The Allegheny Wildlife Management AreaAllegheny WMA page, WV Division of Natural Resources web site, retrieved April 20, 2008
is located on on two separate tracts of mixed oak-

hickory Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes around 18 species. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam), as many as twelve are native to the United States, four are found in Mex ...

woodlands in western Mineral County along the

Allegheny Front The Allegheny Front is the major southeast- or east-facing escarpment in the Allegheny Mountains in southern Pennsylvania, western Maryland, eastern West Virginia, and western Virginia, USA. The Allegheny Front forms the boundary between the ...

. The large land tract of is accessible via Pinnacle Road (County Route 4) and Pine Swamp Road (County Route 220/2) four miles (6 km) southwest of Keyser. The smaller tract of is accessed by

West Virginia Route 46 West Virginia Route 46 is an east–west state highway split into two segments in Mineral County, West Virginia, United States. The western terminus of the western segment is at West Virginia Route 42 in Elk Garden. The eastern terminus is ...

and Barnum Road (County Route 46/3) about north from Elk Garden. The Barnum Road tract consists of old farm fields along the river and the ridgetop, connected by steep slopes.

Hunting and fishing

Hunting Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

opportunities include

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the No ...

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...

grouse Grouse are a group of birds from the order Galliformes, in the family Phasianidae. Grouse are presently assigned to the tribe Tetraonini (formerly the subfamily Tetraoninae and the family Tetraonidae), a classification supported by mitochondria ...

squirrel Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, a family that includes small or medium-size rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrels. ...

and

wild turkey The wild turkey (''Meleagris gallopavo'') is an upland ground bird native to North America, one of two extant species of turkey and the heaviest member of the order Galliformes. It is the ancestor to the domestic turkey, which was originally d ...

. Trapping for fur can include

bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the red lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to North America. It ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico. It is listed as Least Concern on the ...

gray Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be compose ...

and red foxes and

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of ...

Fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from fish stocking, stocked bodies of water such as fish pond, ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. ...

in the North Branch of the Potomac River can produce smallmouth bass,

panfish The word panfish, also spelled pan-fish or pan fish, is an American English term describing any edible freshwater fish that usually do not outgrow the size of an average frying pan. It is also commonly used by recreational anglers to refer to a ...

and

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', '' Salmo'' and '' Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salm ...

. Camping is not permitted in the WMA.

Invasive species

The air-breathing northern snakehead fish have recently reported in the lower

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...

. Although no snakeheads have been detected in West Virginia, this

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species adv ...

from northern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

had been declared a threat to the state's aquatic ecosystem.

Federal law Federal law is the body of law created by the federal government of a country. A federal government is formed when a group of political units, such as states or provinces join in a federation, delegating their individual sovereignty and many ...

prohibits transport of snakeheads across state lines. Anyone who catches this fish when visiting the Allegheny WMA should carefully note the catch location, kill the fish by cutting or bleeding, and contact a WVDNR district biologist.U.S Fish and Wildlife Service snakehead brochure, retrieved April 22, 2008
/ref> The snakehead should not be released back into the Potomac River or any tributary.

References

External links

West Virginia Division of Natural Resources web siteWest Virginia Hunting RegulationsWest Virginia Fishing Regulations
{{Protected Areas of West Virginia Wildlife management areas of West Virginia Protected areas of Mineral County, West Virginia IUCN Category V

Hunting and fishing

Invasive species

See also

References

External links