Holiday Greetings

By Broaddus Fitzpatrick

As the holidays approach, this is a time each year to reflect on all of our blessings. FRIENDS has been blessed again by hours of volunteer work and financial support from you our members as well as from generous corporate and foundation contributors. On behalf of the FRIENDS Board of Directors and our fine staff, I thank you for making our work to preserve and protect America's "Crown Jewel," the Blue Ridge Parkway, a success.

But in order to sustain the quality of this 469 mile treasure for future generations, we must continue to be vigilant in our efforts, and generous with our gifts of time, talent and money.

So I am asking you to consider a year-end gift to FRIENDS. Our family, like so many others, no longer exchanges gifts of tangible items. Instead, we make contributions to worthwhile causes in honor of family members and close friends. I urge you to do the same if you don't already follow this custom. I consider these cherished gifts-gifts that are in keeping with the real meaning of this season.

Here are several gift suggestions:

GIFT MEMBERSHIP! An easy way to follow the custom of honoring friends and loved ones on your gift list is to give them a FRIENDS membership. And you don't have to fight the crowds at the mall! Simply call our helpful staff at 1-800-228-PARK (7275) and they will handle the details! They can mail the membership card directly to the recipient of your gift, or can send the card to you if you want to personalize it with a note before mailing it or delivering it yourself. Either way, this unique gift is a time-saving way to make a meaningful gesture as well as to support FRIENDS.

PEANUTS! Here is a tangible way to make a gift and help FRIENDS! Order a case of our specially packaged FRIENDS Virginia peanuts. If you are a FRIENDS member and order a case by credit card before December 24th, you will receive a 15% discount. These peanuts make a great gift.

Visit FRIENDS Online Store

Photo Contest 2006 – Results are in!

The ballots have come in for the 2006 BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY Photo Contest Winners, sponsored by the Blue Ridge Parkway and FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Congratulations to our 6 winners!

The photo at the right, titled Sunset Near Thunder Ridge was the first place winner in the Youth Division. The winning entry was created by Ashley Williamson from Roanoke, VA

To see the other winning entries, visit our website:
2006 Photo Contest Winners

Donation Boxes to be Placed Along Parkway

The first of several new donation boxes funded by Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway was unveiled last week at the Folk Art Center along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The boxes are expected to raise thousands of dollars annually with plans to fund a broad range of activities, including trail construction, viewshed restoration and volunteer support. The Blue Ridge Parkway has no entrance fee and private support and philanthropy are increasingly important for preserving the Parkway and providing the services that help people enjoy the park. To find out more, click here.

Signs of the Season

Contributing Author: Peter Givens,
Interpretive Specialist, Blue Ridge Parkway

Autumn along the Blue Ridge Parkway arrives brisk and clear, and the signs of the season are predictable. The days get progressively shorter and the nights are cool. The harvest moon rises fiery orange and full above the ancient ridge tops, illuminating the night sky.

The most prominent and noticeable sign of the season is the foliage – crimson and gold it turns – announcing the change. Most visitors to this national park in October are here for a single purpose – the blaze of color that paints the coves, hollows, and mountaintops of the Blue Ridge. But there is an opportunity this special time of the year to experience even more than the spectacular fall foliage scene. The signs of the season, rooted deeply in the heritage of the region, are available for the observant visitor as well. Enjoy the view and the unfolding color display, but watch the harvest, listen to the conversations at the corner store, and you will find yourself reflecting on a time gone by.

To those whose roots go deep into the heritage of these mountains, there are more subtle signs of autumn. Voices from their ancestral past have always said that winter is close at hand when the juncos feed in the trees or the crows gather in large numbers. The Katydid’s first call three months back in the summer, according to some, is a sure indication of winter’s approach. A tough winter is in store for certain when the sweet potato skins are especially tough or the tree bark grows thick. "Dig root crops for seed in the third quarter of the moon," we are told, "they’ll keep longer."

Agricultural leases were designed into the Blue Ridge Parkway plan to provide opportunities for visitors to experience this rural farming community. In many cases, the road shoulder immediately blends into rows of cabbages or pumpkins, making the park boundary practically invisible. Bales of hay and shocks of corn intermingle with the brilliant foliage, becoming a prominent feature along the Parkway each autumn. Many farm houses, along with the accompanying barns and other buildings, are very similar to the Parkway views of fifty years ago. Look carefully and you may even see neighbors gathered to butcher a hog, stir a batch of apple butter over an open fire all day, or boil sugar cane juice into molasses.

Because many residents of the Blue Ridge continue to stay in touch with their heritage and traditions, the agricultural scenes today and those of generations ago sometimes look similar. Particularly along the high plateau south of Roanoke where the mountain crest flattens out into farmland, visitors are able to catch a glimpse of the farming heritage that is part of the Parkway story. But while today’s practices are often simply a matter of teaching the children ways of the past, or continuing a family tradition, the farming in these mountains two generations ago was born out of necessity. If crops needed harvesting, the children stayed home from school to assist in the process. It was a matter of survival. Farming, particularly using traditional practices and methods, is becoming less common and less profitable. The scenes we encounter along these remote mountain crests should be savored and treasured. They are part of the Southern Appalachian culture and history that the Blue Ridge Parkway is legislated to preserve.

There is an opportunity this special time of the year to experience even more than the fall foliage scene. Enjoy the view, watch the harvest, and reflect on a time gone by.

I would like to donate to help preserve the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Trapping Turtles

By Bob Cherry, Blue Ridge Parkway Resource Management Specialist

Blue Ridge Parkway biologists and volunteers expanded the park's bog turtle research program this year with help from FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

In 2005 park biologists began trapping the federally listed turtles to determine how far the turtles roamed and what habitat they used. The FRIENDS purchased three transmitters which we attached to turtles allowing the turtles to be tracked as they moved around. Volunteers helped track the turtles and also helped to build additional traps.

This year park staff set out 72 traps at two locations. One site was an area where one turtle had been found several years ago but none had been found since. Unfortunately after two weeks the only turtles we caught were a couple of snapping turtles, suggesting either that the turtle observed there was just passing through or that bog turtles are no longer at this site.

Fortunately the results at the other site were better with eight turtles caught during three weeks of trapping. Three of these were the ones that had transmitters already on them, three were turtles that had been captured in previous years, and two were new turtles. The new turtles were especially exciting for us to find since they indicate that reproduction is occurring at the site.

Using three new transmitters donated by FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge Parkway we replaced the transmitters that had been on turtles since last summer. The old transmitters were sent back to the company to get new batteries and then these three were placed on three other turtles, giving the park six turtles to track.

After a full year of tracking turtles, park biologists are beginning to get a better understanding of where the turtles go, how far they wander and the type of habitat they use. By the first week of October all six turtles had gone into hibernation using four different hibernacula, but when they come out in April we will be waiting for them, eager to learn more about their habits and travels.

Photo is of Jesse Pope who is the naturalist at Grandfather Mountain.

I would like to donate to help save Parkway views.

The Parkway, Naturally

Newsletter of Natural Resource Management on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Increasing Biodiversity on the Parkway
In 2006 we found two new species along the Parkway, ones that we would have preferred to have not found. A green iguana was found and photographed near Looking Glass Rock Overlook at Milepost 417 and a red-bellied piranha was caught in Otter Lake at Milepost 63. Both were probably pets that the owners no longer wanted and decided to set free. Fortunately for other park species neither one of these critters should survive the cold winter weather. Just as poaching animals from the Parkway is illegal, so is releasing an animal into the park. If you see anyone preparing to release a pet, please advise the person that this is not allowed or contact a law enforcement ranger so they can talk with the person.