Video
Virtual Open House - General Introductory Session
Transcript
This video is a recording from a National Park Week 2021
online presentation by park staff
providing important context and timely information about projects
and happenings on the Blue Ridge Parkway in 2021.
Taking a look at the Parkway’s past, present and future,
panelists provide a brief introduction to the Blue Ridge Parkway and
an opportunity to consider the complexity of managing this 469-mile linear park.
Panelists include:
Peter Hamel, Ridge District Interpreter: Sharing information about the Parkway’s History
Neal Labrie, Chief Ranger: Sharing information about managing the Parkway today
and Rachel Stasny, Chief of Administration and Chief of Staff:
With some information about opportunities to preserve and protect the parkway into the future .
Good afternoon everyone. My name is Peter Hamel and I am Ridge District Interpreter
for the Blue Ridge Parkway.
I have worked for the NPS since 1998 and here on the Parkway for the past decade.
I coordinate visitor services for the first 106 miles of the motor road
including Humpback Rocks, James River, and Peaks of Otter.
I absolutely love the combination of natural and cultural resources of the Blue Ridge.
I am continually fascinated by how these resources are so interconnected
as people were drawn to the area by its wealth of natural resources
creating a cultural story which drove changes in the natural resources
that in turn continues to shape our cultural story.
This seemingly endless cycle is highlighted by the design and construction
of the Blue Ridge Parkway bringing a window to the region
accessible by millions of drivers every year.
The Blue Ridge Parkway is the culmination of the efforts of many
for the benefit of millions.
Its purpose was to connect Shenandoah
and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks via a scenic parkway
with areas for recreation, through the Appalachian Mountains
of Virginia and North Carolina, and to preserve the natural
and cultural resources while providing opportunities for public enjoyment,
The idea of the Parkway probably has a few roots that coincides
with the invention of the automobile as drivers increasingly wanted destinations
for recreational travel and tourism in the early 1900s.
Colonel Joseph Pratt charted a route for the “Crest of the Blue Ridge Highway”
to follow the mountains from Roanoke, VA to Greenville, SC
but only one stretch was built from Altapass to Pineola before the project ended
in 1914 with the onset of World War I.
Though Pratt was not able to realize his conception,
the idea grew as the automobile continued its growth
and development over the next couple decades.
In 1926, Congress authorized two new eastern National Parks:
Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains.
By 1930, a Park to Park connecting highway began to take shape
just as the Great Depression took hold of the nation.
At a meeting in the fall of 1933, several high ranking members
of the state and federal government including President Roosevelt,
cemented the idea for the first scenic Parkway.
A road to be built for pleasure traffic rather than heavy arterial traffic.
The scenic road was not to be driven to “make good time”,
but rather to “have a good time”.
As it was conceived during the Great Depression,
the Parkway was the product of a series of large scale public works projects
to create jobs and contribute to the region’s economic vitality.
The brain child of Stanley Abbott and his crew of talented landscape architects,
the Blue Ridge Parkway was years in the making
as they solved untold numbers of problems,
overcame obstacles, and laid the framework for an unprecedented
“Park to Park” highway across the spine of the mountains.
Using a philosophy of “drive a while, stop a while”,
the architects carefully surveyed and charted a 469 mile route across crests,
ridges, and valleys of 5 major mountain ranges
traversing elevations from 600 to 6000 feet.
Every mile was carefully designed to connect scenic views,
recreational opportunities, and historic sites.
Construction began unceremoniously on Sept 11, 1935 at Cumberland Knob,
near the Virginia/North Carolina boundary.
The Federal Bureau of Public Roads oversaw the construction of the motor road,
dividing the Parkway into 45 different projects.
Private companies were awarded the contracts to build the road
and hired local laborers to clear the land,
operate heavy equipment, and construct the road bed.
Italian and Spanish stone masons built the rock walls
and laid the stone for tunnel portals and arch bridges.
At its peak, there were 4 CCC camps
and 4 ERA projects with over 1,200 men employed.
With the outbreak of World War II, construction slowed to a virtual standstill
as many of the employees were furloughed to military service.
But even during the war years, conscientious objectors continued working.
Parkway visitation topped 1 million visitors as wartime restrictions eased
and veterans returned home eager to get on with peacetime life.
The approaching 50th anniversary of the National Park Service saw the launch of
‘Mission 66’ to expand services and repair the neglect
of the war years in a major boost for the Parkway.
Many new facilities were constructed, and improvements made to existing ones.
The final section of Virginia Parkway was dedicated in 1965
and by 1966 all the Parkway in North Carolina except
for the Grandfather Mountain corridor was completed.
52 years to the day, on Sept 11, 1987 the final section of the Parkway,
the Linn Cove Viaduct around Grandfather Mountain was dedicated.
Since then, visitation continues to rise as motorists from around the globe
see for themselves what makes the Blue Ridge Parkway, America’s Favorite Drive.
enjoying Abbott’s ground breaking design and the choices of millions of Americans
to protect this elongated park that contains a super scenic motor road.
I will now turn things over to Chief Ranger Neal Labrie
to discuss the present state of the Parkway.
Neal, take it away.
Thank you Peter.
Hello everyone.
My name is Neal Labrie and I serve as the Chief Ranger for the Parkway,
where I've been for the last 6 1/2 years.
I've been with the National Park Service for 25.
The Parkway’s very composition on the landscape makes both
our management challenges and opportunities different from many other NPS sites.
Being long and linear with 1100 miles of boundary can make use of shared staffing,
equipment, and resources very difficult.
At the same time there is opportunity.
Running through 29 counties provides endless opportunities
for community connections, partnerships, and economic impact.
For example, as of 2019 the Parkway contributed $1.3 billion
in economic output across these neighboring areas.
Many of the Parkways facilities are part of its original construction, as Peter mentioned,
resulting in what we see today as infrastructure that can be well over 60 years old.
The Parkway is 469 miles of paved mainline motor road
and one of the most expensive attributes to maintain over time.
Along this road are 91 historic buildings, 889 managed vistas,
and many other features that amount to over $508 million in backlog maintenance.
Photos like those shown here
of the housing development on the hill, and the degraded picnic table
are representative of the ongoing current challenges to maintaining Parkway
resources over time.
In each case though, community volunteers,
the generosity of financial donors, and strategic planning by Parkway staff and partners
are working to improve these locations
so visitor enjoyment can continue for generations to come.
The long linear boundaries also mean we have A LOT of neighbors.
In fact, the Parkway has around 4000 adjacent landowners,
both public and private in nature,
including 3 U.S. National Forests and multiple State, County, and City parks.
With these neighbors comes over 100 private at-grade road access points to the parkway
each of these requiring ongoing coordination on access, use, and off-park development.
As we work to meet our legislated mission of preservation,
we must also be mindful of what it means for responsible community development,
personal property considerations, and ongoing economic influences.
Maintaining working relations with our neighbors and partners
we know can be a powerful force.
Such as what we do with over 400 agricultural leases where local farmers are able to
actively work NPS lands to maintain both a cultural and visual experience
for visitors to the Appalachian region.
Visitation over the past few years has hovered around 15 million people annually,
consistently placing the Parkway as one of the most visited NPS sites in the country.
As we work to operate under ongoing pandemic conditions
we strive to provide as much access and use of park facilities as possible,
from picnic areas and campgrounds, to visitor centers and concession operations
such as those at Mount Pisgah and the Peaks of Otter.
As designed, the central feature of the Parkway is the motor road
and with that comes both our biggest challenge and opportunity
in the form of visitor access and overall safety.
A safe driving experience comes down to a couple common tasks;
Number 1: Minimize Distractions
and number 2: Take Your Time.
Each year Rangers respond to over 300 Motor Vehicle Crashes.
While most of these are single vehicle accidents with property damage only,
dozens of serious injuries and some fatalities occur throughout the season.
The parkway can be as challenging a driving experience as it is a rewarding one,
especially for motorcycles.
Visitors can have their best experience here by staying within he posted speed limit
and focusing on the drive first and then the scenery.
As our moto says: Enjoy the View but Watch the Road.
Today the Parkway is as relevant to our communities and visitors as it has ever been,
and we expect continued high levels of visitation this season.
We are actively working to maintain and improve many of our facilities
so our core mission of preservation is in focus.
Every challenge comes with opportunities and we look forward
to working with our partners, friends, staff, and neighbors.
With that, I’ll hand off to Rachel to talk about the future of the Parkway.
Thanks Neal.
Good afternoon everyone My name is Rachel Stasny
and I am the Chief of Administration and Chief of Staff at the Blue Ridge Parkway.
I have been at the Parkway for the past two years
and with the National Park Service for seven.
In my role as Chief of Administration, I oversee the park’s budget, commercial services,
and other administrative functions, and as Chief of Staff
I support the superintendent and superintendent's office
on parkwide and cross-divisional projects and priorities.
I’m here today to talk a little bit about what we’re doing at the Parkway
to preserve our park resources and values for future generations.
Since this session is just a general overview, I will not dig into the specifics
of our major projects.
But if you are interested in those specifics, I really encourage you
to tune in to our sessions later this week, happening over the next few days
that highlight big projects related to the road,
related to how we’re looking to inspire new park stewards,
and also what we’re doing to protect our natural resources.
On this next slide you’ll see some key examples of projects we’re working on
to protect and preserve our resources for future generations,
They're separated into three broad categories of road projects,
infrastructure projects, and projects that are related to visitor services.
Our most fundamental resource at the Blue Ridge Parkway, as you all can imagine,
is our mainline motor road, and we have some really exciting major road projects
coming up in the next few years.
In the Care for the Corridor session thats happening tomorrow,
you can hear more about how the Parkway is poised to benefit
from some pretty big money,
coming from something callend the Great American Outdoors Act.
That I'll talk a little bit more about in a second.
But I'll give you a small taste of some upcoming road projects.
They include, repairing the major road failure in the Roanoke corridor.
There was a big slide there that happened last year.
Rehabilitating the Roanoke River Bridge and Linville River Bridge.
Plus the replacement of the I-26 Bridge in the Asheville Area.
We're also fortunate to be rehabbing 75 miles of road in North Carolina,
with the first round of Great American Outdoors Act funding.
We also have ongoing pavement preservation projects happening always
to try to maintain the integrity of the roadway and prevent more degradation.
Our vista maintenance and restoration projects took a pause during COVID,
but we're excited that those should start up again next season.
If we're lucky we could even maybe fit one in this year but we're
really looking at next season for those projects.
Related to some big infrastructure projects,
In our strategic plan, you may have noticed,
that one of our priorities is to determine the future of a number of our parkway structures.
We know that we have some beloved historic structures up and down the parkway
that are currently unoccupied by operators,
and we’re gonna need to make some difficult decisions about how to invest in their future.
But I do want to point out a few recent success stories that we really hope
will serve as a guide for other locations along the parkway.
So, you'll know that, and there's a beautiful picture of Cone Manor here on the slide.
Cone Manor is currently undergoing a really extensive exterior renovation project,
that was funded by generous philanthropic donations from the
Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation and many of our friends possibly here on this call.
And matching federal funds from the National Park Service Centennial Fund.
The Cone Manor will be open this season, during the construction period,
but please be aware that the building is under construction
so it may look a little different if you visit this season.
and prepare yourself for that.
The project is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Moving on to the Bluffs Lodge and Restaurant.
As many of you know, we were unable to secure a concessioner at our Bluffs Lodge
and Restaurant back in 2013
during our last round of the bidding process.
The lodge and the restaurant required significant capital investment
to make it a viable business opportunity.
But fortunately, in 2019, the Parkway and the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation
began the process to convert the coffee shop/restaurant into a historic lease agreement
and use grant funding to renovate that structure.
So,that renovation was completed in 2020, just in time for the pandemic.
But it was a big success, and you can see in the photo the result
of that beautiful renovation.
So, it did happen just in time for the pandemic so the operating season
last year was cut short.
The Foundation is the leaseholder for that structure now, for the building,
and has just announced a new operator who will open this season.
So, very exciting at Bluffs Restaurant.
I’m also really pleased to announce that we successfully transferred the concessions
contract at Northwest Trading Post to FIND Outdoors,
which used to be known as the Cradle of Forestry Association
and they have a long history with the US Forest Service.
FIND also took over during the pandemic, or just prior to it,
and they are opening for their second season on the Parkway
so if you haven’t been there yet, see if you can stop by if you're in the area.
We were really close to having another unoccupied building at Northwest
Trading Post and we are grateful to have had FIND take over operations at that site.
And they have been a fantastic operator there so far, so we are really pleased.
And of course, as always, regarding infrastructure projects
We are constantly competing for additional federal funds
for more infrastructure projects supporting our visitor services.
And with our strategic plan in mind, we're really focusing now
on campgrounds, picnic areas, and other backbone infrastructure
like water and wastewater systems
to support our visitor services.
Then finally, some projects related to inspiring our new park stewards.
We are always trying to explore new ways
to share the rich stories of the Blue Ridge Parkway and Southern Appalachia.
We've been developing more digital content
like the Virtual Overmountain Victory Video Series.
online Junior Ranger activities
We're bringing in youth crews to do trail work
and we're working to update exhibits at multiple locations up and down the parkway,
most immediately, some new exhibits at the Waterrock Knob Visitor Center.
So, led by our recently completed Strategic Plan,
we really do feel like we are in a great position to captialize
on opportunities to make the Parkway even better into the future.
Again, something I mentioned earlier,
something we are really excited about is the recent passage of
the Great American Outdoors Act.
Which is really big money for the National Park Service
over the next 5 years.
And the Parkway is poised to hopefully receive some of that funding.
for some pretty major infrastructure projects.
As I mentioned we have already received funding for 75 miles of paving in NC
and are hopeful that
we could be the recipient of even additional funding for Virginia projects
and other projects up and down the parkway for our priorities.
We recognize that it really takes everybody, not just the National Park Service
to really steward this beautiful resource that we have been entrusted
to protect and preserve.
So as a number of folks have already mentioned
our partners, our neighbors, the entire visiting public
and certainly all of you on this call play an even more critical role
in ensuring that we have a future here at the Blue Ridge Parkway
and all of our public lands.
So we really are looking to foster and continue to find new ways
and exciting opportunities to expand our partnerships for the benefit of the parkway.
We also really recognize that it is critical to engage our youth now
to make them the stewards of Natinoal Parks in the future.
We are always looking for new opportunities to engage youth.
We are working on bringing in youth crews and youth employees
through a number of programs supporting our programs and maintenance activities
along the entire parkway.
Like some youth conservation crew hiring up in the Virigina districts.
Conservation Legacy working on the Tanawha Trail
and an SCA Crew working up and Humpback Rocks.
And lastly, we recognize the trememndous benefit
we receive from working with our great volunteers up and down the Parkway
and we will continue to foster and grow programs
to support our exisiting volunteers, but also always look to introduce
new service opportunities to a new generation of visitors and partners.
These panel presentations were produced in partnership with
the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation.
Just like the Foundation, the Parkway counts you among our partners
in the stewardship and care of this park.
Additional resources are available at the park website
and via our multiple social media accounts.
Thank you for being engaged and helping us to care for this special resource.
Description
The Blue Ridge region is an area steeped in tradition and is recognized worldwide for its natural and cultural richness. The Blue Ridge Parkway stretches 469 miles through the region, tying together a diverse landscape and lifestyle–connecting the past with the present and preserving the region's heritage for the future. This session provides attendees a brief introduction and orientation to the Blue Ridge Parkway and an opportunity to consider the complexity of managing this 469-mile linear park.
Duration
19 minutes, 29 seconds
Date Created
05/04/2021
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