Nearly 2 square miles of land along the Allegheny Front, the eastern rim of the Dolly Sods plateau in Grant County, has been donated to The Nature Conservancy of West Virginia to add to the conservancy’s existing, 477-acre Bear Rocks Preserve.
The 1,143-acre gift was made possible through donations from the Ann C. and Robert O. Orders Jr. Family Foundation and Maryland resident Dan Montgomery.
“For decades, we have worked with partners and supporters to protect the incredibly important Canaan Valley-Dolly Sods landscape as a keystone of the Central Appalachians,” Thomas Minney, state director of the Nature Conservancy in West Virginia, said in a news release.
“The Allegheny Front property is a biologically important gem and plays an immense role in West Virginia’s ability to support and promote tourism, provide drinking water and clean air to the Eastern United States and stand as a resilient stronghold for people and wildlife,” Minney said.
