Carvins Cove Natural Reserve is a

city park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a city park, municipal park (North America), public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park or botanical garden in cities, densely populated suburbia and other incorporate ...

in Botetourt and Roanoke counties,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. Managed by the Western Virginia Water Authority and the City of Roanoke, it is the fifth-largest city park in the United States, and the second-largest city park managed by a municipality. Within the park's boundary is Carvins Cove Reservoir and also the main ridgeline of Brushy Mountain, which rises about 1200 feet above the lake's waterline.

History and ownership

In the 1930s, Carvins Creek was dammed to create the Carvins Cove Reservoir, which for many decades served as the primary water source for the City of Roanoke. A small rural community (called Carvins Cove) was displaced by the reservoir's creation, and some of its roads and housing foundations still become visible during

droughts A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...

. A series of droughts in the late 1990s spurred the City of Roanoke and Roanoke County to create the Western Virginia Water Authority, which consolidated their water delivery systems. The reservoir and the land below the contour are owned by the Authority; the land above the contour is owned by the City of Roanoke. In April 2008, Roanoke City Council placed of Carvins Cove under a

conservation easement In the United States, a conservation easement (also called conservation covenant, conservation restriction or conservation servitude) is a power invested in a qualified land conservation organization called a "land trust", or a governmental (muni ...

donated to the Western Virginia Land Trust and the

Virginia Outdoors Foundation The Virginia Outdoors Foundation is a quasi-state agency formed by the Virginia General Assembly in 1966 "to promote the preservation of open space lands and to encourage private gifts of money, securities, land or other property to preserve the nat ...

. The easement protects much of the Cove from inappropriate development and is the largest ever recorded in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Recreation

Recreational activities, such as

mountain biking Mountain biking (MTB) is a sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, usually using specially designed mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes but incorporate features designed to enhance durability ...

hiking A hike is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century. Long hikes as part of a religious pilgrimage have existed for a much longer time. "Hi ...

, and

equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or riding in British English) Examples of this are: *Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes in ...

activities, are allowed around the reservoir. Several mountain bike races are held at Carvins Cove each year, including the "XXC" endurance race which covers 43 miles of trails and involves climbs totalling over 6000 feet."XC / XXC Mountain Bike race"
Roanoke Parks and Recreation (2018).Vince Reinhart
"OG Line (Carvins Cove, VA)"
via Flickr (October 11, 2018). Some downhill trails are considered expert-level only, and involve overall descents of over 1000 feet. Boating and fishing are allowed on the reservoir itself, but there are strict limits to preserve water quality. The fear of

zebra mussels The zebra mussel (''Dreissena polymorpha'') is a small freshwater mussel, an Aquatic animal, aquatic bivalve mollusk in the family Dreissenidae. The species originates from the lakes of southern Russia and Ukraine, but has been accidentally Intro ...

motivated the city to apply the first restrictions in the early 1990s.''Encyclopædia Britannica Almanac 2006'', pg. 272

References

External links

Roanoke Parks and Recreation: Carvins Cove Natural Reserve
Regional parks in Virginia Parks in Botetourt County, Virginia Parks in Roanoke County, Virginia Roanoke, Virginia Nature reserves in Virginia Reservoirs in Virginia Landforms of Botetourt County, Virginia Landforms of Roanoke County, Virginia Virginia municipal and county parks {{RoanokeCountyVA-geo-stub