麻花视频

Government officials, tourism groups and nonprofits from Southwest Virginia and western North Carolina met Wednesday at Hotel 麻花视频 for the second-ever Blue Ridge Rising Two-State Summit. It continues Thursday.

The nonprofit Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation launched Blue Ridge Rising to foster unity and growth in the communities through which the parkway passes, said foundation CEO Carolyn Ward.

鈥淲e realized that if we really want to make a legacy difference, we can fix the trail over again, we can paint the old building,鈥� Ward said. 鈥淏ut if we can come together as a collective community, we can change the generational trajectory that we鈥檙e on.鈥�

It鈥檚 been a rough stretch for the famed Blue Ridge Parkway. Nearly one year since Hurricane Helene, sections of it in North Carolina remain closed by significant storm damage.

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 realize how important the parkway is until it鈥檚 been taken away,鈥� Ward said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to happen to us one day. That bridge is going to fail in your community. A trail is going to get damaged. But collectively, we really can make an impact.鈥�

The national park draws 16.7 million visitors and brings some $1.4 billion of economic impact to surrounding communities, she said. That鈥檚 more visitors than the national parks at Yellowstone, Yosemite and Grand Canyon combined, she said.

鈥�100-plus years ago, people sat around in a room and they dreamed up the idea of our parks and public lands,鈥� Ward said. 鈥淭hey created a national park system, a forest system. We have that same ability to shape what our future is going to look like together.鈥�

It can be frustrating, she said.

鈥淭he budget for our park has been flat for 20 years. The cost of operation has not been flat,鈥� Ward said. 鈥淭hey are down 37% of their staff and cannot hire because they do not have the budget.鈥�

The parkway was created as a back-to-work program during the Great Depression of the 1930s. It helped revitalize mountain communities, and now it鈥檚 the communities鈥� turn to revitalize the park, she said.

鈥淭his is our park,鈥� Ward said. 鈥淭his is our home, and that鈥檚 why we are here, to come together to try to help take care of it.鈥�

In the legacy work of banding together communities, failures are part of the process, keynote speaker Ta Enos said. She is founder and CEO of the PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, a regional nonprofit in northern Pennsylvania, and said to learn from and pivot beyond those failures.

鈥淚t took us in the PA Wilds 20 years to get where we are today,鈥� Enos said. 鈥淲e still have so far to go, and so much work that still needs to be done.鈥�

She talked about the , a seven-step plan published last year. The document makes recommendations for localities about marketing, visitor experiences, a unified regional voice, protecting resources, education, capacity building and plan implementation.

鈥淭here鈥檚 so much here, it鈥檚 such a fantastic plan,鈥� Enos said. 鈥淵ou guys are really trying to do this in a way that keeps this place special.鈥�

While this group thinks toward the future, there are communities along the Blue Ridge Parkway that are still recovering from the recent damage by Helene.

Repairs to reopen the roughly 90 miles of still-closed parkway will continue past fall 2026, Blue Ridge Parkway鈥檚 external affairs specialist Leesa Brandon said.

鈥淲e do this work against the backdrop of a nearly $450 million maintenance backlog,鈥� Brandon said. 鈥淲hile challenges have and will come up 鈥� Helene, obviously, is one of those 鈥� I believe our work together before, during and after can lead us to innovation, resilience and growth.鈥�

The park’s acting superintendent, Rachel Stasny, said she is grateful for the coalition coming together. The group is online at .

鈥淚t鈥檚 a very dynamic time for the National Parks Service, and for the Blue Ridge Parkway,鈥� Stasny said. 鈥淥ur partnership is more important now than ever.鈥�