Grace Furnace, West Virgina

Grace Furnace

Image Credit: Neil Jordan

Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western Virginia, and surrounded by National Forest land, the heavily forested Grace Furnace property protects the headwaters of the James River and, ultimately, the water quality of the Chesapeake Bay.

The property’s ten miles of cool, clear streams and rich limestone forests will benefit native brook trout and threatened species, including the James spinymussel, the Atlantic pigtoe mussel, and the orange madtom fish.

To conserve the 4,672-acre Grace Furnace tract, OSI purchased it with funding from the Wyss Foundation in 2016. In 2019, using funding available through the Land & Water Conservation Fund, the US Forest Service (USFS) secured the property from OSI — making Grace Furnace the largest purchase by USFS in the state of Virginia in nearly a century, and preserving habitat for wildlife, even as the climate changes.

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