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Proposal: A great deal on a New Deal for the Blue Ridge Parkway

As the Obama Administration for Change took office in the worst Economic times since the Great Depression, there's talk of jump starting our Economy with employment in new public works projects reminiscent of FDR's New Deal. Here's one that's ready and waiting to happen on land that already belongs to all of us.

Originally devised in 2004, but unable to move forward because all funds available were being shipped out to rebuild Iraq, this Proposal is more appropriate now than ever before. It's time we started paying attention to our own country. Here's a Plan to build a new Natural Heritage Center for the Blue Ridge Parkway, on a 4200 acre site at Rocky Knob in Virginia.

Most folks think of our National Parks as being like the Great Smoky Mountains National Park or Shenandoah National Park. The 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway is a separate Linear Park which connects these two other Parks, the longest and narrowest National Park in the world, and most visited of the 380 Parks in our national system. Not wider than most country roads, the Parkway was conceived and constructed in large part by FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps, ERA and WPA, putting thousands of unemployed folks to work for years. Started in 1935 to help pull America out of the Depression, workers built the roadbed, 168 bridges, and 26 tunnels drilled and blasted through solid rock.

So many superlatives must be used to describe the magnificence of this national treasure. Ranging from 649 feet in elevation to over a mile high at 6047 feet, the vast array of plants along the Parkway offer a moving flowering season over many months. It's literally possible to drive back in time, by leaving blooming daffodils of Spring in NC valleys, and driving a short distance up to high mountains to find Winter still firmly in control with icicles and bare trees. More than 100 species of birds may be seen during Spring migration.

Below is a concise description found among other fascinating information at http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/hih/blue_ridge/

The Blue Ridge Parkway is many things. It is the longest road planned as a single unit in the United States. It is an elongated park, protecting significant mountain landscapes far beyond the shoulders of the road itself. It is a series of parks providing the visitor access to high mountain passes, splendid natural "gardens" of flowering mountain plants, waterfalls and water gaps, deep forests and upland meadows. It is a continuous series of panoramic views, the boundaries of its limited right-of way rarely apparent and miles of the adjacent countryside seemingly a part of the protected scene. It is a "museum of the managed American countryside," preserving the roughhewn log cabin of the mountain pioneer, the summer home of a textile magnate, and traces of early industries such as logging railways and an old canal. It is miles of split-rail fence, moss on a wood shingle roof, broomcorn and flax in a pioneer garden. It is the fleeting glimpse of a deer, a wild turkey or a red fox, or for those who prefer their animal life less wild, herds of cows grazing in pastures or horses trotting in fields. It is a chain of recreational areas, offering motorists a spot to picnic in the woods, a place to sleep overnight in a campground or a rustic lodge, as well as opportunities to refuel their vehicle, enjoy a meal, or purchase a piece of fine regional handicraft. It is the product of a series of major public works projects which provided a boost to the travel and tourism industry and helped the Appalachian region climb out the depths of the Great Depression. The Blue Ridge Parkway is all these things and more, so it should come as no surprise that this is the most heavily visited unit in the National Park System.

More can be learned about the Blue Ridge Parkway at these links: http://www.nps.gov/blri/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ridge_Parkway

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Our cultural heritage is celebrated all along the Parkway, from the Cherokee Oconaluftee Visitor Center at the southern end, the Southern Highland Folk Art Center near Asheville, and a Blue Ridge Music Center near the NC/VA State Line. A Rocky Knob Natural Heritage Center would complete the missing link in this celebration of Southern Appalachian Heritage.

A project was begun in the Great Smoky Mountains NP several years ago to identify and catalog all the species living inside the Park, expected to total over 100,000. This unique natural phenomena is the result of centuries of advancing and receding Ice Ages, which pushed northern species into southern territory, dropping them behind as ice receded, where they thrived in this mountain environment creating a diverse mix of species that is found no where else in America.

I was fortunate to get to know Dr Garrett Smathers, a retired Chief Scientist for the National Park Service who began his career on the Blue Ridge Parkway, writing much of the original natural history of the region found along the Parkway. He told me that of all the thousands of species found in GSMNP, it pales in total numbers to what can be found along the 469 mile Blue RIdge Parkway, because it stretches across so many altitude and climate changes.

Rocky Knob, with it's available 4200 acres, is a perfect place to establish the Rocky Knob Natural Heritage Center, already developed with a popular campground and picnic areas. Here's a brief description of Rocky Knob and Mabry Mill a few miles south:

"Many rural scenes and agricultural landscapes, working grist mill with adjacent blacksmith shop and cabin, three picnic areas, visitor center, campground, extensive hiking into Rockcastle Gorge."

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Think of the Rocky Knob Natural Heritage Center as an elaborate botanical garden where everyone from garden club members to University professors can come to study and enjoy one of the most unique places on our planet. Enhanced by environmentally friendly green buildings with exhibits, libraries and meeting facilities, this place would attract visitors from around the world at all seasons. A Visitors Center where examples and information about plants from all along the Parkway is available at one location. But not only that. It's historical context would describe the human interaction with Nature over two centuries, from harvesting timber for housing, to weaving clothing from plant and domestic animal fibers, to discovering medicines from native plant and herbal species.

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In 2010, the Blue Ridge Parkway will celebrate it's 75th Anniversary, and a special organization has been formed to work on this: www.blueridgeparkway75.org

While this project will take years to build, and will by it's very nature never be completed, it could be well underway by the 75th Anniversary, with a display at Rocky Knob showing the visiting public what will happen here over the next decade.

Our Blue Ridge Parkway was born and built to help bring us out of our last Economic Depression. How fitting and appropriate that the Parkway can be instrumental in bringing our Economy back to good health once again.

The original 12-page Proposal can be sent by Email to anyone interested: gene@earthhome.us

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PROPOSAL FOR A

Blue Ridge Natural Heritage Center

at Rocky Knob, Virginia

on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Being a unique integration of pre-industrial Appalachian Folk Culture

with contemporary Flora and Fauna

Mission:

To connect people with the plant environment

of the Blue Ridge Mountains

What our Blue Ridge Mountains looked like as early European settlers began arriving two centuries ago was nothing like what we see here today. Then it was a solid virgin forest; now it’s twice or thrice cut over for timber, with open cultivated fields dotting the landscape. The original magnificent trees are gone, which has changed the dependent sub-culture of under story and herbaceous plants on the forest floor and at its edges.

The early history of settler’s interaction with the land and its plant species is fading as those who remember it – or even remember stories about it – pass on. But the Blue Ridge was changed not only by harvesting giant trees. The magnificent Chestnut-Oak forest which first attracted settlers fed a wide variety of animals and people alike, and when the Chestnut mast vanished because of a blight in the early 20^th century, a vast transformation occurred.

The physical character of our long ridge escarpment continued to change as the once connected forest began to shrink and become segmented, as habitat interruption caused major redistribution of wildlife. Today, as the influx of more people and homes in the mountains continues, plant life also continues to change, with introduction of new and prolific invasive species not native to our Blue Ridge Mountain range.

This ever changing, never ending story of people’s interaction with plants in our mountains needs to find a permanent place to be told and retold for future generations, and the Blue Ridge Parkway is the most logical and appropriate place to do it.

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Existing Facilities at Rocky Knob as currently operated by the

Blue Ridge Parkway (BLRI), National Park Service (NPS)

Approximately 3200’ in elevation, and 4200 acres; contains major vertical escarpment

         Visitor Center: Staffed by NPS Rangers and Interpretive staff

         Book Sales Area: In the Visitors Center, operated by Eastern National

         Lodging: Seven CCC cabins are located to the southeast, turning off the Parkway onto Road 758

         Picnicking:   Drive through area with 72 tables adjacent to the Visitor’s Center

   More tables 10 miles north at Smart View

         Self-guided Nature Trails

         Interpretive Programs: Variety of walks/talks/campfire circles conducted during peak seasons

         Camping: 2 miles north of the Visitor’s Center, containing

81 Tent sites

21 RV and Trailer sites

         Hiking Trails: Three established trails:

   1.0 mile Rocky Knob Picnic Loop Trail – easy

   3.0 mile Black Ridge Trail – moderate

   10.8 mile Rock Castle Gorge Loop Trail – very strenuous

         Fishing: Catch and release trout stream in Gorge accessible from cabin road

With this advantage of existing onsite Cabins and Campsites available for overnight accommodations, visitors to the proposed Blue Ridge Natural Heritage Center would include day trippers, overnighters and guests of longer duration -- helping Rocky Knob to become a true destination point on the Parkway for many visitors.

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Rocky Knob’s unique location:

A confluence of time and place

Many histories are yet to be told about the long mountain range we now call the Blue Ridge Mountains that stretches northeast for 500 miles from northern Georgia to West Virginia across an amazing landscape between latitudes 34 and 39.

Stories about how the current strange and special combination of Northern and Southern plants and trees came to find their home intermixed together on these Ridges, due in large part to the climatic push and pull of glaciers from an Ice Age tens of thousands of years ago.

Stories of how Native Americans who called these mountains home for centuries learned to use the Ridge’s plant bounty to feed and clothe themselves, and to soothe maladies.

Stories of how European settlers used the forests, plants and herbs to likewise make their lives both possible and meaningful along the peaks, coves and valleys of our Blue Ridge.

If you could fold the Blue Ridge Mountains in half from end to end, you’d find that the midpoint falls amazingly close to Rocky Knob. And if you looked closer at the mountain peaks along this Long Ridge Province, you’d find that the highest, rough and craggy peaks are mostly in the North Carolina half, while almost at the state line the Ridge plateaus out to a generally lower elevation mountain range. This less rugged terrain allowed settlers here to more easily pursue a tolerable agrarian lifestyle.

All of these geographical features go to make Rocky Knob a unique place at which to establish a Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway for the study, teaching, and understanding of the phytogeography and phytosociology of this most unique portion of America.

Currently at many places along the Parkway, various interpretive programs give a localized perspective on the role of trees, plants, herbs and wildflowers in the lives of the pre-industrial people who made their living along these ridges. This facility at Rocky Knob would serve to unify these efforts, and to centralize and coordinate the Parkway’s interpretive mission.

At the Rocky Knob facility, visitors to the Parkway would learn about plant life and plant related cultures as they exist today. Visitors would learn about what they may find along the Blue Ridge as they travel northward, just as travelers to the south can preview what to expect.

Development proposals for the Rocky Knob area currently under discussion might go off in many different directions. But the proposal presented here uniquely fits the region in which it sits both culturally and historically. What is identified here is an unparalleled opportunity to create something which could not be created as appropriately anyplace else along the Parkway.

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Purpose

To enhance the visitor experience of the Blue Ridge Parkway by expanding educational and recreational opportunities, while at the same time encouraging a selective growth of environmentally responsible ecotourism designed to improve economic opportunities in a way that preserves and protects the rural heritage of the region.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is divided into interpretive segments, and coincidentally, Rocky Knob is in the section that emphasizes the rural agricultural landscape, typified by Mabry Mill just to the south and the Johnson Farm at Peaks of the Otter to the north. Adjacent areas are rapidly loosing farms and farmsteads to development for commercial purposes. One long standing goal of Parkway supporters is to protect views from the Parkway by conservation of the landscape, encouraging development that complements the historic agrarian nature of this part of Virginia.

Pre-industrial Appalachia was a time when most folks lived closer to nature, and when every detail of the natural world impacted people’s lives daily. Today we have in America a large population of children and adults who have never experienced life outside urban/suburban environments. Having a manicured lawn and a flower garden of hybrid plants may be the closest they ordinarily come to directly experiencing nature.

Is it any wonder that the wisdom, knowledge and sensitivity which comes from an agrarian lifestyle is more and more missing from the national collective consciousness as the distance away from rural life increases? Which is another way of saying that it’s becoming easier these days to convince kids that chocolate milk comes only from brown cows!

Here -- in this unspoiled mountaintop strip along the 469-mile long Blue Ridge Parkway connecting the Shenandoah National Park to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park -- is a rare and precious opportunity in this place and at this time to commit to a unique and special effort which shall – in a most amazing way – rededicate this portion of rural Appalachia to the purpose established in 1916 for the National Park Service, which is:

“ . . . to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”

Gene Messick, from a garden in Eden, June 7, 2004

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What is it?

Part of it is an indoor/outdoor Botanical Garden/Arboretum; but it might also be:

         An advocate for native plant habitat protection, propagation and restoration.

         A demonstration project to show connections between pre-industrial mountain living and native plant resources,                         with extensions to contemporary lifestyles

         Interpretive historical exhibits displaying handcrafted products from indigenous materials

   (spinning, dyeing, weaving, basket making, pottery, wood carving, quilt making, and more)

         A place to describe traditional native American reliance on plant & forest uses in daily life

         A voice for plant conservation at the top edge of the 500-mile Long Ridge Province , and restoration of the once dominant Chestnut-Oak Forest

         A center to join traditional folk herb-bark-root medicinal lore with current ethhnobotanical research supporting modern pharmacology and genetic engineering

         A place where urban visitors may develop in-depth appreciation for our natural heritage

         A computer assisted, fun, hands-on science museum for kids, teaching plant specie significance

         An auditorium with state of the art multi-screen digital projectors to show plants from microscopic to panoramic, with a catalog of interpretive shows rotated at the push of a button

         A gallery of locally produced Nature Art and handcrafted objects from indigenous materials

         A source for books, videos, DVDs and web sites about native Appalachian plants

         A central location for coordinating Parkway plant resource management

         A source of direction to help visitors find local vendors of plants, arts and crafts

         A professional plant study, conference and research facility, including presentations of less well understood          plants, such as ferns, mosses, mushrooms and fungi

         A public center for the enjoyment of indigenous and migratory birds and butterflys.

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(A) Heritage components + Botanical components (B)

bringing together

People < ----- > Nature

Traditional Appalachian Folk Culture derived:

from Forests . . .

woodcarving

wood splitting

(shingles, baskets)

furniture making

tool making

homebuilding (cabins)

from Fibers . . .

growing / harvesting

(flax, wool, cane)

spinning / weaving

basket making

quilt making

from Foods . . .

foraging

kitchen gardening

subsistence farming

orchards

vineyards

from Roots, Barks & Herbs

cloth dyes / wood stains

leather tanning

food enhancement / preservation

medicinal uses

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(A) Heritage Center component

Auditorium

Equipped with a digital projection system for varied presentations

Classrooms / Meeting Rooms

Craft Exhibit Gallery / Lobby Displays

Permanent and revolving shows of

historical artifacts & current productions

Outdoor Demonstration Area

(semi-sheltered from sun, rain)

To accommodate such things as dye pots,

white oak splits, large basket weaving

sheep shearing,

sugar cane squeezing, soap making

foot treadle wood turning lathe

pottery wheel with earthen kiln

Indoor Demonstration Area

[Space to accommodate rotating artisan scheduling]

Spinning, Weaving

Quilting, Small baskets

Dried herb prep and brewing

Woodcarving

Craft Sales Shop

(from local producers)

Quilts, Baskets, Weavings, Pottery, Soaps

Gift items and souvenirs

Cards by local artists / photographers

(flower, plant and landscape subjects)

[Operated by an art/craft nonprofit organization]

Bookshop

Mountain heritage & crafts

[Operated by Eastern National]

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(B) Botanical Garden component

Indoor and outdoor displays of native plant collections

Classrooms / Meeting Rooms

Lectures by botanists, plant geographers, horticulturalists

Interactive computer displays for kids

Staffed Botanical Information Counter

Organizing seasonal plant pilgrimages (spring/fall)

Trailheads

for both on- & off-site guided & self-directed hiking excursions

Arboretum Trail Walk

Outdoor seating snack bar with natural foods, teas

(Vending machines for healthy ordinary stuff)

Seasonal Nature Shop

Plants, seeds, garden items

[Operated by wildflower nonprofit organization]

Bookshop

Books, videos, DVDs

wildflower, plant & herb identification

[Operated by Eastern National]

Staff maintained facilities:

Parkway information desk

Natural Resources Library

Online Resource Services

Research labs / offices / Greenhouses

Extension Programs / Conferences

Planting / maintenance sheds

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Typical types of exhibits and programs

Interpretive exhibits/programs of Appalachian folk culture that connect plants & people

                       “A is for Apple” Apple trees as an integral part of Appalachian culture

                       “Bees and Pollination” including a thru-the-wall hive window

                       “Cherokee Botanicals” for food, medicine and clothing

                       “Stories of Our Heritage told through Quilts”

                        “Feed Sack Recycling in Early Appalachia”

                       Native American agricultural influences on the Blue Ridge

                       Sustainable foraging for edible plants

                         Study and management of Parkway invasive species

                       Using native plants in landscape design

                       How to successfully photograph plants in their natural habitat

                       Online directory of native Appalachian wildflowers

                        Seasonally changing Multi-image Shows projected daily in the auditorium

                        Rentable pre-recorded earpiece players for self-guided Nature Trail walks

                        Exhibit: Native American handcrafts of the Appalachian Mountains

                        Exhibit: Landscape paintings, drawings and photographs by local artists

                        Exhibit: Contemporary crafts from traditional indigenous mountain materials

                        Online Parkway Peak Bloom Schedules and Locator (including onsite collections)

                                            Professional Program possibilities:

                                          Reestablishment of extirpated species once native to The Long Ridge Province

                                          Off-season outreach interpretive programming for adjacent public school systems

                                          Making a living on the land: tree farming /orcharding /winemaking

                                          Organic agriculture and herb farming

                                          Summer Field Study internships for college/university students

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Some Characteristics of New Built Facilities

Design all new structures to blend in with

the rustic, natural style of the Blue Ridge Parkway

Take care in locating new facilities to have

minimum adverse environmental site impact,

including avoiding habitat fragmentation

Build reasonably close to the existing Parkway,

thus avoiding long and dramatic entranceways

Utilize current technologies for “Green building”,

including earth berming, stormwater ponds, rainwater cisterns

and active/passive solar energy enhanced design

Put many outdoor seating places throughout gardens and along trails

for small groups to gather for leader discussions and to observe surroundings

Provide sheltered verandas with rockers for

sitting, conversing, reading & viewing gardens

and/or distant mountain vistas

Locate the year-round facilities near to

existing or connected to non-Parkway roadways,

so that access may occur even when the Parkway itself

is closed during adverse winter weather

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Regional Ecotourism & Economic Development Opportunities

for Floyd and Patrick Counties and beyond

Locally produced, non-franchise, mom & pop, cottage industries

which preserve and protect the rural and agrarian nature of the region

Vineyards and Wineries

Fruit Orchards: Apple, Cherry, Peach

(pick your own berry farms)

Garden Supply Shops

Plant Nurseries

Landscape Specialists

Truck Farmers

Farmer’s Markets

Organic growers / permaculturists

Craftspeople & Studios

(weavers, quilters, potters, soap makers)

Craft Shops and Art Galleries

(Landscape painters, nature photographers)

Restaurants featuring local produce

Specialty Foods / Green Markets

Bed & Breakfasts

Gift Shops with locally produced goods

Reference:  Ecotourism in Appalachia: Marketing the Mountains by Fritsch / Johannsen

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