Passion for Conservation Drives Parkway Advocate
by BEN CALLOWAY

In a world where most everyone seems to live in the moment, Susan Mills wants to hang on to some valuable things from the past. As part-time executive director of Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway Inc., in Roanoke, she works with government officials, land conservation groups and volunteers to preserve the physical and spiritual beauty of Appalachian heritage.

For Mills, that heritage is embodied in the Blue Ridge Parkway, a 469-mile, two-lane highway designed to provide a “cinematic driving experience” with a compelling view around each turn. A 1930s federal government project intended to provide jobs and promote tourism, its photogenic 360-degree views became a symbol of the America’s rural heart. Mills has made it her passion to see that those views are preserved.

The Friends group is steward of a 29-county stretch of the highway with a $2 billion annual economic impact in Virginia and North Carolina. In a time of headlong development, it is a grassroots volunteer effort to conserve a part of the once vast rural landscape of Appalachia. Membership in the organization has more than doubled in the last 30 months and stands at about 6,500.

It is, Mills says, “a national treasure and a part of the very being of the people who live near it and love it.”

The Hillsville native counts among her close relatives some of the original settlers of Carroll County and recalls the glorious days she spent there as a child. Her grandfather was Dr. Mack Goad, a dentist, and his father was Dexter Goad, clerk of court who was involved in the historic Hillsville Courthouse shooting.

“Mack owned a cabin and a farm right off the Parkway at Fancy Gap. I have incredible memories as a child of lying on a bearskin rug before that fireplace,” Mills says. “One day I picked berries on one hillside while a bear fed on the opposite hill. It was not fearful then to see a bear; it was just a natural part of your life.

“My grandfather had a cow he named Susie, after his granddaughter, and life revolved around church. His farm was about 15 miles from Cumberland Knob, where the Parkway began, 70 years ago this year.”

Mills says these kinds of memories are part of what it means to have a treasure like the Parkway. “You carry these experiences and visual memories with you through life. They become a part of your heart and you share them with other people in order to preserve them. The Parkway is a part of my roots, a part of my identity. Our challenge as an organization is to save some of these memories, and move into the future without letting go of the past.”

Hanging onto valuable memories is also part of Mills’ life away from work. She lives in Salem with her husband, Bob, where she still cooks full meals and makes pies from scratch, as her father did before her. Her own landscaping used clippings from shrubs that were 35 years old when she got them from a relative.

Like many people with a genuine passion for her work, Mills cares little about taking personal credit for organizational successes. She comes to her work with a Ph.D. degree in administration from Columbia Pacific University in California, though most of her course work was done at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. The organization’s annual budget has grown from $44,000, when she started six and a half years ago, to $168,500. Her commitment is such that she may work “a very fast-paced” 50-60 hours a week, but Mills credits the organization’s growth to “the synergy of board, staff, volunteers and membership.”

The organization continues to rely on its ability to draw volunteers, members and donations and only within the last three years hired a paid assistant. What the group has accomplished has been done without any fundraising volunteers in Roanoke, Mills says, although such help certainly would be welcome.

Friends of the Parkway began in May 1989 with seven founding members, including Gary Eberhart of Asheville and Jack C. Smith, the late executive director of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce. Smith served as the first president of the organization during its formative years, followed by Lewis Jenkins. Richard Wells of Leisure Publishing in Roanoke is in his second term as president. The organization is chartered in Virginia and North Carolina.

A shortage of land for development has driven developers right to the Parkway’s edge, Mills says. Its captivating views and leisurely pace are threatened by residential and business construction. Studies by Blue Ridge Parkways officials have found that there is far greater tourism and visitation on the North Carolina side than in Virginia because of the more visible development in Roanoke County.

Friends of the Parkway prefers that good development planning make viewshed restoration unnecessary, and it is careful not to duplicate the efforts of other non-profit organizations with overlapping goals. Mills says Friends does not even enter the picture until the viewshed needs restoration, so the organization’s work includes bringing together the parties needed to help recover a view. The organization’s emphasis on improved communications is designed to demonstrate that developers can work in harmony with those who wish to preserve the Parkway’s beauty.

“In these 29 counties we have a national treasure unprotected by zoning, so our first choice is a conservation easement. That can be established by an organization like the Western Virginia Land Trust,” Mills says.

“Our second choice is to create a landscape plan that can buffer development from the view of Parkway travelers. With a plan we can avoid the need to correct viewshed deterioration years later, when it can be much more expensive. For good things to happen, people with the same mission and goals need to come together.”

Mills cites, as an example of sound viewshed protection, the work of Roanoke developer Frank Radford Sr.. His Masons Crest development at Milepost 125 in Southwest Roanoke County will completely buffer the development from the Parkway with the site’s original mature trees. Radford plans 340 homes on 275 acres. As grading of the site continues, many of the trees have been moved and strategically transplanted, he said.

For Mills, that is just about the perfect way for a conservation group and a developer to work together.

“This development is an ideal example of ‘win-win,’ and how we can conserve these views for generations,” Mills says. “Radford & Co. donated six acres of the site most visible from the Parkway to accomplish the construction of the viewshed. They get the positive credit early on to encourage their sales and the public gets viewshed conservation.”

Friends has significant restoration projects set for the spring and fall near Roanoke. They include $15,000 in tree plantings done at Milepost 121 at U.S. 220 South and an additional 150 hardwood and evergreen seedlings planted in late April. The organization uses more mature trees, referred to as “large caliber,” when possible but can sometimes find the expense daunting. About 180 trees are scheduled for planting in the fall at Milepost 125.3, with an additional 150-300 seedlings to be placed there in the spring of 2006. Friends volunteers will remove roadside vegetation and trees to open up a field but will need to spend $22,795 to complete the work.

Plantings are done on sites prioritized by Blue Ridge Parkway officials and only when a landscape plan is approved by the Friends board, Mills says. Plantings include, when possible, any adjacent land held as conservation easements by the Western Virginia Land Trust. Tim Boitnott of Creative Nursey in Cloverdale and Mike Loveman of Lanford Bros. in Roanoke are co-chairs of the steering committee of the Viewshed Planting Project.

Friends is also in need of office equipment since several months ago an automobile accident badly damaged its offices across from Oak Grove Plaza. Insurance will pay for repairs to the building, Mills said, but desks were not covered and will have to be replaced. The office also needs a conference table, chairs, computers and printers and an extensive list of volunteers to assist with the organization’s work.

“We can only hope to help inspire people to protect the treasure of our Parkway views,” Mills says. “I believe local government jurisdictions will recognize the economic value to their counties due to lost tourism and see that it only makes good sense for them to protect the scenic highway.”
Ben Calloway is a Roanoke-based freelance writer.

‘Friends’ volunteer needs

• Fundraising
• Marketing
• Website programmer
• Data entry (in Excel)
• Volunteer coordinator
• Membership services (phone,
(2-6 hours/month) writing handwritten notes, and
assembling packets)

For information, call (800) 228-7275 or visit www.blueridgefriends.org