natural and cultural resources of the Blackwater Canyon. As you noted, some of the responses are redundant. Other members of WVHC may send you more information. Please let us know if we can provide more assistance.

The Blackwater Canyon and the Canaan Valley wetlands adjacent to the Canyon have been called a bit of Canada in Appalachia, because they contain plants and animals that found refuge here during the last Ice Age. They were able to survive here until the present day, due to the cool conditions in this area of the West Virginia Highlands. Many of the plants and animals living in this area are in the southernmost reach of their ranges. One animal finds its northernmost reach in the Canyon.

The high mountain bogs (including the Canaan Valley Wetlands and Big Run Bog) that comprise the headwaters of the Blackwater River and its deep forested Canyon, form two distinct but related habitats and important ecological islands in the Northern Allegheny Mountain Section of the Central Appalachian Broadleaf- Coniferous Forest Meadow Province.

This ecoregion, or distinct climate and vegetation zone, is perfectly represented by the Blackwater River Watershed. The high meadows, bogs and mixed hardwood/coniferous forests above 3000 feet provide remote mountain habitat for a variety of species, including the federally endangered Virginia northern flying squirrel. This creature is a disjunct species: one "left over" from colder days of glaciers and deeper snows, high in the red spruce and firs of Appalachia.

The Cheat Mountain salamander is a species endemic to West Virginia, found nowhere else on earth. Its habitat is similar to that of the squirrel, but on the forest floor -- in moist, rocky, and undisturbed areas. Both species seem to prefer interior, old growth forests. And like the squirrel, the Cheat Mt. Salamander makes its home in the Canyon. There it has been found at the lowest elevations in its range, including below 3,000 feet.

Descending from the Eastern Continental Divide and the highest valley east of the Mississippi, the Blackwater River and its tributaries cut the Canyon over countless millennia.

The Canyon landscape is peppered with limestone-karst caves. One large cave, known as the Blackwater Pit, is on Allegheny Wood Products property. Blackwater Pit has an underground waterfall and stream that flow the opposite direction from the river. The endangered Virginia big-eared bat (Plecotus townsendii virginianus) and Indiana bat (myotis sodalis) have hibernated in 3 caves nearby (within a five-mile radius), and likely use the Canyon for breeding, roosting and foraging.

The larva of a rare Caddisfly species has so far has been found only in the cool sandstone seeps of the Canyon. Caddisflies play an essential role in the nutrient cycle of the streams, by shredding algae, leaves and other plant material. This detritus makes food for other aquatic species. The sensitive Appalachian shoestring fern and northern water shrew are also found in the Canyon. No surveys of the private property in the Canyon have been done and much remains to be discovered. A "new" moss was discovered in 1997.

Plant and animal communities abound within the Canyon environs. The Canyon is home to the endangered Virginia northern flying squirrel, the endangered Indiana Bat, the endangered Virginia big eared bat, the threatened Cheat Mountain salamander, the sensitive Northern water shrew, and the sensitive Appalachian shoestring fern.

The Canyon is a stronghold of the state animal, the black bear. Expanses of inaccessible northern hardwood forests are prime habitat for both the black bear and other associated wilderness animals, such as the bobcat and fisher. West Virginia is the southernmost extension of the varying hare’s range, and these animals are found on the summits overlooking the Canyon.

Other mammals found in the Canyon include the red squirrel, gray squirrel, gray fox, raccoon, cotton-tailed rabbit, long-tailed weasel, chipmunk, mink, opossum, and white-tailed deer -- as well as several species of voles, mice and shrews.

Of the bird species, the most well known are probably wild turkey and ruffed grouse. Also popular are a wide array of songbirds native to the mountain country. Visitors to the Canyon can expect to hear and see such unusual West Virginia birds as the hermit thrush, veery, Blackburnian warbler, black-throated blue warbler, black-throated green warbler, winter wren, golden-crowned kinglet and the common raven.

Canyon amphibians include the red-backed salamander, slimy salamander, dusky salamander, and perhaps a spotted salamander, as well as the threatened Cheat Mountain salamander. Frog and toad species found in the area include the spring peeper, mountain chorus frog, gray treefrog, and American toad. Reptiles found here include the timber rattlesnake, black rat snake, northern water snake and the northern ringneck snake.

From just below the northern rim on the Backbone Mountain escarpment across to the Canaan Mountain rim on the south, the Blackwater Canyon is, for the most part, a textbook example of the mixed-mesophytic forest, or what silviculturists and many foresters call the "central Appalachian hardwood forest" or "Allegheny hardwoods." In West Virginia, the mixed-mesophytic forest is best characterized as a forest in which sugar maple, basswood, red oak and yellow poplar share canopy dominance. Common associates include beech, white oak, cucumber tree, mountain magnolia, white ash, hemlock, and many others. This forest type is know for its beauty and biodiversity, and in the Canyon has a towering overstory canopy; many of the trees reach from 80 to over 100 feet in height and measure 2 to 3 feet in diameter.

In the subcanopy one finds witch hazel, American hornbeam, eastern redbud, flowering dogwood, magnolia, beech, and sugar maple intercepting dappled light from the upper canopy. Shrubs include spicebush, viburnums, gooseberry, blackberries, raspberries, and greenbrier.

The herb layer is also spectacular, particularly in spring when trillium, jack-in-the-pulpit, bellwort, hepatica, bloodroot, spring beauty, trout lily, dwarf ginseng, violets and many other herbs are blooming in profusion. Summer brings the showy flowers of the black cohosh, along with goat’s beard, tall bellflower, impatiens, wood lilies, and the inconspicuous small green umbel of the elusive American ginseng. In the late summer and fall, the woodland asters bloom, along with white snakeroot, woodland sunflowers, and the occasional goldenrod.

One can see this forest by hiking anywhere at mid-elevations on the Rail-Trail or down the Limerock Trail.

Higher up the Canyon walls and nearer to the Pottsville sandstone caprock on the Canyon rim, the forest is of the northern hardwood forest type. Sugar maple, beech, yellow birch, and hemlock make up the canopy, with scattered red maple, black cherry, black birch, mountain ash, mountain magnolia, white pine and red spruce. Trees are not as tall or as large in diameter, due to the shorter growing season and different soils. The subcanopy layer is relatively well developed compared to the mixed-mesophytic forest, and is comprised of striped maple, beech, sugar maple, mountain holly and witch hazel. Here there are numerous boulder fields and debris slopes, often covered in dense rhododendron and laurel thickets. Where thickets don’t occur, the herb layer includes wood sorrel, trillium, Canada mayflower, violets and hay-scented and New York ferns, and mosses and liverworts are frequent on the many rocks and fallen logs.

For the most part, this forest is inaccessible and therefore excellent cover for the more elusive species of wildlife, including fisher and black bear (see Wildlife section). This is also a place in which to seek mushrooms and other fungi, due to the cool, moist atmosphere and abundance of decaying organic material. The hemlock varnish shelf (Ganoderma tsuga) is frequently found on hemlock snags and downed logs, and various boletes (Boletes spp.) and russulas (Russula spp.) are common after rains in the summer and fall months.

This forest is best represented on the south side of the Canyon, from the Canaan Loop Road (FR 13) on the rim down to approximately 2,600 ft. where it blends with the mixed-mesophytic forest. Or one can hike the Canyon Rim Trail (TR 117) from just below Olson fire tower to Big Run, or anywhere in Blackwater Falls State Park where hardwoods predominate.

The riparian forest along the lower stretches of the Blackwater is characterized by sycamore, slippery elm, yellow poplar and several other species common in the upland forest. Riparian forests exist, by definition, in the flood plane and thus are at least occasionally inundated by floodwaters. Floods scour and remove surface soils in places and deposit them in others, thus the riparian forest is a highly dynamic forest where microhabitats often change from year to year. The plants that exist in the riparian forest are, generally speaking, adapted to extreme conditions; many tolerate root saturation for fairly long periods, including at least part of the growing season. Others thrive on disturbance, and can colonize and reproduce rapidly on newly formed habitats such as sand and gravel deposits, and scoured banks. Shrubs are very common in the riparian forest, and include ninebark, viburnums, elderberry, blackberries, raspberries and alder, among many others. The riparian forest is often thick with vegetation and difficult to traverse; this, of course, provides effective cover for many animals that seek shelter during the daylight hours and forage at night.

Rare and endangered Indiana bats congregate at caves near Blackwater Canyon in the fall and hibernate there in colonies during the winter months. The unique and sensitive (not yet endangered) northern water shrew (Sorex palustris punctulatis) relies on the cold water streams in the Canyon. It is found in five West Virginia counties at elevations over 2,000 feet. The rare and endangered Virginia northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus fuscus) makes its most southerly home in the United States in the Blackwater Canyon. The subspecies fuscus is only found in six counties in West Virginia and one county in Virginia.

By contrast, the threatened Cheat Mountain salamander (Plethodon nettingi) finds its most northerly home in the Blackwater Canyon. The salamander is found on only two other high mountain ridges, also in West Virginia.

The Canyon is home to the endangered Virginia northern flying squirrel, the endangered Indiana Bat, the endangered Virginia big eared bat, the threatened Cheat Mountain salamander, the sensitive Northern water shrew, the sensitive Appalachian shoestring fern, and many other rare and unique plants and animals.

A low-level overflight of West Virginia reveals stark contrasts. The unbroken deep forest cover is being eroded. It is clear that the maintenance of ecosystem health requires protection of wild areas. Only so many threads can be removed before the blanket falls apart. Today, because of past and present abuses, the Blackwater Canyon ecosystem stands out as an essential fragment of a greater landscape. Given the Cheat Mountain salamander’s extremely limited range, protection to its Canyon home is vital the species continued survival.

Ecologically the Blackwater Canyon forest is just beginning to enter its most valuable stage, as old-growth forest. If allowed to continue to develop, it will develop into a spectacular and in many ways unique example of old-growth forest ecosystem in the higher elevations of West Virginia, that will provide essential nesting habitat for such neotropical migrants as Blackburnian, black-throated green and magnolia warblers. The forests of West Virginia provide critical habitat for neotropical birds. The accelerating exploitation of West Virginia forests underway drives these birds from their nesting grounds.

The Canyon was formed over millennia by the Blackwater River, which originates as a placid stream meandering through the Canaan Valley wetlands. As the Blackwater enters Blackwater Falls State Park, the tea-colored water picks up speed and cuts through sandstone rock. In the middle of the Park the Blackwater drops 57 feet at Blackwater Falls. These falls mark the upper end of the Blackwater Canyon, and attract 750,000 tourists each year. Scenic views of the Canyon can be seen from Pendleton Point, the Lodge at the State Park, the Park’s Gentle Trail and Lindy Point.

The most spectacular view of the Canyon is from Lindy Point, 1 mile outside the Park boundary, off the Canaan Loop Road (FS #13). The world-class panorama offered by this vista, of miles of undeveloped forested plateau, and a plummeting river Canyon, is used in official state tourism video and tourism/economic development literature shown around the world.

The Blackwater River flows 2 miles through the steep-sided Canyon, cutting 525 feet deep within the Park. One mile west of the Park boundary, the North Fork of the Blackwater River joins the main stem of the river. For the next eight miles, the Blackwater River is one continuous rapid (highly prized by kayakers) until it reaches the Dry Fork River at Hendricks.

The Blackwater Canyon was recommended for status as a National Natural Landmark in the l970s because: "The absence of man’s interference in the Canyon’s depths, except for the railway in the lower part of the gorge, make this gorge unique. The inaccessibility of the Canyon depths gives wildlife almost complete protection. We recommend this area for Landmark status because of it outstanding scenic qualities and its educational values." (Report for Site #39, prepared by Charles Bear, West Virginia University biology professor.)

The Blackwater River in the Canyon has also been recognized by government agencies and has been nominated for Wild and Scenic Rivers status. The Monongahela National Forest Study of Wild and Scenic Rivers (l995) states: "The entire Canyon offers outstanding scenic views related to steep topography, rock outcrops, streamside waterfalls, and the continuous cascade of the river itself."

The scenic beauty of the Canyon, including views from Lindy Point, Pendleton Point and the Blackwater Falls State Park Lodge, has long graced the covers of state publications circulated to attract tourists and economic development. The view from Lindy Point is unsurpassed in the area, and justifiably famous. The Point has been the scene of numerous weddings.

The Canyon itself is also famous for providing the longest continuos whitewater rapid in the West Virginia, water so wild it is only suited for expert kayakers who flock to the challenge of negotiating the Blackwater River in its Canyon stretch. In the Canaan Valley above the Canyon, the Blackwater River draws canoers who paddle its placid waters to observe wildlife. Mountain biking the Canyon’s rail-trail is very popular in summer. In winter the trail is used for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. Fishing, camping, hiking and caving are some of the activities that attract visitors to the Canyon and the Blackwater Falls State Park.

The Blackwater Canyon offers some of the most challenging hunting in West Virginia. The size and the steepness of the canyon walls, combined with the rocky outcrops and dense vegetation, present a challenge that the most adept hunters crave. The Canyon has been noted for its black bear hunting, but in this remote areas the bears definitely have the advantage. Other species hunted in the Canyon include ruffed grouse, wild turkey, and varying hare. Due to its remoteness, the Canyon is considered a trophy buck hunting area.

Blackwater Canyon offers great variety for nature study. Forest types range from the northern hardwood forest at the top to the mixed mesophytic forest at the bottom of the Canyon. Rock outcrops, boulder fields, caves, mountain streams and waterfalls, rhododendron hells, the riparian corridor of the Blackwater, the deep cover of the older forest and the edge ecotone along the sunny rail trail provide a variety of habitats for plants and animals.

The Blackwater Canyon is under three hours drive from Washington, DC. It has the potential to be a National Park within a day’s drive for millions of East Coast dwellers. The area is already very popular among mountain bikers, canoers, kayakers, hikers, campers, hunters and others.

The Blackwater Canyon’s scenic views are unparalleled in the area. The view in autumn is spectacular, and serves more widespread fame.

The National Forest Service has done the research on the Coketon Industrial Site within Blackwater Canyon and the Blackwater Canyon Railroad Line and has prepared documents for nomination of the Blackwater Industrial Area to the National Register of Historic Places. The State Historic Preservation Office has agreed with their assessment of the site and recommends nomination. The historical aspects of the Canyon landscape coupled with the aforementioned extensive natural and recreational resources make the Blackwater Canyon and environs highly suitable and deserving of permanent protection and recognition as a National Park.