Natural Resources

The 80,000-plus acres that make up the Blue Ridge Parkway are home to more than 2,000 plant species. To protect this flora and educate visitors, the National Park Service is preparing to create a plant nursery that can help bolster threatened and rare native plants like the Heller's Blazing Star (pictured). Your gift will create a meaningful learning experience for an intern who will assist park biologists in laying the groundwork for the nursery, including site selection, development of educational materials for visitors, and propagating plants found in the wild. 

Law enforcement rangers do far more on the Parkway than just control traffic and keep visitors safe. They protect plants and wildlife from poachers in search of rare species, including galax, ginseng, and even bog turtles. With more than 80,000 acres of park land spread across 29 counties in two states, it's a logistical challenge to monitor the entire Parkway. Your gift for this project will purchase remote sensors to keep a careful watch on vulnerable species and alert rangers to potential thefts in real-time.

There’s a buzz in the air as we launch our Bee Kind to the Blue Ridge Parkway initiative! You can help reestablish wildflower display areas so that bees and their pollinator friends can thrive.  Your gift will:

A rehabilitation project for one of the most popular trails along the Blue Ridge Parkway is underway! A crew with the American Conservation Experience is repairing Craggy Flats Bald Trail, which has become deeply rutted, leading to erosion.

FUNDED!

FUNDED! Thank you for your gifts to make this project a reality. A crew with the American Conservation Experience has just finished most of the repairs at Craggy Flats Bald Trail during a four-week stint.

Since the Foundation’s initial funding of remote wildlife cameras in 2009, the devices have captured more than 25,000 images of over 35 species of wildlife, including black bears, bobcats, coyotes, red and gray foxes, elk, European wild hogs, white-tail deer, and numerous other species on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The infrared cameras are a valuable tool for resource managers in their efforts to survey and oversee larger animals, especially predator species, on Parkway land.

Habitat Research Bog turtles are elusive creatures, difficult to find in summer and hidden in hibernation during the winter. As the smallest and most rare turtles in the United States, the largest bog turtle ever found measured only 4.5 inches. They are listed as "Threatened" by the Endangered Species Coalition. 

Rangers are tasked with not just the safety of visitors on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but also the resources that make the park so special, including the plants and animals that live here. The Foundation will fund training for park rangers to reduce poaching and natural resource theft. 

Elk and wild boar populations are growing along the Western North Carolina section of the Parkway. The Foundation will fund research to aid in good wildlife management decisions for these large mammals.