New River State Park

Visit New River State Park and discover its unspoiled beauty as well as the flora and fauna of the area.

Preview your trip on the web: New River State Park

Learn more

• Surf Your Watershed Find about the watershed near your hometown, get answers to watershed questions, and read watershed news.
• Geography Action! Activities, lesson plans, and a showcase of natural sounds help students and teachers explore topics such as biodiversity, conservation, habitats, population, rivers, and U.S. public spaces in an effort to celebrate Geography Awareness Week all year long.
• EEK! Environmental Education for Kids An electronic magazine for kids in grades 4-8 and their teachers too that features constantly changing information, games, and activities about nature and the environment.
• Lesson plan: North Carolina Rivers Students will locate 28 rivers within the state of NC, noting names and origins of names, directions of flow, navigability, and development of population centers in relation to the rivers.
• Experience North Carolina's state parks with EELEs An EELE is an Environmental Education Learning Experience -- a site-specific program offered by the North Carolina state parks system. EELEs include pre-visit activities, on-site activities and post-visit activities, but they do not necessarily have to be used in conjunction with a group visit.

Related pages

• Stone Mountain State Park: This park not only allows enjoying the beauty of the area but also provides instruction in basic geologic concepts.
• Jones Lake State Park: A visit to Jones Lake Park not only teaches students about the habitats and animals that can be found there, but the phenomenon of the Carolina Bays is also explored.
• Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area: Originally settled by the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, the Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area has a diversity of natural communities including undisturbed forest and a wide variety of wildlife species.

Related topics

• Learn more about Ashe County, North Carolina, amphibians, animals, biology, birds, ecosystems, environmental science, forests, geology, habitats, plants, reptiles, science, state parks, and trees.

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Rugged hillsides, pastoral meadows and bucolic farmlands surround what is believed to be the oldest river in North America - the New River. Its waters are slow and placid. Its banks are fertile and covered with wildflowers. Dedicated as a National Scenic River in 1976, this gentle river is the centerpiece of New River State Park.

Rangers hold regularly scheduled educational and interpretive programs about New River State Park. To arrange a special exploration of New River State Park for your group or class, contact the park office. Educational materials about New River State Park have been developed for grades 6-8 and are correlated to North Carolina’s competency-based curriculum in science, social studies, mathematics and English/language arts. The New River program focuses on basic river ecology and the aspects of the New River that make it unique. Accompanying the program is a teacher’s booklet and workshop, free of charge to educators. Call (336) 982-2587 or send email to new.river@ncmail.net to schedule a visit.

Each state park and recreation area has an EELE (environmental education learning experience) curriculum guide that includes on-site activities, pre- and post-visit activities, student information pages, worksheets, fact sheets, vocabulary, and references. You can receive a free copy of an EELE by attending its corresponding workshop at a park, or you can borrow these guides through interlibrary loan at any public library in North Carolina. The EELE for New River State Park is "The Old New River" for grades 6, 7, and 8.

The North Carolina State Parks website offers a search feature for finding the plants and animals that can be found at each state park. Using the drop-down menus, you can choose a park and either an amphibian, bird, reptile, mammal, fungus, insect, or vascular plant. You can search within each group by family, scientific name, or common name. There are photographs from the state parks and fun facts for some of the species.

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