WV Gazette
GLEN JEAN, W.Va. -- The head man at West Virginia's New River Gorge National River park minces no words when it comes to the sprawling Boy Scout center being developed nearby.
"This is absolutely a game-changer for West Virginia, and also for the New River Gorge area," said Don Striker, the park's superintendent.
Developers of the Summit Bechtel Family National Scouting Reserve expect it to attract roughly 100,000 people a year to the gorge. Striker expects the influx of visitors to dramatically raise the park's profile.
"We're a relatively young park," he explained. "We were established in 1978. It usually takes three generations for a developing park to jell and for people to get to know about it. We're currently in the middle of that process.
"The Scout reserve will bring in people on a massively accelerated time frame. Those people will recognize just how special the New River Gorge is, and they'll get the word out. The Scouts will put us two generations ahead of that three-generation timeline.
"In 100 years, John Q. Public will think of New River the same way they think of Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Great Smoky Mountains or the Black Hills."
Scouts will spend most of their time on the reserve's 16,000-acre campus, but will also venture onto the adjacent park for hiking, rock climbing, whitewater rafting, fishing and other high-adventure activities.
"The Scouts chose this site for its superlative recreational resources," Striker said. "Not only is the New River Gorge area wild and beautiful, it also has the 'cool factor' kids are looking for."
The Summit Reserve's first scheduled event is the 2013 National Scout Jamboree, a 10-day event expected to attract 80,000 people on its first and final days and 30,000 Scouts during the interim. The main question facing U.S. Park Service officials is whether New River's infrastructure can handle such a massive influx of people.
Striker isn't worried.
"We already handle Bridge Day, which draws 100,000 to 200,000 people," he said. "I think we'll be able to deal with the Jamboree gathering. We certainly will have time to learn and adapt and adjust."
He acknowledged, though, that New River isn't fully enough developed to assimilate large numbers of Scouts seamlessly into the park.
"We need to expand our trail network," he said. "We plan to do that by partnering with the Scouts. Later this summer, about 2,000 members of [Scouting's] Order of the Arrow will be here developing a stacked-loop mountain bike trail network on the park. The Scouts will create 44 miles of bike trail and will re-vegetate 46 miles of illegal ATV trails. The end result will be a world-class piece of infrastructure everyone can be proud of."
New River officials have always counted on volunteers to help develop and maintain the park's trail network. Striker expects the Summit Reserve's presence to accelerate the volunteer effort.
"We'll get at least double the volunteer hours because of the Scouts," he said. "That's roughly $1 million worth of labor. Down the road, I can see New River having trails and structures similar to those built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression."
At the same time, Striker expects Park Service personnel to enhance the Scouts' New River-based experiences.
"Our people will be there, helping the Scouts learn about the area's history, its ecology and its biology," he said. "The Scouts are offering us every opportunity to weave the Park Service ethic into the Scouting experience."
Striker foresees a day when the Summit Reserve's presence changes the way the rest of the nation looks at West Virginia.
"This could become a model for smart, sustainable development with public land as the centerpiece," he said. "When it does, West Virginia is going to be known as the Boy Scout State."