Seeing the Blue Ridge Parkway Via the Eyes of a 30-Yr Ranger


Wild Perspective

Park Ranger and Wildlife biologist Tom Davis has been learning wildlife on the Blue Ridge Parkway for nearly 30 years. He was tapped to assist conduct the park’s first complete survey of non-game species in 1994 and has since reconnoitered almost each acre, ridgeline, and habitat alongside the long-lasting 469-mile byway.

“There are days once I prepare for work and it feels actually surreal,” says Davis, 58, who lives in Blacksburg, Va., simply outdoors the park. “I’m wondering how I might’ve gotten so fortunate as to do that for a residing.” 

Any given day might discover him wading by means of the muck of a high-elevation Southern Appalachian lavatory in search of turtles, listening for adolescent northern saw-whet owls by moonlight, or serving to highland farmers adapt mowing practices to create extra breeding areas for uncommon grassland birds.

“I’ve had the chance to immerse myself on this unbelievable place and get to observe and assist form the way it’s modified over what, from a human perspective, is a reasonably lengthy time frame,” says Davis. 

BRO talked with Davis about what it’s prefer to spend a lot time in one of many planet’s most treasured pure areas. 

Tom Davis. Courtesy of Davis.

BRO: What’s it in regards to the BRP that’s made you keep so lengthy?

TD: I really took that first job hoping to set myself as much as get a place out West. But it surely didn’t take lengthy to comprehend what a particular place that is. Most individuals know the Parkway is the longest linear park within the U.S., however few perceive what which means when it comes to ecological variety. You gained’t discover the vary of habitat we have now right here anyplace else. It’s completely distinctive. After 30 years, I nonetheless really feel like I’m discovering new issues. That’s what retains me round and excited to go to work within the morning. 

BRO: How did issues look from a conservation standpoint once you began? 

TD: Fairly grim. [Laughs.] Early on there was little or no understanding of what or what number of vegetation and animals have been residing right here, or how they have been distributed. And there was no overarching administration technique in anyway. 

That meant that in a single district you can have a lead ranger who was desirous about reptiles and amphibians. In one other, migratory birds. Every would focus solely on the species and habitats they most popular, and neglect the remainder. And since districts didn’t collaborate, the issue was exacerbated.  

Within the mid-Nineteen Nineties the forests—most of which have been replanted following the park’s formation and extra adjoining lands being bought within the 30s—have been beginning to mature. Wildlife that’d been pushed out by logging and deforestation was returning. In the meantime, you had all these farmers retiring and the park service was shopping for up land left and proper. I used to be employed together with 4 or 5 different biologists to come back in and attempt to carry the park into the following period of its evolution. 

The purpose was to collect the knowledge essential to do issues like goal uncommon habitats like high-elevation bogs, or threatened species like cerulean warblers, and discover methods to guard them and enhance their distribution. That course of began with us going by means of the complete park, tallying what was there, the place it was situated, and in what quantities. Once we have been by means of, the info revolutionized how parklands have been managed.  

BRO: What are a number of the largest adjustments you’ve seen to this point?

TD: The resurgence of black bears is the obvious. Again within the 90s, I’d see one or two a 12 months, and people sightings nearly completely passed off in far southwest Virginia. However with reforestation and higher administration strategies, their inhabitants has elevated considerably. Now I’m coping with them nearly on daily basis.

In the identical vein, once I began out, bald eagles, golden eagles, and peregrine falcons had all however vanished. Now they’re nesting at a number of areas all through the park. And we’re really utilizing a community of path cams to map golden eagle feeding areas with a purpose of affecting extremely focused habitat restoration and boosting their numbers.  

Then there’s the elk, which naturally spilled over from reintroduction efforts within the Smokies. These animals have been initially hunted to extinction on this area within the early 1700s, however we presently have a herd of about 200 roaming round far southwest Virginia and North Carolina. You’ll see them grazing in a excessive, grassy meadow round sundown and it’s simply wonderful.

Now, one thing that’s a lot much less apparent is all of the habitat restoration work we’ve finished, significantly round migratory birds. Within the spring there might be upward of 250 species within the park at a given second. I’ve personally documented greater than 110 within the Rocky Knob Recreation Space alone, together with uncommon sightings like yellow-billed cuckoo, cerulean warbler, pronothory warbler, golden-crowned kinglet, blue-gray gnatcatcher, and red-eyed vireo.

A private level of satisfaction is our efforts round high-elevation grassland birds. Analysis has proven that almost all of those species are experiencing drastic declines. We’ve been attempting to push again towards that by means of a sequence of measures like intensive habitat restoration, academic outreach to farmers, altered mowing schedules to guard breeding websites, and extra. Due to all this, we’ve been seeing much more of the rarer birds like japanese meadowlark, bobolink, and Savannah sparrows, to call a number of.  

Grassy Knoll, situated at milepost 169 off the Parkway in Virginia.

Ranger Picks

Davis Shares 4 of His Favourite Parkway Spots

SMART VIEW RECREATION AREA, Milepost 154 

I really like this spot as a result of it has an incredible old-growth forest full of giant, gnarly oaks, which additionally occur to supply unbelievable birding alternatives, most notably, a breeding inhabitants of cerulean warbler. You’ll be able to hike a 2.6-mile loop path that circles the meadow and dips into the woods, see stunning birds, then picnic in a grassy space with expansive, 2,500-foot views of the piedmont.

GRASSY KNOLL / ROCKY KNOB, Milepost 169 

That is such a neat hike alongside a rocky path lined with boulders and actually cool previous timber that ends in what’s, for my part, one of the stunning overlooks alongside the Parkway. Grassy Knoll is a giant, high-elevation meadow (round 3,500 toes) with close to 360-degree views, together with Rocky Knob and Rock Fortress Gorge. 

This space affords unbelievable birding throughout the spring and fall migration. There’s tons of grassland and forest edge habitat the place you may see uncommon birds like bobolink, japanese meadowlark, Canada warbler, black-throated inexperienced warbler, and extra. Then, you may hike down into the gorge and perhaps spot a cedar waxwing or Swainson’s warbler.  

BLUE RIDGE MUSIC CENTER, 

Milepost 213 

One other of my favourite spots is situated method down in Grayson County. On high of being an amazing cultural attraction — it has a efficiency heart and music museum — the realm is residence to huge open pastures surrounded by woods stuffed with high-elevation wetlands that department off Chestnut Creek. There’s a path that winds by means of the meadows, woods and wetlands that’s excellent for recognizing japanese meadowlark. And the fields there have an incredible variety of summer season wildflowers, which attracts tons of butterflies and different pollinators.

Cowl Photograph: The meadow on the Blue Ridge music heart. Photograph by Tom Davis.

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