This Land, Your Land

Gov. Bev Perdue's budget proposal would close most state parks two days a week and close Rendezvous Mountain Educational State Forest in Wilkes County and Turnbull Creek Educational State Forest in Bladen County altogether to save money.

A proposal floated in November targeted Mount Jefferson State Natural Area in Ashe County and Singletary Lake State Park in Bladen County for closing.

Under the budget Purdue presented this week, state parks would close on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, except for Carolina Beach, Chimney Rock, Fort Macon, Haw River, Jockey's Ridge and Mount Mitchell, which have contracts requiring them to remain open, according to The News & Observer, and Hammocks Beach and Umstead, which are impractical to close.

Closing Rendezvous and Turnbull Creek educational state forests is attributed to low attendance and is to save $131,000, according to NBC 17.

"The governor's recommendation is to save $3 million by reducing funding to the Division of Parks and Recreation by 10 percent," the Journal says. "Staff reductions would be avoided by closing most parks two days a week. The division would be given flexibility in how to manage that."

Purdue's budget also closes the state's nine welcome centers two days a week and would eventually privatize them to save $1.9 million, the Journal says.

North Carolina's state parks reported this week they had 14 million visitors in 2010, second in attendance only to the record year of 2009.

Then N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation is reporting "near-record attendance" in 2010 at North Carolina’s state parks and state recreation areas.

Total visits came to 14 million, slightly less that the all-time record of 14.2 million visits in 2009, a news release says. Twenty-one state parks or recreation areas out of 39 in the system reported an increase in visits in 2010.

Jockey’s Ridge State Park in Dare County reported the highest attendance at 1.47 million visits, an increase of 3 percent over last year.

Mayo River State Park in Rockingham County opened to the public in April, and attracted 36,772 visitors during the year.

Parks with significant increases in visitation included Hanging Rock State Park in Stokes County (38 percent), New River State Park in Ashe and Alleghany counties (31 percent), Goose Creek State Park in Beaufort County (29) percent and Pettigrew State Park in Washington and Tyrell counties (26 percent).

More than a half million people were registered to camp in state parks during the year.

Campers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park will be required to reserve sites at Cataloochee Campground beginning with the season that opens March 11.

Reservations are available up to six months ahead of time through the federal government's Recreation.gov website, or at 877-444-6777. The camping fee will be $20 per night, which includes the contract costs for the reservation system and is the same as several other campgrounds in the park with similar amenities, a news release says.

The reservation page for Cataloochee Campground became operative February 9. The campground has 27 sites.

The park already requires reservations for the large frontcountry campgrounds at Smokemont, Elkmont and Cades Cove, a smaller outlying campground at Cosby, and at all drive-to horse camps, group camps, and picnic pavilions.

"Cataloochee Campground is one of the park’s most sought-after camping experiences, particularly since elk arrived in the valley in 2001," park Superintendent Dale Ditmanson says in the news release. "During peak season and off-season weekends, the campground often fills to capacity. Frequently campers would arrive after driving a long distance along a very narrow, gravel road to find no campsites available. We feel that the reservation system will provide a more efficient process to secure an overnight stay at Cataloochee and will eliminate unnecessary travel time and effort to try and obtain a site.”

Not only does a man in central North Carolina think Bigfoot lives in the Uwharrie National Forest, the Animal Planet cable channel is sending a crew into the forest to find the half-man-half-ape beast.

Animal Planet and Michael Greene, who says he already has video of Bigfoot from about two years ago, plan to search the Uhwarries on Saturday, according to the Montgomery Herald. Any useful footage captured is to become part of the network's six-episode series on Bigfoot sightings around the United States.

The 78.7-square-mile national forest encompasses the Uwharrie Mountains, some of the oldest in North America. According to geologists, the 1,000-foot hills of today's Uwharries were created from an ancient chain of volcanoes that once had 20,000-foot peaks.

Greene, who has a master's in Behavioral Psychology and is a court-qualified Questioned Documents Expert, says he's been on the trail of Bigfoot for some 20 years.

The Public Broadcasting System sent a film crew with archaeologists to excavate at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site for a show about the equally mysterious Lost Colony, which aired in July 2009. OK, maybe not "equally mysterious."

Greene, the cable channel's film crew and volunteers are set to head for the treeline about 3 p.m. Saturday.

In roads news on the other side of the state (from the Smokies, see below), travelers can expect delays for "the next several months" along a portion of the main artery through Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

The first of several projects along N.C. 12 in the Bodie Island area begins February 14 with closing the two-lane road for resurfacing for about 30 days from just south of Whalebone Junction Visitor Center to the intersection of SR 1243 (Old Oregon Inlet Road). Plans are to initially detour traffic and open one lane as soon as possible, a park news release says.

Additional work along N.C. 12 will result in a single lane from SR 1243 to the Oregon Inlet Bridge beginning February 21.

Work is scheduled through May 27, and delays of up to 20 to 30 minutes are expected.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park has started providing road-condition updates via text and Twitter for the park's four main routes.

You can get text messages about Newfound Gap (U.S. 441), Little River Road, Laurel Creek Road, and Cades Cove Loop Road sent to your cell phone by texting "follow smokiesroadsnps" to 40404. (Text "stop smokiesroadsnps" to the same number to cancel.)

The Twitter feed is at http://twitter.com/smokiesroadsnps.

The park’s recorded information line - (865) 436-1200, ext. 631 for roads, 630 for weather - receives more than 1,000 calls a day about road conditions during severe winter weather, the park's news release says. "When all of the incoming lines are in use, the calls rollover to the park’s Communications Center staff, often resulting in more than 600 calls to be answered, hampering the staff from responding to calls requesting park information and emergency assistance."

Road and facility closings are posted on the park's Web page at http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/temproadclose.htm.

In addition to notifications of winter road conditions, park officials plan to use the text and Twitter feeds to spread the word year-round about road openings and closings caused by rock slides, fallen trees or accidents. Any time the status of one of the listed roads changes, a message will be sent.