page_title: Thunder Ridge Wilderness
section_title: Natural history
hierarchical_section_title: Thunder Ridge Wilderness / Natural history
caption_attribution_description: English: spring flower, May Apple, photographed along the Appalachian Trail in the Thunder Ridge Wilderness, Virginia
context_page_description: The Thunder Ridge Wilderness is a 2,344 acres area located near Natural Bridge, Virginia, which is protected by the Eastern Wilderness Act of Congress to maintain its present, natural condition. As part of the National Wilderness Preservation System, it helps to preserve a variety of natural life forms and contributes to a diversity of plant and animal gene pools. Over half of the ecosystems in the United States exist within designated wilderness.
  Dominated by Thunder Ridge with steep slopes towering above Arnold Valley, the interior is incredibly rugged, remote and rarely visited. The top of the ridge contains flowers blooming late into summer, long past blooms in the hot valley below. Trillium, may apple, pink lady slipper, Indian cucumber root and columbine flourish in the shade of black cherry trees, northern red oak and hickories.
  The area is part of the Glenwood Cluster.
context_section_description: With very different environments, the area sustains a great variety of trees found in a diversity of habitats.  Coves support tulip poplar, oak and hemlock, some very large; the crest of Apple Orchard Mountain has a mix of hardwoods such as red and white oak as well as common persimmon, red spruce and hemlock; and the harsh environment of the dry western slopes support pitch pine, Virginia pine and chestnut oak.
  The moist forests provide good habitat for salamanders. The world’s greatest diversity of salamanders is found in the southeastern United States.  More than 55 species are located in Virginia, with over 15 in the Thunder Ridge wilderness or adjacent public and private lands.
caption: May Apple in the Thunder Ridge Wilderness, Virginia
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