The Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) acquired the 2,208-acre Big Woods Wildlife Management Area (WMA) and the Virginia Department of Forestry (DOF) acquired the adjacent 2,200-acre Big Woods State Forest. The location had been owned by The Nature Conservancy, which had previously conducted a prescribed fire to prepare for a 65-acre planting of long leaf pine, beginning the process of creating habitat for red-cockaded woodpeckers, an endangered species that nests specifically in long leaf pine trees.