State parks weather

weak economy

with more visits
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

Record visitation at state parks suggests the public is still enjoying the great outdoors even as an economic downturn affects other recreational pursuits.

State parks in North Carolina reported record attendance in 2007 of 13.4 million visits, according to an annual report issued by the N.C. Department of Parks and Recreation. Though Watauga County has no designated state parks tracked in the report, the regional parks showed increased visitation and the Elk Knob State Natural Area on Meat Camp Road has proven popular with visitors though it is slowly being developed as a recreational site.

Charlie Peek, parks and recreation spokesperson, said most parks saw expanded visitation, despite a prolonged drought that closed facilities at some parks and curtailed the summer season for swimming and boating.

The parks most affected were those featuring lakes, such as Lake James near Marion, which saw a 44 percent decline in visitors last year.

The visitation totals represent an increase of 6.5 percent over 2006 and a 260 percent increase over the past 25 years. In 1982, 5.1 million people visited the state parks system.

The previous high attendance for the system was 13.2 million in 2002.

Mount Jefferson in Ashe County showed a 6-percent increase; Mount Mitchell, a 10-percent increase; and Stone Mountain, a 14-percent increase.

The 2,200-acre New River State Park in Ashe County had a 2-percent increase, or 185,000 visitors total.
Elk Knob, which covers 1,800 acres, has an old logging road leading to the peak, and a winding, more leisurely trail is in progress.

The park is in an interim development stage, with future projects including parking areas, picnic tables, a maintenance facility and ranger office.

“Strong visitation at our parks reflects the value North Carolinians place on outdoor recreation and the contribution of the state parks system to North Carolina’s tourism economy and to the economies of the communities where the parks are located,” state parks director Lewis Ledford said in a statement.

“The state’s population growth has increased pressure on our infrastructure of state parks as it has in other areas. We are addressing that with our New Parks for a New Century initiative, which to this point, has brought four new state parks into development.”

The state parks system manages nearly 200,000 acres, including 31 state parks and four state recreation areas that are open to the public, and a system of state natural areas dedicated to conservation of natural resources.
Jockey’s Ridge State Park in Dare County reported the highest attendance at 1.5 million visits, an increase of 43 percent over last year.

“The trend is that attendance has been strong,” Peek said. “A few parks suffered because of the droughts. We still have some room for improvement.”

Peek said the park system had managed to maintain adequate funding despite fluctuations in the economy, and the Generally Assembly has remained committed to funding recreation.

The state’s Parks and Recreation Trust Fund, which gets money from land transfer taxes, contributed $18 million for land purchases and $19 million for park capital projects in the 2006-07 fiscal year.

The park had an operational budget of $31 million for the last fiscal year.