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27-534: A scenic gorge, waterfalls and a cove hardwood forest, with rich vegetation, offer the visitor an opportunity for a secluded back-country experience. This wildland is part of the Clinch Ranger District Cluster . The area is located in the Cumberland Mountains of Southwestern Virginia, about 17 miles east of Big Stone Gap, Virginia and 23 miles north of Kingsport, Tennessee . VA 72 is on

54-468: 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 . Little Stony Creek was inventoried as part of RARE II, an inventory conducted in the late 1970s. However, the Forest Service stripped the area of this designation in

81-447: A great degree, the current system of parks and wilderness areas in the US is very successful at preserving high elevation ecosystems, places that are rugged, beautiful and otherwise difficult to develop. The Roadless Area Review and Evaluation, and several studies since, concluded that ecosystems that exist at mid elevations are not well represented in the US system of protected lands, and many of

108-834: A large part of the area, contains many rare plants. Little Stony Creek is a tributary of the Clinch River, part of the Upper Tennessee River system with 100 species of fish and 37 species of freshwater mussels, of which fourteen or more are endangered. The area is part of the Pine and Cumberland Mountains Subsection of the Southern Cumberland Mountain Section of the Central Appalachian Broadleaf Coniferous Forest-Meadow Province. An 8.5 mile section of Little Stony Creek

135-490: A pathway for Brown-headed cowbirds in their search for the location of nests of smaller birds, who then destroy the eggs and replace them with their own eggs leaving the unwitting owner to raise the cowbird hatchlings. The Plateau Province is covered by a complex forest composed of northern hardwood interspersed with conifers. The southern Appalachians contain more plant species than anywhere else in North America since

162-651: A result. The most recent review of inventoried roadless areas began in 1998 under the oversight of Michael Dombeck , then head of the US Forest Service. This review was finished in 2000 and culminated in a set of Forest Service regulations in 2001 that are collectively known as the Roadless Rule. (Conservation Biology) Volume 20 Issue 3 Page 713-722, June 2006</ref> The rule does not specifically protect roadless areas from development nor does it strictly prohibit multiple use activities on these lands. Specifically,

189-544: A section south of Little Stony Creek. A gas field, the South Coeburn Gas Field tens of thousands of acres in size, has been in place since the 1990s and includes gas development on the south of the Little Stony Creek wild area. In 2008, most of the area was burned with prescribed burn techniques. Clinch Ranger District Cluster Clinch Ranger District Cluster The Clinch Ranger District Cluster

216-602: Is a region in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests recognized by The Wilderness Society for its rich biodiversity and rugged scenery. It offers a unique habitat for rare plants, salamanders and other rare species. The region includes wilderness areas protected by Congressional action, as well as inventoried wilderness and uninventoried areas recognized by the Wilderness Society as worthy of protection from timbering and roads. The cluster contains

243-569: Is an example of formations in the Plateau with almost 1000-foot-deep gorge and striking erosional features with descriptive names such as the Palisades, The Towers, and The Chimneys. . The horizontal layering of the Plateau, seen in road cuts and rocky cliffs in river gorges, contrasts with the tilted up thrusts in the Ridge and Valley province on the east. Seams of high-quality coal led to mining beginning in

270-598: Is eligible for inclusion in the Wild and Scenic Rivers System. And the section of Little Stony Creek passing through the area is one of 30 waters in Virginia classified by the state as a Virginia Exceptional Water. 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 areas . Later

297-402: Is obtained by selecting the link with the wildland's gps coordinates in the upper right of this page. Beyond maintained trails, old logging roads can be used to explore the area. The Cumberland 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

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324-401: The 2004 Forest Plan removing protection 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. The area includes land designated as "Eligible Recreational River", "Rare Community", and "Mix of Successional Habitats" for

351-516: The Alleghany Plateau, a highly dissected plateau composed of relatively flat-lying bedrock of Mississippian and Pennsylvania age. In places the dissection is so pronounced that the area has the appearance of mountains. But compared to the Ridge and Valley Province to the east with long uplifted ridges, the mountains are in random directions formed by the erosion of streams into deep, narrow valleys leaving rugged mountains. The Russell Fork River

378-481: The National Forests of the lower 48 states, but more litigation to remove protection is in progress with the outcome uncertain." The rationale for limiting road-building in the inventoried roadless areas was to minimize the negative environmental impacts of roads construction, maintenance, and automobile traffic. Over the past several decades, researchers have documented a wide range of impacts that roads have on

405-712: The Nature Conservancy as globally rare. The Clinch Ranger District Cluster lies within the Clinch Ranger District of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest. To protect the headwaters of the Tennessee Valley drainage from flooding caused by timbering and the stripping of whole mountains by mining, the US Forest Service purchased the Clinch Range District in 1936. Other clusters of

432-678: The Wilderness Society's "Mountain Treasures" in the Jefferson National Forest (north to south): 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 protections. The Inventoried Roadless areas include approximately 60,000,000 acres (240,000 km ) of land in 40 states and Puerto Rico . Most of these lands are in

459-466: The environment. In this sense, the roadless rule provided a great deal of protection to a large group of lands that previously had little protection within the current Forest Service administrative structure. The second impetus for the creation of the Roadless Rule was an effort to expand the system of protected federal lands to include ecosystems that were not very well represented in the current system of National Parks, wilderness areas, and preserves. To

486-458: The following areas, all within the Clinch Ranger District of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests : The Clinch Ranger District is divided into two parts, the northern section parallels Pine Mountain and the southern section follows Powell Mountain. US Highway 23 runs between the two sections. Other roads and trails in the area are shown on National Geographic Map 793, Clinch Ranger District . The Clinch Ranger District lies in

513-521: The historical topographic maps available from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The Little Stony Creek wild area is covered by USGS topographic map Dungannon and Coeburn . Trout and the rare green salamander are found in Little Stony Creek. Pitch pine, table mountain pine, scarlet oak and spreading pogonia, a rare orchid, are found at higher elevations. The Lower Little Stony Creek special biological area, which includes

540-470: The landscape into islands which limit the free migration of forest species. Such edge effects have been shown to minimize the diversity required for the maintenance of a rich biological habitat. The bird population is also affected by the division of undisturbed forest into islands with edges defined by roads. Predators of birds, such as raccoons, snakes, skunks, house cats and egg-eating crows and blue jays, are often found at forest edges. And roads provide

567-502: The late 1800s. Clusters of wild areas, such as the Clinch Ranger District Cluster, are important for the maintenance of biological diversity. A natural landscape contains a blend of ecosystems—mountain slopes, moist areas, soil types, temperatures—over which species can roam in their search for mates, foraging for food, and the avoidance of predators and other stress-inducing hazards. The construction of roads breaks up

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594-489: The region was a refuge for many species when glaciers covered the northern part of the hemisphere. In modern times, game species disappeared after widespread hunting, but with the beginning of game management many species have begun to recover to the extent that animals such as black bear, deer and turkeys can be found. The watershed for the cluster contains many endangered fresh_water mussel species. The identified species has been reduced from 60 to about 40, with 26 listed by

621-489: The regulations of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). A second roadless inventory, RARE II, was initiated in 1977, which culminated in a recommendation of wilderness designation for 15,000,000 acres (61,000 km ) of national forest land and further study for another 10,800,000 acres (44,000 km ). This set of recommendations was also quickly challenged in the courts and largely voided as

648-639: The rule was aimed at controlling the amount of road-building activities undertaken by the forest service, which has more miles of roads under its control than the US Interstate Highway System . In 2008, conservationists marked the 10 year anniversary of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule with a panel of speakers headed by former US Forest Service Chief Michael Dombeck. At the event, Dombeck said, "In spite of seven years of Bush administration effort, roadless areas remain protected in

675-457: The southeast boundary. The 3.1 mile Little Stony National Recreation Trail passes through the area, and is open to bicycles as well as hikers. 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 789 (Clinch Ranger District). A great variety of information, including topographic maps, aerial views, satellite data and weather information,

702-399: The western portion of the lower 48 states and Alaska. Idaho alone contains over 9 million acres (36,000 km ) of inventoried roadless areas. The inventoried roadless areas range from large areas with wilderness characteristics to small tracts of land that are immediately adjacent to wilderness areas, parks and other protected lands. The first review of Forest Service roadless lands

729-482: Was started in 1967 after the creation of the Wilderness Act by Congress in 1964. This effort was called the “Roadless Area Review and Evaluation” or “RARE I”, and culminated in 1972 with a finding that 12,300,000 acres (50,000 km ) that were suitable to be designated as wilderness. The RARE I recommendations were abandoned by the Forest Service after courts ruled that the agency had not sufficiently complied with

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