Eight sections,
twenty-two pieces

Blue Ridge, Mount Rogers, the spruce-fir remnant.

• The highest ground holds a forest from a colder eraMount Rogers carries a spruce-fir community that is a relic of a colder climate, isolated on the summit as the rest of the range warmed.
• Open balds, and ponies that keep them openThe Grayson Highlands balds are maintained partly by grazing, and the ponies are a management tool as much as an attraction.
• A road built through a park that was assembled around itShenandoah was assembled in the 1930s from land acquired for the purpose, and Skyline Drive is the spine that assembly was organised along.

Chincoteague, Assateague, and a shoreline that migrates.

• A refuge on a shoreline that will not stay putBarrier islands migrate landward, which makes any fixed infrastructure on them a temporary arrangement.
• Feral ponies managed as a herd, not as wildlifeThe Chincoteague ponies are managed at a set number, and the annual swim is a population-control mechanism with a long history.
• An arthropod older than the flyway that depends on itHorseshoe crab spawning supplies the fat that migrating shorebirds need, which ties two entirely different timetables together.

Raptors, shorebirds, and the woodpecker that needs fire.

• The Atlantic flyway concentrates over a narrow coastMigration funnels along the coast, and the barrier islands are the pinch point where the numbers become countable.
• A falcon that took to bridges after the cliffs failedPeregrine recovery in Virginia involved deliberate relocation, and several pairs now nest on bridges rather than the cliffs the programme intended.
• A woodpecker that requires fire to keep its habitatThe red-cockaded woodpecker nests in living pines kept open by fire, so its conservation is a burning programme before it is anything else.

Oyster, crab, and a restoration measured in acres.

• A structure, a filter and a fishery, in that orderOyster reefs filter water and build habitat, which is why restoration is measured in acres of reef rather than in landings.
• One fishery with a stock assessment everyone readsThe blue crab winter dredge survey produces an annual number that drives the management decisions for the following season.
• A restoration that had to become an accounting exerciseThe Chesapeake Bay Program set numeric targets across several states, which turned an environmental aim into a reporting obligation.

Brook trout, headwater streams, and what warms them.

• The only native trout here, and it needs coldBrook trout are the state's native salmonid and they are limited by summer water temperature, which makes them a thermometer for a whole watershed.
• Shade is infrastructureRiparian canopy keeps headwater streams cold, so forestry decisions upstream decide what can live downstream.

Peat, bear, and a drainage history.

• A drained swamp that is being deliberately re-wettedThe Great Dismal was ditched and drained for centuries; current management is largely about putting the water back to protect the peat.
• Peat that burns underground for monthsDry peat fires burn below the surface and are extinguished by raising the water table rather than by fighting them from above.
• A large black bear population in a place people forgetThe swamp holds a substantial black bear population, close to a densely settled coastal region.

Eagle, peregrine, elk — and what each recovery cost.

• Delisted in 2007 after a chemical was bannedBald eagle recovery followed the DDT ban and was formally recognised with delisting in 2007; the Bay now holds one of the densest populations.
• Elk were brought back to one county on purposeElk were reintroduced to Buchanan County on reclaimed mine land, which is why the herd's range is so precisely bounded.
• The 1930s camps built most of what visitors useCivilian Conservation Corps camps built the trails, shelters and roads that still carry the public through these places.

White-nose syndrome, the woodpecker, the squirrel.

• A fungus arrived around 2009 and bats have not recoveredWhite-nose syndrome reached Virginia around 2009 and reduced several hibernating bat species by an order of magnitude.
• One that recovered enough to be delisted in 2015The Delmarva fox squirrel was delisted in 2015 after decades of habitat work, which makes it the counter-case to the losses around it.