Hickory Hollow Nature Preserve is 254 acres of woodland
trails, ravines, and swampy marshlands situated immediately behind Lancaster
High School off the Regina Road in Lancaster County Virginia. It is included
on the Virginia Birding and Wild Life Trail.
In 1971, county forester Henry Bashore created a system of trails through it, making it accessible to anyone seeking a pleasant hike or a picnic.
In 1999 the Lancaster County Board of Supervisors decided to investigate the feasibility of creating an industrial park on this property. At a Town Meeting in July the supervisors encountered 300 angry citizens who wanted Hickory Hollow to remain as a natural area. The supervisors shortly thereafter decided to cancel their plans to build the industrial park on this property.
That summer the Northern Neck Audubon Society was able to buy this property to set it aside permanently for the enjoyment of the citizens of the Northern Neck. An application was made to the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation to provide a matching grant to buy this property from the County. A grant of $179,012 was awarded, and the local chapter voted to raise the difference between that sum and the $320,000 price asked by the County. A fund raising campaign has begun to restore the principal so that the organization can continue its grants program.
Many groups and individuals enjoy the preserve, and it is one of the natural assets of the Northern Neck. In it are special niches which permit the survival of several uncommon birds and animals. A group of Audubon members are conducting a plant and bird survey to determine which of these find havens in the swamps and hollows here. A recent meeting of the Virginia Herpetological Society did a survey of the amphibians and reptiles as well.
There are plants here which do not exist elsewhere in the county or even the Northern Neck. Why these plants exist here yet no where else except the Blue Ridge Mountains, has yet to be explained, but the question has caught the interest of the Botany Department of William and Mary and has been the source of several doctoral theses and research papers. Currently, a graduate student is studying these plants as well.
A local Eagle Scout built and donated a covered bulletin board which had been used to display a map of the trails and photographs of plants and animals seen in the preserve. A brochure with a map of the trails, and a guide to twenty numbered plants along the trail is also available at this kiosk.
The several miles of trails are all blazed with colored paint, which correspond to the trail map. There are several picnic areas, including a sheltered picnic table.
Walking the trails of Hickory Hollow will help you feel refreshed and renewed by the knowledge that this rare treasure will remain a public nature preserve. Come by soon and enjoy the beauty of a walk through a natural forest, and get a feel for what the Northern Neck was like when Indians were the only others you'd meet on the trails!
