Broad Run

Broad Run is a protected wildland in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests near New Castle, Virginia, valued as a relatively undeveloped Appalachian landscape. Its three ridges and steep drainages surround a notably pristine low-elevation stream, while varied slopes and exposures support diverse forests and rare habitats, including the Lick Branch Barren special biological area and a Central Appalachian shale barren community. Modern protections grew from federal roadless-area review and limits on new roads and timber sales. Yet the area also preserves evidence of long human use, from prehistoric camps believed to predate 1000 B.C. to nineteenth-century mining and traces of early twentieth-century logging.

Virginia · United States