page_title: Garden Mountain Cluster
section_title: Biological significance
hierarchical_section_title: Garden Mountain Cluster / Biological significance
caption_attribution_description: Hellbender Cryptobranchus alleganiensis
context_page_description: The Garden Mountain Cluster is a region in the Jefferson National Forest recognized by The Wilderness Society for its diversity of habitats extending along the east, south and west of Burke's Garden. The cluster, part of the Appalachian Mountains in southwest Virginia, connects wildlands in the high country of Garden Mountain and adjacent streams and ridges in one of the most remote areas of Virginia.
context_section_description: The land form, climate, soils and geology of the Appalachian highlands, as well as its evolutionary history, have created one of the most diverse collection of plants and animals in the deciduous forests of the temperate world. The cluster's large tract of land supports species, such as black bear and some bird species, that require extensive tracts of unbroken forest for survival.
  The cluster provides habitat and watershed for species that are critically imperiled (G1), imperiled (G2) or vulnerable (G3), as indicated by their NatureServe conservation status. The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Natural Heritage Program gives a list of these species for the counties included in the cluster, Bland, Smyth and Wythe. Among these are:
caption: Hellbender, Cryptobranchus alleganiensis
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