Nature & Science

Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park was created not only to preserve the resources and memory of four Civil War Battles, but also has an important natural resource element. Of the park's currently owned 7,600 acres, there are 23 miles of trails, 1,100 acres of open fields and 6,500 acres of forest.

The park supports an eastern North American riparian and woodland habitat on a substrate of the Appalachian Piedmont and the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The park provides rich forest and wetlands, developed parkland, farmsteads, and historic landscapes and it lies in the Rappahannock and York River basins of central Virginia.

The park is divided by the fall line, a geological demarcation between the Piedmont physiographic province, and the Coastal Plain. The line divides the park roughly from Chatham Manor through Fredericksburg Battlefield, with Lee Drive being the line of demarcation. The interspersion of vegetative types provides habitats for a wide variety of wildlife in the park and numerous streams and swamps on gently rolling wooded plateaus are found throughout the park.