The 90,000-acre Shenandoah Mountain Proposal lies within the largest, least fragmented Ecological Core in the Commonwealth. The Department of Conservation and Recreation identified ecological cores in their Virginia Natural Landscape Assessment. According to DCR's Natural Heritage Program website, large ecological cores "tend to have higher numbers of species than small patches" and are "also are important for their ecosystem services, including filtering nutrients and pollutants from water, preventing erosion, retaining soil, providing pollinators for crops, removing carbon from the air and sequestering it in woody biomass, slowing and absorbing runoff so groundwater is recharged, absorbing solar energy and keeping local areas cooler, and providing protection from storm and flood damage."
Shenandoah Mountain is indeed a place worth protecting!
Shenandoah Mountain is indeed a place worth protecting!
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