Nature

"...upon which the battle of Bull Run was fought, I saw pretty, pure, delicate flowers growing out of the empty ammunition boxes, and a wild rose thrusting up its graceful head through the top of a broken drum, which doubtless sounded its last charge in that battle, and a cunning scarlet verbena peeping out of a fragment of a bursted shell, in which strange pot it was planted? Wasn’t that peace growing out of war?

Even so shall the beautiful and graceful ever grow out of the horrid and terrible things that transpire in this changing but ever advancing world. Nature covers even the battlegrounds with verdure and bloom. Peace and plenty spring up in the track of the devouring campaign, and all things in nature and society shall work out the progress of mankind.”

— Frank Leslie, Illustrated Newspaper, May 6, 1865

While Manassas National Battlefield Park preserves the sites of the First and Second Battles of Manassas, it also protects over 4,000 acres of natural habitat. Nearly half the park is grassland that provides crucial habitat for grassland birds and pollinators including monarch butterflies. The other half is forests from early-successional Virginia pine stands to relatively mature oak-hickory forests.

 

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  Animals

  Deer, black bear, birds, snakes, amphibians, and more call Manassas home.

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  Plants

  Oak hickory woodlands and native warm season grasslands are the primary habitats in the park, but the park has quite a variety!

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  Geology

  Learn about the underlying geology of Manassas National Battlefield Park

 

Manassas National Battlefield Park Natural Resource Condition Assessment (2011) (9.0 Mb .pdf)

 

Researching Nature at Manassas

Manassas is a natural oasis for visitors and for scientific researchers because of its protected natural landscape. The research done here provides the accurate and current natural resource information we need to provide to best care for the park. Scientists look at what key resources are present in the park, if they are stable or changing, how ecosystems are changing over time, and how much change is normal.

Like a physician monitoring a patient's heartbeat and blood pressure, National Park Service ecologists with the National Capital Region Inventory & Monitoring Network collect long-term data on forest vegetation, bird and amphibian communities, water quality, and other key resources at Manassas, analyze the monitoring results, and share them with the park.
Read more in the articles below about researchers studying nature at Manassas and nearby national parks.