2770-acre New River Wilderness
is selling at PUBLIC AUCTION to the highest bidders on JUNE 30, 2026
in eight tracts. We MUST be able to bid at that auction block.
New River Wilderness directly borders New River Gorge National Park in WV
This is an emergency campaign asking for pledges to buy and save as many of these parcels as we can afford.
All of the parcels are worth protecting, but we will NOT bid above estimated market values.
Pledges will be called in for all winning bids. Closing on he real estate will be on or before July 30, 2026.
SCROLL DOWN for videos & photo galleries. SCROLL FURTHER YET for progress and goals, the site’s national significance, MAPS, where to direct questions, and the strategic details we can safely share.
Some of the most spectacular landscapes in the East can be found in the New River Gorge region of West Virginia.
The scenery of New River Wilderness, immediately west and south of the National Park, is EPIC.
Major natural features of New River Wilderness include:
Piney Creek Gorge is a roaring white-water trout stream that races through a 1000-ft deep, nearly vertical-walled canyon on its way to its confluence with the New River inside the National Park. The west bank of this major ravine is what is on the auction block, represented parcels 5 and 6.
Piney Creek Trail The Piney Creek parcels are of exceptional interest to the City of Beckley and outdoor recreationists everywhere because, if acquired, Beckley will connect with the National Park - not only by land - but via a ten-mile hiking and mountain bike trail that has long been in the planning. West Virginia Land Trust already owns six miles of the west bank of the Piney, beginning at the Beckley trailhead and continuing downstream. This section’s trail is already completed. Piney Creek parcels 6 & 7 would fill in the missing four-mile gap that exists between the Beckley and the National Park.
Stretcher Neck Bluffs are represented by Auction Parcels 1-5. These parcels boast the finest forests and include biologically-rich wetlands, swamp forests, and masses of rhododendrons and mountain laurel. Several high elevation overlooks offer dramatic views of the National Park’s famous feature, the New River oxbow of Stretcher Neck shown in the above gallery. Parcels 1-5 have much less dramatic relief than 6-8, and are in more danger of being developed. We expect the prices of these parcels to be potentially higher than the others.
Spruce Run is a sparkling rock-walled mountain stream that drains into the National Park as part of Mill Creek, a watershed that is completely separate from the Piney. This exceptionally handsome tributary is filled with hemlocks and rhododendrons, and in many ways can be considered the most remote and biologically significant of all the auction parcels. The rock formations are stunning.
Adjacent conservation lands include:
Scouting America’s prestigious 14,000-acre Summit Bectel Reserve to the north; 614-acre Piney Creek Preserve owned by the West Virginia Land Trust to the south; and 72,800-acre New River Gorge National Park to the east. Auction parcels 1-8 are shown on the map below. ALL of them are worthy.
What is most impressive about Wild Rock Canyon’s natural history?
We sponsored a bioblitz at Wild Rock Canyon last summer that was attended by 16 Ohio field biologists and naturalists. They seined the creeks, turned over stones, keyed out plants, set up mist nets for bats, launched drones, and set up 18 game cameras to catch glimpses of mammals. Highlights from that weekend include the mist-netting of an eastern small-footed bat, a bat that is very rare throughout its range. It is so tiny and weighs only six grams, one gram less than a ruby-throated hummingbird! Biologists also netted the large 16-inch winged hoary bat, bringing us to a total of four observed bat species over the weekend. Thirteen species of amphibians were recorded, most of them salamanders. Salamander species include the cave salamander (an endangered species in Ohio), seal salamander, and Allegheny Plateau salamander.
Mothing light stations were set up each night and the number of moths swarming around those lights was exhilarating to behold. At one station alone we drew in over a dozen luna moths in one night, just some of the many stunning silk moths we witnessed that weekend. But the most thrilling of our wildlife finds were the mammals that were captured in video on our game cams. There were so many black bear videos!! And those bears loved smashing our cameras! We recorded multiple females with cubs. and several solo males. The most outstanding feature of Wild Rock Canyon, however, is its sheer size.
Where do the waters of Wild Rock Canyon go?
Wild Rock Canyon encompasses 11 miles of Renick Creek and its tributaries. Renick Creek lies in the same Ohio River Watershed as all of our Arc of Appalachia preserves. In other words, a person could sit on top of the ridge at the Arc’s Ohio River Bluffs Preserve outside Manchester, Ohio, and watch the waters of Wild Rock Canyon drift by as a component of the Ohio River. The waters of Wild Rock Canyon journey as follows: Pigeon Hollow to Renick Creek (both streams are largely contained on the property), to Kitchen Creek, to Muddy Creek, to Greenbrier River, to the New River, to the Kanawha River, to the Ohio River, to the Mississippi River, and onto the Gulf of Mexico.
Is Wild Rock Canyon open to the public?
Until we have staff nearby to steward trails, Wild Rock Canyon will be maintained as an Arc of Appalachia Forest Reserve that is primarily dedicated to habitat protection for native plants and animals, a place where the forest will be permitted to mature into old-growth forest status. If we remain active in West Virginia, which we hope we will, we trust the philanthropy will eventually follow to support trail stewardship. Once that happens, we would be delighted to build a small parking trailhead and offer hiking trails at Wild Rock Canyon, just as we do in Ohio. In the meantime, access is limited to our stewardship staff and volunteers and, by special permit, to field biologists and researchers.
Wild Rock Canyon protects 2.77 contiguous miles of the deep ravine of Rennick Creek and contains nearly the entire watershed for the mountain stream.
Black bears, deep-forest warblers, and a high diversity of salamanders and bats are the signature wildlife species of this Appalachian heartland.
West Virginia, the 3rd most forested state in the nation, offers the most splendid wildlands preservation opportunities east of the Mississippi, and, arguably, in all the nation.