Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2017 - 24

mountain report

North Carolina First in
National Park Spending
And at Virginia Tech, a third consective year of national best.
by Cathryn McCue
Pisgah National Forest has been "zoned" into 12 areas for easier understanding of forest-land usage.

BILL RUSS - VISITNC.COM

arouNd the regioN

North CaroliNa

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Visitors to the national
parks in the Blue Ridge
region spent almost $3.7
billion in local communities last year, according to an annual report
from the U.S. Department of Interior. North
Carolina ranked first nationally, with $1.3 billion,
Virginia ranked fourth
with $1 billion, and Tennessee 10th with $664
million. Our regional
parks also supported
more than 59,000 jobs
in tourism, retail, transportation and other
sectors. Nationally, a
record number of visitors visited America's 417
national parks, which
are experiencing a $12
billion backlog on maintenance of facilities.
gov/subjects/socialscience/vse.htm

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will distribute $131 million to state
wildlife agencies in the
Blue Ridge Region this
fiscal year. The funds,
distributed nationally
each year at varying
levels, come from taxes
on goods and equipment used for hunting,
fishing, boating and
shooting sports under
the Pittman-Robertson
Wildlife Restoration
Act. The money supports critical projects
to restore and protect
wildlife habitat. Over
the years, the allocations have totaled
$19 billion nationally,
matched by $6 billion
from states for wildlife
habitat preservation.
wsfrprograms.fws.
gov/

The U.S. Forest Service
has reached another
benchmark in updating its management
plan for the 1 millionacre Nantahala and
Pisgah national
forests, which host
some 6 million visitors
a year. It has "zoned"
the forest into 12 areas
with unique social,
ecological and economic features so the
public can better understand the potential
management goals,
such as logging, improved wildlife habitat,
trail maintenance, old
growth preservation,
water quality, special
ecological values and
various recreational
activities. For more
details see http://bit.
ly/2r2C6FC

A report from the Environmental Integrity
Project finds that E.coli
pollution in parts of
the Shenandoah River
exceeded by 100 times
the limit for safe water
recreation between
2014 and 2016. The
report, based on state
data, looks at the
impact of livestock
manure in the heavily
farmed four-county
Shenandoah Valley
where 159 million
chickens, 16 million
turkeys and 528,000
cows are raised annually. The nonprofit organization urges state
regulators to warn the
public about boating
or swimming in the
waters, and to increase
oversight of livestock
management.

For the third year in a row,
USA Today ranked the College of Natural Resources
and Environment at Virginia Tech number one
in the country, noting the
exceptional education,
affordable price, and high
earnings boost. There are
about 50 U.S. colleges
with comprehensive natural resource programs.
Dean Paul Winistorfer
says the college continually evolves programs to
meet the world's
problems. "Advancing the
science of sustainability
is what we are all about,"
he says. Tech now offers
an undergraduate degree
in water policy, the first of
its kind in North America.
cnre.vt.edu/college

24 BlueRidgeCountry.com

http://www.VISITNC.COM http://cnre.vt.edu/college http://www.BlueRidgeCountry.com

Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2017

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