Blue Ridge Parkway Begins Spring Openings

Message from FRIENDS' President

Dear Friend,

We Need You on the Parkway this Spring!

Drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway, and you'll see some familiar scenes. Doors flung wide open at the visitor centers and Parkway lodges. Park staff working hard to freshen the musty winter air and open its doors to Spring breezes and warm sunshine. The Blue Ridge Parkway has begun its annual season opening, and it will continue to do so until all areas of the Parkway are open by late May.

As you're well aware, the Parkway staff needs its dedicated, loyal volunteer base to assist with ranger-led campfire programs, nature walks and other interpretive services at campgrounds, visitor centers and selected locations along the Parkway. Its visitors look forward to all that the Parkway has to offer, including summer concert series at the Blue Ridge Music Center on Saturday evenings from June through early autumn.

How can you help? We've received feedback from the National Park Service that volunteers are needed to staff selected Visitor Centers, conduct Kids Fishing programs, assist with traffic control and parking, and host campsites at several Parkway campgrounds.

The Parkway needs volunteer demonstrators with knowledge of late 19th and 20th century mountain homesteading skills such as basket makers, cobblers, dulcimer players, musicians, open hearth cooking, making apple butter and cider, wood splitting, making shingles, working with small livestock, wood working and tool making. Volunteer demonstrators are also needed to demonstrate gardening, toy making, broom making, cloth dyeing, spinning, weaving, quilting, dulcimer playing, and musicians.

STATELINE WETLAND RESTORATION

If you're more interested in conservation and preservation of the ecology, and you don't mind digging in the soil, you might want to offer your assistance with the State Line Wetland Restoration project. The Park Service has surveyed and mapped exotic vegetation just south of the Virginia/North Carolina state line at mileposts 217 and 223. This area includes invasive, non-native species of vegetation which need to be contained to prevent their spread. For more information about this project, click on STATE LINE WETLAND RESTORATION.

RESTORING SPLIT RAIL FENCES

In addition, we are looking for 8-12 volunteers, very important people — VIPs, that can provide the leadership for Restoring Split Rail Fences along the Parkway. There will be a work day in May during the week at Smart Views at Milepost 155. The Park Service will provide the training, and each leader will establish teams of workers that will restore the split rail fences. The date for the work day will be May 15th.

Please set aside a couple days this spring/summer to give back to the Parkway. After all the memories it's provided, you know it's the right thing to do.

It's easy to apply. Call 1-800-228-PARK (7275) or visit our website and apply online.

J. Richard Wells, President

Saving Parkway Views

The largest ever viewshed planting on the Blue Ridge Parkway was completed Saturday, April 14th. The planting at Milepost 125.5 in Roanoke County took two years and resulted in the planting of 1000 mature trees and seedlings using over 700 volunteers. It wasn't all hard work as afterwards volunteers enjoyed refreshments, an environmental program presented by Explore Park, Express Yourself Through Art coordinated by Polly Branch, and blue grass music by the Roanoke Valley Pickers.

FRIENDS is very grateful to all the volunteers and groups which included the Kiwanis Club of Roanoke Valley, FRIENDS, Roanoke Valley Chapter and members, Creative Nursery & Landscapes, Virginia Department of Forestry, Leisure Publishing, Virginia's Explore Park, Roanoke County Schools, City of Salem Schools, Roanoke Valley Garden Club, Cub Scouts, Blue Ridge Bicycle Club, and Roanoke College's Pi Kappa Alpha who braved the weather.

Now that the planting on this "Last Chance Landscape" of the Parkway has been completed, the National Park Service will designate another area for FRIENDS to organize this same effort to Save Parkway Views in 2008.

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Entire 469 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway is open

(Asheville, NC) The detour for Twin Tunnel was discontinued as of the afternoon of Friday, April 27, 2007 and the Parkway is completely open to traffic as of Saturday, April 28th. For approximately six months, repair work had required a beautiful 11-mile stretch of the Parkway to be closed between Linville Falls and Mount Mitchell.

From the Asheville Area, the detour directed traffic traveling North beyond Mount Mitchell State Park to travel off the Parkway, go east on I 40 to Hwy 221, north to the Linville Falls area and intersect again with the Blue Ridge Parkway.

All highway detour signs will be covered and, unless there is a wind and weather event, the Parkway will be open from Milepost 1 at Rockfish Gap, near Waynesboro, Virginia to Milepost 469 near the Oconoluftee Visitor Center in Cherokee.

As of Monday, April 30th, work on the project is confined to weekday hours until completion of the project. During those hours, Monday through Friday, the tunnel will be open to one-lane traffic only, under traffic control with flagmen.

Some work items remaining to be completed: Asphalt paving through the tunnel, completion of the granite construction on the south tunnel portal, removal of all detour signs, and construction cleanup.

Superintendent Phil Francis stated that he is delighted that the entire Parkway is once again open to anyone wishing to travel any or all of the scenic road. "Each one of the 26 tunnels of the Blue Ridge Parkway is unique, and I'm really glad that this Twin Tunnel project is completed."

The higher elevations of the Parkway are subject to springtime snow and ice, and temporary closures are still possible. For information on current road conditions, call (828) 298-0398.

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FONSI issued for Mt. Pisgah Wastewater Treatment Plant Improvements

(Asheville) The National Park Service, Southeast Regional Director has approved the Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the Proposed Wastewater Treatment Plant for Mt. Pisgah Developed Area. The FONSI has determined that there will be no significant environmental impacts that would occur by replacing the existing wastewater treatment plant at Mt. Pisgah, located near Milepost 408 in Buncombe County, North Carolina on the Blue Ridge Parkway, with an extended aeration package treatment system as described under Alternative B in the Proposed Wastewater Treatment Plant for the Mt. Pisgah Developed Area Environmental Assessment (EA).

The National Park Service has determined that the proposed project will not significantly affect the human environment within the project area; therefore, an environmental impact statement will not be prepared.

The recently approved EA and FONSI are available by visiting the National Park Service’s planning website. These documents have also been posted on the Parkway's website. Click on the FONSI link. A limited number of printed copies are available at Parkway headquarters, located at Milepost 384, just north of US 74A.

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National Trails Day, June 2, 2007

2007 marks the 15th anniversary of NTD and this year promises to be the best yet with more events across the country than ever before. There's still time to purchase National Trails Day merchandise. American Hiking is excited to offer the 2007 National Trails Day Photo Contest. Get your cameras ready and hit the trail on NTD! For more information on order merchandise or the photo contest, visit http://www.americanhiking.org/.

For more information about National Trails Day, contact Ivan Levin, Trail Programs Manager, at 301-565-6704 x 208 or ILevin@AmericanHiking.org.

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Mayberry, Maybury, Maybrey, Mabry

Contributing Author: Fred First

I get Google visits from searches for the popular tourist stop along the Parkway that is just barely in Floyd County. I've seen searches with all these spellings.

By most accounts, it is the most photographed single feature along the 469 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway. From this weekend on until it closes in early November, the parking lot there will be full most weekends--especially Sunday afternoons when we get Carolina heat refugees, probably starting even sooner than usual this very warm year.

Everybody knows how to find it. Not many know how to spell it.

It's Mabry--named after a prominent mill proprietor and his wife by that last name (Ed and Mintoria "Lizzie" Mabry, both born in 1867.)

I became immersed in the Mabry story just about exactly three years ago, "on assignment" for my friend, Elizabeth Hunter, for a story she was doing for Blue Ridge Country magazine. She needed high resolution photographs of the little white church, Concord Primitive Baptist, where the Mabrys attended; pictures of their tombstones a couple of miles from the mill; and any local color I could scare up to accompany a possible sidebar for the magazine.

My D70 was backordered, and on its way from Thailand. Doug Thompson took pity on me and graciously let me borrow his Nikon D100 for the two days it took going back and forth between Goose Creek and Meadows of Dan to get the shots I needed.

I did get the story, the images, the good memories--and I learned the correct spelling for Mabry Mill at Milepost 176, which by the way, is owned and managed by a resort company in Arizona and NOT the National Park Service.

Here's a link to my post from back in April 2004. And here's a little gallery of a few images from that memorable adventure.

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Second Annual Photo Contest!

FRIENDS is now accepting online photo entries from now to September 30, 2007. The categories are flora (including landscapes), fauna, friends, and family. The competition is open to amateurs, including a youth category (ages 6-15). All photographs must be taken within the boundaries of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and each photographer may submit no more than three photos for consideration.

To register your photo for the contest, please click on Entry Form. All entries are subject to any use by the Blue Ridge Parkway and FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Photo credit will be given to each photographer without further compensation.

Winners will be notified by December 1, 2007, and judges' decisions are final. We look forward to enjoying the memories made from your photographic journey on the Parkway.

Winning entries will be published in the High Vistas and eNewsletters. All entries will also be published on the Web site for the enjoyment of our FRIENDS.

Visit our website at FRIENDSBRP.org to view last year's winner and more information about this year's second annual photo contest.

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Support FRIENDS through Kroger Cares Program

As reported in our Spring/Summer High Vistas, Kroger gift cards are available for purchase for $5. FRIENDS earns 5% of the money reloaded onto the cards. Your initial $5 Kroger gift card from FRIENDS has a serial number that is linked to FRIENDS' account at Kroger. Every four weeks, Kroger will review FRIENDS' account and send FRIENDS a check for 5% of the money that has been reloaded onto the cards.

To purchase your initial $5 Kroger gift card, contact FRIENDS' office at 1-800-228-7275. You may pay by giving FRIENDS your credit card information or by mailing a check to FRIENDS, P.O. Box 20987, Roanoke, VA 24018. Please note on your check that the $5 is for a Kroger gift card. FRIENDS will mail your card to you.

For a limited time only in honor of Mother’s Day, FRIENDS members in good standing can receive a FREE $5 Kroger Card! You can spend your $5 as you please, but we ask that you reload it for future purchases so FRIENDS can receive additional funding for all the Parkway programs that need your help. This offer is good from May 15th through May 31st.

Call 800-228-PARK (7275), and we will get it mailed to you!

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Adopt-A-Trail Groups' Trail Dates

FRIENDS' Fishers Peak Chapter
Work on trails at Fisher's Peak will begin again this month.
The schedule is:

May 19
June 2
June 23
July 7
July 21
August 4
August 18

Meet at the trail head parking lot on Foothills Road at 8:00 a.m. Tools are provided, but be sure to bring work gloves. Work will end at 1:00 PM each day, but any time you can work would be greatly appreciated. Work dates for the second half of the year will be scheduled at a future steering committee meeting.

Volunteers must sign up in advance by contacting: Dottie Bramley, pdbramley@valink.com Telephone: (276) 236-7658 Volunteers bring a sack lunch, if you would like to eat together after the trail work.

I would like to donate to the Trails Forever Program.

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Visit our Online Store

FRIENDS has added several new items to its Online Store.

FRIENDS Bumper Sticker - $5

Click here to order.

Mabry Mill Prints

Southwest Virginia native, Ron McCall, has always enjoyed the grandeur and beauty of the Blue Ridge Parkway. His ink drawing of Mabry Mill captures the inherent beauty and character of this old grist mill located on the Parkway just outside of Floyd, VA. Two sizes available.

6” drawing on 9x11 foam board (shrink wrapped) - $27.50
9” drawing on 11x14 foam board (shrink wrapped) - $38.50

Click here to order.

IMAGES OF THE Blue Ridge Parkway
Photography by George Humphries, Edited by Mary Best
$49.95

Click here to order.

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Donate or HELP Support FRIENDS

Help Us Preserve the Legacy

FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge Parkway offers young and old, together, the opportunity to connect with friends and family to save the Blue Ridge Parkway for their continuing enjoyment - and for future generations. The Blue Ridge Parkway connects the Shenandoah National Park with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is America's most scenic drive encompassing 469 miles traversing 29 counties in Virginia and North Carolina. Over 20 million people touch its borders annually - making it America's most frequented park treasure! By joining Preserving the Legacy you will be supporting projects that will protect this extraordinary Parkway and adjacent land and views for yourselves and for future generations. FRIENDS is an official National Park Service partner. Please join us by choosing one of our deserving Programs today!

Donation Page

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