This Land, Your Land

The National Forest Service has announced a shortened season at Roan Mountain Recreation Area this summer to allow for renovation work.

The recreation area, which is near Bakersville in the Pisgah National Forest, will be open only from June 6 through July 7, a news release says. It is normally open from May through September.

Renovations are to include replacing the dilapidated 1960s restroom near the Cloudland parking lot with an eight-unit accessible restroom, resurfacing the trails to the observation deck in the Rhododendron Garden and replacing the observation deck, and resurfacing the main paved road leading to the Cloudland parking lot.

Renovations are to be paid for with $700,000 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the Stimulus Bill).

The Appalachian Trail, which runs through the area, will not be affected by the closure. However, the access trail from the AT to the Cloudland parking lot will be closed.

The National Park Service has announced a 25 percent discount on Cape Lookout National Seashore's rental cabins this summer.

The discount will be offered from June 1 through August 30 on rates for the Great Island Cabin Camp (on South Core Banks across from Davis) and Long Point Cabin Camp (on North Core Banks across from Atlantic), a news release says.

Grand Island rates run from $54 to $168 per night, depending on the cabin. Long Point rates run from $84 to $145.

The discount applies automatically reservations already made for the time period.

Each cabin has bunk beds, a bathroom with shower, hot and cold running water, and a gas stove. Visitors must furnish their own cooking and eating utensils, linens, and ice chests. (There are no refrigerators.) Some cabins have electricity; at others visitors may bring their own generator or other light source.

Pets are not permitted in the cabins.

Phone numbers for reservations are at either link above. The NPS page has ferry information.

Congressmen from North Carolina and Virginia are joining to sponsor legislation that would authorize $75 million over five years to buy up to 50,000 acres along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The Blue Ridge Parkway Protection Act would mark the 75th anniversary of completion of the 469-mile scenic drive between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Virginia's Shenandoah National Park.

Companion bills were introduced and referred to the respective committees in the House and Senate on January 26.

The Conservation Trust for North Carolina, a nonprofit group that has worked to protect the parkway's corridor, proposed the legislation.

"The Parkway generates $20 billion per year to the economy of the region through which it passes," says the CTNC. "But its spectacular scenery, streams, forests and farms are under constant threat."

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has awarded a $4.9 million contract for a 17,840-square-foot regional visitors center to be built on Roanoke Island, the Department of Interior said Wednesday.

The Gateway Visitor Center and Headquarters at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge will educate visitors about wildlife and conservation in the area and house the refuge’s 30-plus staff members.

Money for the project comes from $3 billion the Department of the Interior received in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, aka the Stimulus Bill. "This investment will also create jobs for the local community," the Fish & Wildlife Service's news release says.

MWH Constructors, Inc., of Broomfield, Colorado, will design and build the center.

The FWS said previously that it anticipates 200,000 visitors annually to the center, which will include a book store, exhibit space, an environmental education classroom, a multi-purpose room and exterior interpretive facilities.

The FWS operates 10 coastal National Wildlife Refuges in North Carolina to safeguard wildlife populations through habitat preservation, which offers prime opportunity to view or photograph birds and other wildlife. The refuges also offer hunting, fishing, boating, hiking and other recreational activities when they are considered compatible with the refuge's wildlife preservation mission.

If you have kids out of school on Monday and need something worthwhile to keep them occupied, consider the North Carolina Aquariums, where the branches at Fort Fisher and Roanoke Island are waiving admission fees for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Normally, admission to the aquariums is $6 for ages 6 to 17, $8 for adults, $7 for seniors and free for those younger than 6.

The Fort Fisher aquarium is next to the Fort Fisher State Recreation Area and just down the street from the Fort Fisher State Historic Site.

Fort Fisher was a major Civil War fortress, keeping North Carolina's port of Wilmington open to blockade-runners that supplied necessary goods to Confederate armies inland. The historic site presents a state-of-the-art museum and ruins of the fort.

North Carolina State Parks had record attendance in 2009, topping 2008's 12.48 million visits by 13 percent and the record set in 2007 by 5 percent.

The state parks system, which includes 34 state parks, four state recreation areas and a system of state natural areas, had 14.16 million visits in 2009, the Division of Parks and Recreation said in a news release.

Among parks and recreation areas, 22 reported increased attendance in 2009. Jockey’s Ridge State Park in Dare County reported the highest attendance at 1.4 million visits, an increase of 2 percent over last year.

Gorges State Park, which reopened in May with new trails and other features, had 74,803 visits, a 306 percent increase over 2008. Elk Knob State Park, a relatively new park being developed near Boone, had a 21,859 visits, a 264 percent increase for the year.

Several parks did have attendance declines, including Jones Lake State Park, which was down by 17 percent, Haw River, down by 11 percent, and Merchants Millpond State Park, down by 10 percent.

The North Carolina Bartram Trail Society has developed a new map of the trail that it plans to distribute by the end of March, the society said last week.

The map of the Bartram National Recreational Trail will be the first to cover the entire length of the 118-mile trail, according to the organization. It will describe the primary features of the trail - water sources, campsites, vistas, road accesses, etc. - as well as driving directions to trailheads. Volunteers walked the length of the trail with high-precision GPS equipment and a distance measuring device (a "wheel").

The map "will also contain information on William Bartram, his contribution to the history of the area and his encounters with the native Cherokee, as well as interpretive information on the natural and cultural history of the region," the society says.

Eighty miles of the trail wind through the Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina, running northwest from near Rabun Bald just south of Highlands and ending at Cheoah Bald. It joins the Appalachian Trail at two points, including at Wayah Bald. In Georgia, 38 miles of the trail run south-southeast from the state border to the Chattooga River and then head northeast paralleling the river to the Ga. 28 bridge.

"Underappreciated, the Bartram Trail covers much of the same (spectacular) terrain as the Appalachian Trail in Georgia and North Carolina, but offers a much more solitary experience," says the GORP site.

(We first saw info about the N.C. Bartram Trail Society's new map at Smoky Mountain News.)

Cape Lookout National Seashore has announced 2010 dates for its 41 rental cabins at South Core Banks and North Core Banks. They open March 26, and there are new phone numbers, which must be used for reservations.

Great Island Cabins on South Core Banks is a group of 21 "rustic cabins that vary in age and condition," according to the National Park Service, and that each sleep from four to 12 people. Long Point Cabins on North Core Banks are 20 cabins that are each about 500 square feet and sleep six in bunk beds. Cabins at both sites have private bathrooms, hot water and other amenities

Cape Lookout camping options also include primitive camping on Core Banks and Shackleford Banks.

Heavy snow and ice accumulation, and downed trees have caused the state to close Grandfather Mountain State Park "indefinitely," the Division of Parks and Recreation said Tuesday. Mount Mitchell State Park "and some other, high-elevation state park areas in western North Carolina" have also closed because of icy roads.

The Linville area, where Grandfather Mountain is located, experienced snowfall of up to two feet December 18 to 20 followed by a severe ice storm on December 24. Additional snow has fallen sporadically in the past week.

The National Park Service announced the closing of "most sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway" earlier, adding that "due to heavy snowfall along the entire length of the Parkway, travel is not advisable on the recreational road." The Park Info Line at 828-298-0398 provides updated road closure information for the Parkway.