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If you've driven, hiked or biked along the magnificent Blue Ridge Parkway from Waynesboro, Va., through Western North Carolina, you've seen the spectacular mountain vistas of the ridgetops and the graceful curves of one of America's most scenic highways.
Chances are you've also seen the downside of official neglect of a splendid resource. It includes encroaching development marring the view in some spots near the parkway in southwest Virginia. And it reflects the inevitable pressure from a growing population that threatens the mountain landscape in the same way it has nearly overwhelmed our coastal region. As the population grows, so does the yearning to move to, and build on land close by, the parkway.
So it's encouraging when public-spirited groups such as the Conservation Trust of North Carolina, CSX Corp. and stalwart defenders of the environment such as the Stanback families of Salisbury pitch in to save the viewscape along five miles of parkway near Little Switzerland.
Taxpayers helped, too. The N.C. Natural Heritage Trust Fund, the Clean Water Management Trust Fund and the Division of State Parks trails program pitched in more than $2 million to go with the Conservation Trust's $1.6 million to purchase logging and development easements on 1,488 acres CSX owns.
The purchase of these rights means, among other things, that the view of Jackson's Knob from the Orchard at Altapass will stay as it is for generations to come. It means 1.5 miles of the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail - the route mountain militia took on their way to the Revolutionary War's decisive Battle of Kings Mountain - will be open to visitors.
Visitors do not come to see encroaching housing developments, hotels, shops and restaurants. They come to see the very reason the parkway was created: the spectacular scenery and stunning long-distance views of some of the loveliest mountains in all of creation. Thanks to those who collaborated on the project, this part of the parkway will remain unblemished.
