The urban equivalent might be New Yorkers who have never gone to the top of the Empire State Building, or visited the Statue of Liberty. Photo: Blue Ridge Discovery Center Appreciating a unique placeįor locals who grew up in a place, it’s not unusual for them to appreciate the uniqueness of where they live while also, to some degree, taking it for granted. “We also wanted to address the outsiders who come to recreate but don’t really appreciate the value of the place.” (Floyd can relate: “I did not develop a great appreciation for the Blue Ridge until after traveling outside of the region, in particular to the Sonoran Desert.”) Birding is a popular activity at the Center. It’s not just the local community that the Center hopes to inform. “We started as a grass roots non-profit to address the disconnect between the community and its natural assets,” says Floyd, who grew up in the nearby Mouth of Wilson and spend a good deal of his youth “exploring the New River watershed and the highlands area.” The Center’s philosophy and approach go a bit deeper. “Our stated mission,” says Floyd, “is to inspire curiosity, discovery and stewardship throughout the Blue Ridge.” Photo: Blue Ridge Discovery Center Inspiring curiosity, discovery, stewardshipĬade isn’t a product of the Blue Ridge Discovery Center, but he could be a poster child for the Center’s mission. “Well, I’m 17 … ” Two young explorers make a small discovery at the 2018 Summer Mount Rogers Naturalist Rally. “Tell me your background,” I ask.Ĭade hesitates. I’m guessing graduate studies in a biological or botanical field. Konnarock’s location is ideal: from the back door it’s a three-and-a-half-mile hike to the summit of 5,520-foot Whitetop, the second highest peak in Virginia: 5,729-foot Mount Rogers, its neighbor to the east, is the commonwealth’s high point.Ĭade is young: he looks mid-20s, tops, but his encyclopedic knowledge suggests he must be closer to 30. After nine years of operating mostly in the field and in borrowed space, the Center in 2017 was bequeathed the Konnarock facility, which it is turning into a field lab and learning Center. The Center was founded in 2008 with the goal of enlightening locals as well as tourists to the magic of the Mount Rogers / Whitetop Mountain Area. Floyd is executive director of the Blue Ridge Discovery Center, which is giving the Konnarock school a second life as its new home. “Cade is our resident naturalist,” Aaron Floyd says by way of introduction. Cade rattles off some facts about the ringneck - that they like salamanders, that a toxin in their saliva immobilizes their prey (though it doesn’t harm humans) - then starts into a litany of what else he saw on his hour-long saunter: Salomon seal, white trillium, blue cohosh, Japanese barberry, a junco - “It was growling,” Cade says of the bird. Cade Campbell, left, shows a ringneck snake to Lisa Banish and Aaron Floyd.Ĭade Campbell walks across the yard holding a ringneck snake he discovered a few moments earlier in the lush woods behind what began life in the 1920s as the Konnarock Training School, a Lutheran Missionary School in the mountains of southwest Virginia.
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