Environment and Outdoors
The fundraising arm of the Roanoke Outside Foundation – Project Outside – has awarded around $50,000 in grants to 10 recipients. Among other things, those funds will help purchase tools for trail building, repair a park bridge, connect more youth to the outdoors and increase parking at a public access point on the James River. This is the second release of funds from Project Outside, created during the height of the pandemic when a sharp spike in outdoor recreation use due to COVID meant more wear and tear on local amenities. Pete Eshelman is with the Roanoke Outside Foundation; he says the application process for future grants opens up gain late this year.
Project Outside grant recipients:
• Botetourt County Parks and Recreation: $7250 to expand and increase parking at the Alpine public access
point on the James River in Buchanan.
• Trees Roanoke: $1000 to remove dead and dying trees along the Roanoke River Greenway and replace
with new ones.
• Humble Hustle: $4699 to expand the Humble Hikes program and increase capacity by hiring part-time
staff to continue offering monthly outdoor programming to underserved youth.
• Blue Ridge Off-Road Cyclists: $5000 to conduct a regional trail maintenance workshop focused on
ongoing maintenance needs at Explore Park while expanding the pool of qualified volunteers throughout
the region.
• Pathfinders for Greenways: $1700 to purchase tools needed for trail building and maintenance.
• Total Action of Progress: $3563 to continue Project Discovery, an outdoor club to connect
underserved youth with the outdoors.
• Roanoke Mountain Adventures: $5250 to build a public mountain bike skills development facility along the
Roanoke River Greenway in Vic Thomas Park.
• Alleghany Highlands Trail Club: $7300 to rehabilitate 10 miles of North Mountain Trail.
• Franklin County Parks and Recreation: $9238 to replace rotten boards on a bridge in Waid Park that
spans the Pigg River.
• Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club: $5000 to repair the McAfee Knob fire road, used as a secondary
trail to/from McAfee Knob but also for rescues.
This is our time to invest in our community strength – the outdoors – to continue positioning the Roanoke
Region as a preferred place to live, work, play, and visit. Contributions can still be made at
https://www.roanokeoutside.com/project-outside/.
For the second time, a federal appeals court has thrown out government approvals for the Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline to pass through Jefferson National Forest. The Roanoke Times reports that today’s decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came after a three-judge panel found that the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management failed to properly predict — and to prevent — erosion and sedimentation problems caused by building the massive infrastructure project. The ruling sends the permit back to the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management for reconsideration. The first time the court did that in 2018 it took two years for the agencies to approve a second permit — the one turned away today by the Fourth Circuit.
(Public domain photo)
The national park service is allowing community input on the proposed closure of the Blue Ridge Parkway on June 4 and 5. With the story, WFIR’s Caroline Moore.
CLICK HERE for public comments
Many Arboretum visitors mistakenly assume that taxpayers cover the attraction’s upkeep. Until now, proceeds from popular plant sales and membership fees to the Friends of the Arboretum program mostly covered the attraction’s day-to-day expenses. Updating several aging areas of the Arboretum will require additional funding sources. WFIR’s Rob Ruthenberg has more
CLICK HERE to find out how you can donate
The biggest fundraiser for the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center gives you the chance to name an owl or two. The money is needed to help fundraise for year-round operations and ongoing legal expenses, as WFIR’s Ian Price reports
Click here to go to bid on the auction
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- Eastern Screech Owl with Samantha
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- Eastern Screech Owl 2
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- Eastern Screech Owl
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- Barred Owl
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- Barred Owl 2
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- Barred Owl 3
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- Barred Owl 4
(Public domain photo)
October is always a busy time for the Blue Ridge Parkway, and this year should be no exception. But not everything along it has re-opened, so it’s a good idea to plan ahead before heading out. Campsites and picnic areas along the parkway are open through the end of October. Visitor center buildings are closed, but rangers are stationed outside most of them through the 31st to offer information. More from WFIR’s Evan Jones:
Two stretches of the parkway in our region remain closed for long-term repairs. One between Route 24 near Vinton the Roanoke River bridge, the other between US 220 and Adney Gap.
A new 1.7 mile natural-surface trail from the Catawba Sustainability Center that links to the Appalachian Trail and offers alternative parking for McAfee Knob hikers cut the ribbon this morning. Virginia Tech operates the Sustainability Center, which conducts “agri-forestry” research just off Route 311. There are 25 additional parking spaces for McAfee Knob hikers there; a roundtrip is just over ten miles. Roanoke County Supervisor Martha Hooker represents the Catawba District:
The U.S. Geological Survey says a small earthquake shook southwestern Virginia on Monday morning. The quake with a preliminary magnitude of 2.6 happened around 9:37 a.m. It was centered about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers)north of Lafayette, and was about 8 miles (12.4 kilometers) deep. News outlets report that people in nearby Salem reported feeling the ground shaking, but there were no immediate reports of damage.