Blue Ridge Parkway Partnership Council Cites Parkway Decay “Where did that house come from?” This was the reaction of Pat Shore Clark, chairman of the board of trustees of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, on her last trip through Aho Gap near Blowing Rock, NC. “I was only here four months ago; but this is a brand new home within 100 feet of the Parkway!”   Encroaching development pressures and loss of the pastoral Parkway scenery are accelerating with each passing day … and much of the reason can be attributed to the lean Parkway budget.  “They (Parkway administration) simply do not have enough people to put on the ground to protect this national landmark,” emphasizes Houck Medford, executive director of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation. “It is now impossible for them do their job well.”   The Blue Ridge Parkway operating budget has only increased 0.5% (adjusted for inflation) since 1980.   One of the Parkway’s most pristine views south of Asheville – Walnut Cove — has been lost within the last year to a large residential golf course development. “Grand vistas of the mountainous French Broad River Valley and Pisgah National Forest once visible from this most impressive overlook have been exchanged for the sights and sounds of urban sprawl,” states J. Scott Graham, noted Parkway landscape photographer who travels the Parkway extensively and frequently.   “I see changes in the landscape from one month to the next. Encroaching real estate developments within the field of view create a disturbing threat to a scenic frontier that can never be replaced.”   Rachel Eldridge, manager of the Southern Highland Craft Guild (a Parkway partner for more than fifty years) hears on a daily basis comments from her retail customers at the Moses Cone Manor House.   “They say things like, ‘the view is so much different than the last time I was here! What has happened?’”   Areas like Aho Gap were the site of early accomplishments for organizations like the Conservation Trust for North Carolina which “could afford” a land deal to protect a significant Parkway view. “We purchased and protected our first property along the Parkway in 1997, at the Critcher Farm. It is now much, much harder to protect these lands because mountain land prices have gone sky high. We are working as fast as we can with the resources we have, but the pace of development is far outpacing land trusts’ ability to protect the most critical properties”, said Reid Wilson, the Conservation Trust’s executive director. “More funds are desperately needed.” “We are doing our best to gain ground by restoring Parkway views,” says Richard Wells, president of the 6,500 member Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  “Our tree planting initiative at Aho Gap in North Carolina and the Roanoke Valley is an effort to reverse the trend; but we could do more if the funds were available.”   Twenty-eight miles of the Roanoke Valley has been designated as a “Last Chance Landscape” by Scenic America, a distinction that is not laudable, but that has brought attention to the loss of Parkway views. A partner in the restoration/preservation project, the Western Virginia Land Trust continues to mark-up successes but guards their enthusiasm. “The conservation interest is here, but we could do much more if more funds were available to support our efforts” reinforces Roger Holnback, the trust’s executive director.   The Blue Ridge Parkway Association (founded in 1950), a 600 plus organization of retailers along the Parkway corridor, is the “marketing arm” of the Blue Ridge Parkway . President Julia Gillespie states “the protection of the Blue Ridge Parkway ‘s incredible vistas is as important to our members as it is to an individual Parkway traveler. Apart from the tragic esthetic loss, if the integrity of these views is not conserved, the traveler goes elsewhere.” Documented economic studies support this.   The 75th Anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway in 2010 will celebrate the Parkway’s rich past but also its future. The parks partners — organizations, communities, and individuals — will begin in 2005 with a public awareness campaign to give the American people a greater appreciation of the Parkway’s rich and diverse cultural, natural and scenic resources.  For more information: Richard Wells, President, FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge Parkway , 540-989-6138 Reid Wilson, Executive Director, Conservation Trust for North Carolina , 919.828.4199 Tom Bailey, Executive Director, Southern Highland Craft Guild, 828.298.7928 Roger Holnback, Executive Director, Western Virginia Land Trust, 540.985.0000 Houck Medford, Executive Director, Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, 336.721.0260 Julia Gillespie, President, Blue Ridge Parkway Association, 276.398.3219