Land Gift More than Doubles Size of West Virginia Preserve

A land donation will more than double the size of the Bear Rocks Preserve in West Virginia.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that near 2 square miles of land along the Allegheny Front, the eastern rim of the Dolly Sods plateau, has been donated to the Nature Conservancy of West Virginia. The gift was made possible through donations from the Ann C. and Robert O. Orders Jr. Family Foundation and Maryland resident Dan Montgomery.

The 1,143-acre tract will be added to the existing 477-acre Bear Rocks Preserve.

The conservancy’s state director, Thomas Minney, called the Allegheny Front property “a biologically important gem” that’s crucial to the state’s “ability to support and promote tourism, provide drinking water and clean air to the eastern United States.”