River to the Blue Ridge Parkway at Bearwallow Gap. Bearwallow Creek and Jennings Creek, with many tributaries, are the principal drainages of the area. Forest Service management The Forest Service has conducted a survey of their lands to determine the potential for wilderness designation. Wilderness designation provides a high degree of protection from development. The areas that were found suitable are referred to as inventoried roadless areas. Later a Roadless Rule was adopted that limited road construction in these areas. The rule provided some degree of protection by reducing the negative environmental impact of road construction and thus promoting the conservation of roadless areas. The area was not inventoried in the roadless area review, and therefore not protected from possible road construction and timber sales. In 1930 a forest fire burned 10,000 acres from the Peaks of Otter to Cove Mountain and down the length of Cove Mountain to within a half mile of Arcadia. There was a wildfire in 2005 near Va 43 and Bearwallow Creek, and in 2008 a wildfire in the Little Cove Creek watershed almost reached Va 43. A bulldozed fire line was constructed south of McFalls Ridge and another across Cove Mountain, near the Cove Mountain Shelter and south of the Buchanan Trail. The Appalachian Trail Corridor and old growth tracts are protected from timber cutting. The forest plan for the area includes Ruffed Grouse Habitat, where timber cutting and road building are allowed, and mixed successional habitat which allows logging. Nearby Wildlands Nearby wilderness areas, and wildlands recognized as one of Virginia's "Mountain Treasures" by the Wilderness Society are: James River Face Wilderness Thunder Ridge Wilderness James River Face Wilderness Addition White Oak Ridge-Terrapin Mountain North Creek (conservation area) Wilson Mountain References George Washington and Jefferson National Forests Protected areas of Botetourt County, Virginia