Blue Ridge
Parkway They clean up with a little help from
their Friends
By Scott Nicholson nicholson@wataugademocrat.com
The Blue Ridge Parkway got an assist from local college students
on a clean-up project that had been neglected due to a tight budget.
The Appalachian State University Chapter of Friends of the Blue
Ridge Parkway helped remove debris from a dam removal that had
not only posed an environmental threat but had impacted a walking
trail as well.
Volunteers with the ASU
chapter of the Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway helped
removed debris from a dam removal. Photo
submitted
The work took place over several months, with much of the work
beginning in November and finishing last month as the crews removed
the remnants of a dam that had been crumbling for decades.
National Park Service biologist Bob Cherry said volunteers had
been used by park rangers for various projects to help bridge
the gap caused by staffing shortages.
“This is the first time I’ve used them (Friends volunteers),”
Cherry said. “With the way the budget is, it’s more
and more important to have volunteers to help us out. Basically,
this couldn’t have been done without their help.”
In 2008, the parkway hired a local contractor to take apart the
3-feet-tall, 25-feet- wide concrete dam on Sims Creek in Price
Park. Because the site is not accessible to vehicles, the parks
service couldn’t afford to pay the contractor to remove the
debris from the site and instead stashed the pieces next to the
Green Knob Trail.
The original task of the Appalachian State University chapter
was to use buckets and wheelbarrows to carry off three-fourths
of the debris. The work was completed when Nathaniel Smathers,
Nate Warren, Lindsay Steinmann, Tim Hefflinger, Tyler Laminack,
and Heather Paige Preston put in 50 hours to finish up the job.
“The banks were eroding and water had worked its way around
the dam, which causes problems in its own right, and was threatening
to wash out the trail,” Cherry said. “It also opened
up the creek to trout and other aquatic life. The dam had served
as a barrier, so it should help a lot of critters move back and
forth.”
The park service received a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service to remove the dam in order to allow aquatic wildlife unencumbered
access to the headwaters of Sims Creek near Blowing Rock. Bids
from contractors to remove the debris from the site, which is
inaccessible to vehicles, weren’t covered by the grant, so
park officials contacted ASU’s Blue Ridge Parkway Liaison
Office.
The volunteer effort saved the parkway about $5,000 by utilizing
the services of the university chapter. Students in a Communications
Department class at ASU created the campus organization during
the fall 2007 semester.
Bambi Teague, Chief of Resource Management for the parkway, said,
“We are lucky that ASU is right in our back door. Both the
professors and the students have shown great interest in projects
on the parkway. We need the work to be done, they need the field
experience.”
Cherry said volunteers have helped the parkway fulfill its mission
of public service and natural conservation. “As we have been
for quite a while, we have a lot of vacant positions, so that
obviously affects what we can get done,” he said. “We’ll
probably use the volunteers again for future projects, and it’s
good to have the support.”
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