Climate and habitats are typical of areas much further north, and the plants and animals are unusual for the latitude. Many Valley species are at or near the southernmost edge of their ranges. Drained by the Blackwater River and its tributaries, Canaan Valley contains the largest freshwater wetland area in West Virginia and the central and southern Appalachians. More than 580 plant species are known, and there are 40 distinct plant communities, including swamp forests, alder thickets, marshes and bogs. These habitats support equally diverse wildlife populations, with 290 species of vertebrates known to occur. Nationally recognized as a breeding and fall migration area for the American woodcock, the refuge area also supports many other migratory bird species. The Valley supports the threatened Cheat Mountain salamander and the endangered West Virginia northern flying squirrel.

When early European explorers came to the area, game, fish and edible plants were plentiful in Canaan (pronounced Kah-nane') Valley. "Carpeted with delicious grasses and canopied with massive trees, cold streams teeming with speckled trout and enough wild game in the form of panthers, bears, elk, deer, otter and raccoon to last a man a lifetime of sport and subsistence, it was truly a paradise for man or beast." (Preble, 1960, p. 1-2.) But the explorers also had a difficult time cutting their way through the dense tangled thickets of spruce and rhododendron, "where one could be hopelessly lost within shouting distance of his own camp." (Preble, 1960, p2)

Then in the late 1800s and early 1900s, with railroads able to take products to market, the timber industry boomed in the area. Men cut the forests of spruce, birch, cherry, beech and other trees, leaving branches and tree tops (slash) on the ground. Without the shade of the trees, the soils, rich with decaying plants, and slash began to dry. Fires began, started by lightening, sparks from railroads, or people. In some uplands, even the decaying plants burned, leaving inorganic soils exposed to the forces of erosion.

The logging and fires opened up what had been an impenetrable tangle. With the soils burned away, forests were slow to regenerate. The drier open areas grew into grasslands. Farming and grazing grew in importance. Today, the ruggedly beautiful Canaan Valley holds various wetlands, forests and grasslands.

On August 11, 1994, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bought land establishing Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is the 500th in the National Wildlife Refuge System.