Clinch Mountain Wildlife Management Area - Laurel Bed Lake
At 300 acres, Clinch Mountain's Laurel Bed Lake is a mountain oasis. Wildflowers greet spring visitors. Recreational opportunities include wildlife and nature viewing and photography, fishing, hunting, non-gasoline motored boating, paddle boating, canoeing, archery, hiking, biking and horseback riding. Two boat ramps are available and parking is ample.
Laurel Bed Lake is part of the Clinch Valley Bioreserve(bioreserve) and the Clinch Mountain Wildlife Management Area (CMWMA). "One of the world's last great places," according to The Nature Conservancy, the bioreserve serves to protect an entire ecosystem of rare natural communities and species. The 2,200 square mile reserve stretches across four Tennessee counties and seven Virginia counties (including Smyth County) from Mount Rogers and the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Cumberland Gap.
The bioreserve includes the Clinch and Powell rivers, part of the Tennessee River system. The Nature Conservancy names this river system the "most ecologically diverse region in Virginia," containing hundreds of rare flora (plant) and fauna(animal) species with nearly two dozen listed on the national; Endangered Species list. With diversity said to be unmatched in the mid-Atlantic and northeastern United States, the bioreserve is home to rare fish, mussels, bats, beetles, spiders and other insects many inhabiting natural cave environments.
The Clinch Mountain Wildlife Management Area is Virginia's second largest wildlife management area and the most biologically diverse. The area's rise in elevation to over 3,000 feet from valley to peak creates conditions favorable for a large variety of tree, bird, and animal life. Smyth County is one of four counties encompassing this 25,477-acre wildlife management area.
For more information visit the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries web site at http://www.dgif.state.va.us/wmas/detail.asp?pid=21