The Bull Run Mountains, the easternmost mountains in Virginia, include the Virginia Outdoors Foundation's Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve, an approximately 2,350-acre protected area near the nation's capital that contains 10 plant community types and many regionally uncommon and threatened plant and animal species. Dedicated in 2002 by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation as a natural area preserve, it protects unique ecosystems while allowing managed public access under the ownership and management of the Virginia Outdoors Foundation. The mountains were an early center of scientific activity, and the preserve remains an important research site where permanent protection supports long-term study in a rapidly changing area under increasing human pressures. Staff and volunteers collect data on plant and animal species, public visitation, and trail use to guide decisions that balance public use with the health of the natural ecosystem. Spread across three sections, the preserve serves as a living laboratory, outdoor classroom, and open-air museum, hosting K-12 school groups, university students, and researchers; the South Section is open to the public on weekends without a permit, while Jackson Hollow and the North Section are accessible by permit and support research, education, a research station, a stream restoration area, and brook trout release sites. The Virginia Outdoors Foundation, created in 1966 by the Virginia legislature to promote preservation of open-space lands, acquired its first Bull Run Mountains parcels in 1979, and today owns and manages the preserve. Its trails pass through varied habitats and historic features, including ruins, an ice house structure, the Corum House, the LJ cemetery, historic family cemeteries, views of Chapman Mill and Thoroughfare Gap, and a natural quarry line that served as an entrenchment during the American Civil War.
