Dear Friends,

The Blue Ridge Music Center now offers more than music. Four years of hard work and many volunteer hours were celebrated with a ribbon cutting ceremony September 8th to dedicate the hiking trails at the Blue Ridge Music Center. The trails were originally part of the music center plan, but were dropped from the federally funded project due to budget constraints. The Fisher Peak Chapter of FRIENDS took on the project in a volunteer effort of more than 6,000 hours that provided 3.6 miles of trails, two bridges, two brook crossings and an elevated boardwalk that protects an endangered area.

FRIENDS president Richard Wells commended the Chapter for its hard work and valued their efforts at $119,000. He said, "You've set an example for our other chapters with what you've done here." 

Blue Ridge Parkway Superintendent Phil Francis remarked that the only public money spent on the project was $25,000 donated by the parkway for bridge construction. 

Recognition was also given to the Rocky Knob Chapter of FRIENDS, the Student Conservation Association from Notre Dame University, and Fairfield Prep in Connecticut 

Following the speeches and ribbon cutting ceremony many attendees took an inaugural hike on the trails. FRIENDS will continue to maintain the new trails and have agreed to do all the landscaping and benches along them. They will also be responsible for repairs to split rail fences along the parkway as their next major effort.  

Click the link below to view a PDF with a description of the trails and a map. Blue Ridge Music Center Trails Map

For more on the ribbon cutting story, click on or type the URL below:

Parkway music trails open, Galax Gazette, Sept. 19, 2007

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FRIENDS Chapters Celebrate National Public Lands Day

Volunteers nationwide will turn out to plant trees, build trails and bridges, remove trash and destroy invasive plants on Saturday, September 29 in observance of National Public Lands Day -- the nation's largest hands-on volunteer effort to improve and enhance the public lands Americans enjoy.

Four chapters of FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge Parkway will celebrate the day by participating in events in their local communities to benefit FRIENDS, which in turn provides support to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge Parkway, a non-profit organization, has been providing volunteers and program funding to the Parkway for 19 years. FRIENDS believes that anyone who loves the Parkway will seek to protect and promote its outstanding natural beauty, ecological vitality, and cultural distinctiveness. Safeguarding this national treasure for future generations is the ultimate FRIENDS goal, and National Public Lands Day will call attention to those Parkway volunteers who work hard to preserve America’s Favorite Scenic Drive.

The Roanoke Valley chapter of FRIENDS will host a display tent at Bedford Center Fest the weekend of September 29 in downtown Bedford, VA. The chapter will sell FRIENDS’ merchandise and recruit volunteers and members for the organization. The Rocky Knob chapter of FRIENDS will host a display table at Corn Maze Days in Meadows of Dan, VA – just off the Parkway. The chapter will sell FRIENDS memberships, tee shirts and caps, and have Parkway information and posters available. Rocky Knob volunteers will also continue repairing Parkway split rail fences on National Public Lands Day.

The Fisher Peak chapter will observe the day with trail maintenance and landscaping at the Blue Ridge Music Center at milepost 213 of the Parkway. The Fisher Peak chapter is also providing split rail fence restoration to assist Park service personnel with repairing broken fences along the drive. The Asheville chapter has found volunteers to adopt almost all of the overlooks on the commuter stretch of the Parkway that runs through Asheville. The litter control problem on this section of the road is being handled by Asheville volunteers who have taken on this project to preserve the scenic drive for all.

FRIENDS is focusing on increasing their chapters along the 29 counties of the Blue Ridge Parkway with the upcoming 75th Anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway scheduled for 2010. Appalachian State University is beginning a FRIENDS chapter and will observe National Public Lands Day by volunteering for the Flat Rock Symposium to be held on campus in Boone, NC.

Join the FRIENDS chapter for the 14th annual National Public Lands Day on Saturday September 29, 2007, and help us care for our land. Everyone is invited to participate -- from federal land management agencies to state parks and playgrounds in local neighborhoods.

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Parkway Needs Volunteers to Conduct Surveys

Volunteers are needed to conduct surveys with Parkway visitors.

Requirements: To participate in a 1.5 hour training class. The survey consists of questions that the survey taker will ask a 'party' (who constitutes a 'party' is part of the training). The questionnaire takes about 2 minutes to complete. Training is scheduled for Friday, October 19.

Training will be provided at 3 different locations near the Parkway on that day, and as many as 3 sessions per location (morning, afternoon and evening) can be scheduled if needed. Interviews dates are from October 20 through 28, volunteers can determine days they can work.

To apply to conduct surveys for the Parkway, please visit the FRIENDS website at www.BlueRidgeFRIENDS.org and click on Volunteer. Find the job, Parkway Survey Volunteer and complete the application. The Parkway thanks you for your assistance in collecting valuable data that will help the Parkway Service respond to your needs.

To read about the interviewing training, please click on the PDF below:

Inteviewing Training

To read about where the National Park Service needs survey volunteers, please click on the PDF below:

Survey Schedule

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Japanese Beetle May Help Virginia Tech Entomologists Fight Hemlock-Killing Insect

The eastern hemlock, a tall, long-lived coniferous tree that shelters river and streamside ecosystems throughout the eastern United States and Canada, is in serious danger of extinction because a tiny, nonnative insect is literally sucking the life out of it.

Entomologists at Virginia Tech are now studying a beetle from Japan that may be a natural predator of Adelges tsugae, or hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA). Scientists hope the Japanese beetle will curb the rapid spread of the HWA without damaging forest ecosystems.

Virginia Tech leads the biological control efforts to curb the spread of HWA, which feeds on the cells that transfer and store nutrients in hemlock trees until their needles desiccate. "Mass application of pesticides would not be effective," said Scott Salom, professor of entomology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and HWA project leader. "Unlike the gypsy moth, which lives in tree canopies, you cannot spray pesticides over a forest in an aerial flight to kill the hemlock woolly adelgid, which lives at the base of newly formed needles.

Salom and his colleagues traveled to Japan in 2006 to collect 300 adult insects and hundreds of larvae for evaluation at the Beneficial Insects Quarantine Laboratory at Virginia Tech after a scientist at the Osaka Museum of Natural History discovered an adelgid predator in the island country that had never previously been observed. The Japanese beetle does not currently have a scientific name.

Last year, Yale University researchers performed a series of DNA comparisons between HWA and other adelgid populations in China, Japan, and western North American and discovered that the insect plaguing eastern hemlocks originated in the Osaka region of Japan. Virginia Tech researchers are hopeful that the Japanese beetle now under quarantine in Blacksburg will be an effective natural enemy against the HWA because both originate from the same area, Salom said.

This follows more than a decade of research on the beetle's North American cousin. In 1997, Salom's research team imported Laricobius nigrinus, a tiny beetle from British Columbia, to evaluate its effectiveness and safety as a biological control agent. By the end of 2006, scientists at Virginia Tech,Clemson University, and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville had completed more than 22 research-based releases using protocols developed at a Virginia Tech insectory. In all, more than 17,000 British Columbia beetles were released in U.S. forests with encouraging results, in that their research shows that the beetle is establishing at most of the release locations.

Unlike other predators that have been released into the wild, such as the Asian lady beetle, the British Columbian and Japanese beetles only thrive on one food source. "If the beetles we introduce cannot feed or reproduce on other hosts, then the natural conclusion is that there is no risk," Salom said.

American scientists first noticed the tiny, aphid-like insect in the West as early as the 1920s, but it was not until the 1950s that they spotted HWA producing its cottony egg masses near Richmond, Va. Unlike hemlock stands in Asia and in the western United States, eastern hemlocks did not co-evolve with an adelgid species and therefore never developed a natural immunity to the insect. Today, HWA infestations span more than half of the geographic range of eastern hemlocks. In Virginia, they have reportedly killed more than 90 percent of hemlocks in the Shenandoah Valley.

More details about this research project are in the latest edition of the Virginia Tech Research Magazine. www.research.vt.edu/resmag/2007summer/bugs.html

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Parkway Seeks Public Input For Management of Hemlock Woolly Adelgid

The Blue Ridge Parkway (Parkway) is seeking public input, through October 12, on an Environmental Assessment (EA) for Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) Control Strategies along the Parkway. HWA is a non-native insect pest that is quickly decimating hemlocks in the eastern United States.

Parkway officials said the EA evaluates the impacts of developing a long-term management strategy that would preserve hemlock forests by minimizing the impact of HWA on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The EA analyzes four alternatives which include chemical treatment, biological treatment, or a combination of both.

Those who wish to review and comment on this document may do so by visiting the Internet site http://parkplanning.nps.gov. Select Blue Ridge Parkway, “Plans/Documents Open for Comment” then click on the document link. Direct link is: http://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?parkId=355&projectId=18306 Even though using this website is recommended, written comments may also be submitted to: Blue Ridge Parkway, ATTN: Suzette Molling, 199 Hemphill Knob Road, Asheville, NC 28803. Comments must be sent by October 12. Ideas and concerns expressed by those who comment will be used to prepare the final proposal and impact analysis.

Comments are typically treated as a public record and made available for public review. Individuals may request that the National Park Service withhold their name and address from disclosure. Such requests will be honored to the extent allowable by law.

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Blue Ridge Music Center Programs Set for Coming Weeks

More programs rich in traditional music and dance are planned as The Blue Ridge Music Center continues the overall theme of "Restoring A Sense Of Place".

On Saturday, September 22nd a concert entitled "Listen to the Future" features the wave of the future, the many young artists who have invigorated Appalachian music in recent years. JAM-Junior Appalachian Musicians, The Malpass Family Band, Broken Wire and Full Throttle will perform, as will additional youth performers from the region. The program includes youth dancing with N-Step Clogging Team. Admission is $3.00 at the gate and the show starts at 7 PM.

The Crooked Road musicians will be entertaining all day Thursday and Friday, September 27 and 28.

The September 29th offering is A Salute to the Carter Family and Scott County, featuring Dale Jett and Bill Clifton leading in this exploration of the music of the Carter Family. Dale is a third generation Carter, the son of Janette Carter and a grandson of AP and Sara Carter. Bill Clifton is a mellow lead vocalist, guitarist and autoharp player, but above all a song-carrier and a living encyclopedia of old-time and bluegrass music. Other performers will include Deborah Jean and Randy Sheets along with Eddie Bond as they perform Carter family songs that come from the heart. Admission is $3.00 and the show starts at 7 PM.

Several Heritage Music Showcases will be presented on Sundays in October. The programs are sponsored by FRIENDS and will begin at 2 PM with the featured instruments being guitar (Oct. 7), banjo (Oct. 14), and fiddle (Oct. 21).

Also in October there will be a Shape-Note Workshop by the Blue Ridge Music Makers at 7 PM on the 13th.

Mid-day Mountain Music will continue in the breezeway and luthier shop each Sunday through Friday.

The Blue Ridge Music Center is located at Milepost 213 on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Galax, VA. The Summer Concert Series is presented through partnerships with The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, WBRF and WPAQ Radio Stations with local support from Bogey¹s Restaurant and Pepsi.

For more information visit the website at www.blueridgemusiccenter.net or contact Debbie Robinson at 276-236-5309.

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SECOND ANNUAL CELTIC MUSIC FESTIVAL

Enjoy a day of Celtic entertainment at the second annual Blue Ridge Celts Music Festival on Saturday, September 22 at Virginia's Explore Park. The festivities will take place from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Explore Park's Journey's End, a wooded setting near the Park's Historic Areas.

This year's festival features five popular bands: No Strings Attached, Beggars' Circus, Thistlewood (a multi-talented group based in the Roanoke area), Aurora, and Virginia Highlands Pipes and Drums.

Chairs and blankets are encouraged (no coolers, please). Food and beverages will be available for sale.

This event is hosted by Blue Ridge Celts, a partnership between Virginia's Explore Park and the Scottish Foundation of the Virginia Highlands. Tickets are $20 for SFVH and Explore Park members, $23 for non-members, $15 for students, and free for children under 10. Tickets may be purchased at Explore Park's Blue Ridge Parkway Visitor Center (540.427.1800, ext 221) or from the Fret Mill on the market in downtown Roanoke (540.982.6686).

For more information, contact Maggie Brall (540.521.8479 or brall@rev.net) or Anne Sampson (540.342.3107 or celticdancer@verizon.net), both with the SFVH.

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Fisher Peak Work Days

Work along the Parkway in the Fisher Peak area is in full swing. Volunteers walked the areas of the Parkway that have rail fences and took a survey of the number of posts and rails needed for repairs. Students will be coming from the University of Notre Dame in October to assist with the work and hope to be able to get several sections repaired while they are here. 

Volunteers should meet at the trail head parking lot on Foothills Road on designated days. Work will continue until 1:00 PM, but any contributed time will be greatly appreciated.

Future scheduled work dates are:

September 22, 9:30 AM - Breakfast available at Glenwood Methodist Church on Coal Creek Rd. starting at 7:30 AM.

October 13 - WORK DAY CANCELLED.

Oct. 22-26, 9:00 AM - Notre Dame students will participate. Detailed schedule to be announced.

For more information please contact Dottie Bramley, Fisher Peak Chapter Volunteer Coordinator at pdbramley@valink.com.

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Mountains-to-Sea Trail News

There will be a major work weekend on the Parkway between NC-18 and NC-16 on the weekend of September 21st through 23rd. More than 37 sign posts will be installed for the approximately l5 miles of trail, a few touch-ups for sections where the MST was not dug wide enough, removal of some fallen tree branches, blazing with the MST white dot for about three miles that are unfinished, and perhaps some weed-eating. All of this is for the final work before the state dedication on Saturday, October 13 at 1:00 PM at Sheets Gap Overlook, milepost 252.8.

Meet Allen de Hart at the Parkway Bridge over NC-18 (look for a blue Chevy van or MST WORK sign):

Friday, Sept. 21 at 1:00 PM

Saturday, Sept. 22 at 8:30 AM

Sunday, Sept. 23 at 8:30 AM

September 29, 2007 - Come work with the FMST at Falls Lake to celebrate National Public Lands Day. See the website www.ncmst.org for more details.

October 13-14 are scheduled MST Workdays on the BRP from NC-16 to US-421 as construction moves down the Blue Ridge Parkway building the MST.

On October 13, 2007 we will dedicate another 15 miles of the MST along the Blue Ridge Parkway between NC-18 and NC-16. Come join us on Saturday October 13 at Sheets Gap Overlook at milepost 252.8. Bring your own picnic lunch at 12:00 PM and join the ceremony at 1:00 PM.

Free camping for events listed above is at Doughton Park, courtesy of the National Park Service for volunteer workers.

Contact Allen at 919-496-4771 (email adh4771@aol.com) to let him know when you plan to work and if you wish to reserve a place to camp at Doughton Park. Alternate contact is Jim Hallsey at 336-877-8831 (email jhallsey@skybest.com).

The North Ashe County Task Force of the Mountains to Sea Trail is being formed to assist in the trail's construction and maintenance along the Blue Ridge Parkway between the intersection of NC-18 and south to NC-16 Work will be done from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m at the dates above. Volunteer workers may arrive, or leave, at any time during the trail construction hours. Location to the MST is along the Parkway from milepost 248 to milepost 257 south from the intersection of the Parkway and NC-18. Look for an orange sign with "MST WORK" and or a blue and white van. Park nearby and examine a note on the vehicle's windshield giving directions into the woods from trail access. Among the needs are clearing some of the hurricane brush and limbs from the trail, examining areas where new trail construction may have been damaged, flagging and clearing new trail, construction, making signs, and building foot bridges. All tools are provided by the Friends of the Mountains to Sea Trail (FMST), the volunteer sponsoring agency for the state's Division of Parks and Recreation. The MST is completed from NC-18 north on the Parkway to Stone Mountain State Park, a trail distance of 14.7 miles. That section was completed last year by adjoining Alleghany County and volunteers from as far away as Asheville, Raleigh, and New Bern. Also, last year the section south of NC-18 received environmental and archaeological approval for construction from the Parkway's Asheville office. Camping for these events is free at Doughton Park by the NPS/BRP. Please RSVP to Allen de Hart at (919) 496-4771 or adh4771@aol.com so enough tools and camping spots will be reserved. You must provide your own food and camping gear for this event.

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Parkway Implements Ban on Open Fires

Because of the continuing high fire danger, Blue Ridge Parkway Deputy Superintendent Martha Bogle issued a temporary ban on open fires, except those in the provided fire grates located in Parkway campgrounds. The areas affected by the closure are the old CCC Camp in Rock Castle Gorge, Basin Cove in Doughton Park, John River in Price Park and areas of the Appalachian Trail on the Parkway lands and all picnic areas.

The ban, which was effective August 23rd, includes campfires, charcoal and all other fuels that are not completely enclosed. According to the Public Notice careful use of self-contained gas or liquid fuel stoves is still permitted, as are cigarettes and other legal smoking products. Deputy Superintendent Bogle noted that wildland fires are active in both North Carolina and Virginia and said the ban would be lifted as soon as weather and other conditions that affect fire danger permit.

Click here for complete text of the Public Notice

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Parkway Gets Help to Complete Whetstone Ridge Facility

Appalachian Trail Clubs from Tidewater and Natural Bridge stepped in to help complete the renovation of a former restaurant which is owned by the National Park Service and had been run unsuccessfully by a concessionaire. Is it now a facility for Parkway administration. The old dining room has become a conference, training, and meeting area. Five offices will occupy the remaining space. These will be for the Ridge District (MP 0 to MP 106) management personnel, including Administration, Facilities, Interpretive, Resources, and Law Enforcement.

Volunteers began work on the facility in late August when a request came from Parkway officials who were short staffed to finish their project. Much work remained, including installation of baseboards and door and window trim, staining and painting, installing carpet, floor tile and grout, installing light fixtures, and work to finish drywall and field stone around the fireplace. The Trail Clubs' efforts were spearheaded by Mark Wenger of the Tidewater Appalachian Trail Club. He was instrumental in recruiting Natural Bridge club members to assist volunteers from Tidewater. While working on the project, Peter Lascell of Natural Bridge overheard someone comment that "these new offices will be the "Taj Mahal" of the Parkway".

Peter contributed to this story and provided the accompanying photo. He wanted to make FRIENDS volunteers aware of other efforts being put forth along the Parkway and of other opportunities to contribute.

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Volunteers Needed for New Parkway Destination Center

The Blue Ridge National Heritage Area is seeking volunteers to staff their new headquarters in the destination center next to Parkway headquarters in Ashville, N.C.

The date of the grand opening has not yet been announced, but at least 50 more volunteers will be needed by that time to staff the visitor information desk.

The new center will house three islands of exhibits, covering cultural and natural diversity, economic strength, and recreation and renewal. There will be a representation of a chestnut tree, once common to the region, and a 70-seat theater that plays a 24-minute movie. The center will be open seven days a week

To volunteer, go to BlueRidgeFRIENDS.org and click on Volunteer. Or, call the FRIENDS office at 1-800-228-PARK (7275).

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FRIENDS Member Remembers

William S. Cannon, a FRIENDS member since 2002, submitted his remembrances of visits to the Parkway in its days of preconstruction, construction, and after "that wondrous road" became a reality. He and his wife Jerry currently live in Clinton, SC. Mr. Cannon frequently corresponds with the staff at the FRIENDS office and asked that the following article be shared with other FRIENDS members.

Meeting The Parkway...

When I was a child, my family, Dad, Mother, brother, and me, liked to go 70 miles from home to White Pine campground in Pisgah Forest near Brevard, NC. The year was 1940 or early 1941, before the Day of Infamy, and US 276 had just been finished "up the mountain" and over towards Waynesville. During our weekend visits to White Pine, we would drive up to Pink Beds and on to Wagon Road Gap...there was a missing segment of the pavement of US 276 near the top and my Dad explained that it would be paved "when they get that road built that's going to run along the mountain tops." That made it worse for a 9 year old could not conceive of such a road, but the grading was done for a short distance west of Wagon Road Gap and by turning up the steep grade into this roadbed (there was no bridge then as there is now), we could drive a short ways on a rough, gravel roadway to what is now Pounding Mill overlook. Beyond that point, there was a solid wall of rock...a road is going here?

Nothing much was done during WW II, but afterward, changes came about. The road was extended on west, and back to the east past where Pisgah Inn is now. As a teenager and then as a college student, I watched that wondrous road being built, and my love affair with a 469 mile slab of pavement only grew. Wagon Road Gap got a bridge, and Pisgah Inn came about. I could now understand the concept of The Blue Ridge Parkway.

Since then, I have covered the length of The Parkway many times, camped along it, stayed at The Peaks of Otter, The Bluffs Lodge, and Pisgah Inn, and I never cease to marvel at the beautiful road and all its wonderful views. From a child who wondered how in the world such a road could be built to one who fully appreciates it all, devotion to The Parkway grows each day. I met The Parkway long ago, but the love affair abounds and expands.

William S. Cannon 12/4/2006

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Blue Ridge Potters Guild Show to Benefit FRIENDS

The Blue Ridge Potters Guild will hold their annual show and sale October 19th through 21st at Cave Spring High School in Roanoke. Times are 6-9 PM Friday, 10 AM to 6 PM Saturday, and noon to 5 PM Sunday. This year the Guild has designated that proceeds of the sale will benefit FRIENDS.

The Guild was established in 1996 and became a nonprofit corporation in 2003. It currently has about 60 members. For more information call 540-382-8235.

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Visit our Online Store

For a complete listing of merchandise, visit our online store.

Images of America: Building the Blue Ridge Parkway

The Blue Ridge Parkway began as a dream in the 1800s and a reality in 1983. This new book by Karen J Hall contains approximately 200 construction photographs of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Price: $19.95

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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