The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation will present a draft update of the master plan for Wilderness Road State Park on Wednesday, Nov. 4, at 6 p.m. in the theater of the park’s visitor center, about five miles west of Ewing. People can comment at the meeting, and a 30-day comment period follows until Dec. 4, according to the agency’s project page for the park.
A master plan guides what a state park builds and how it manages its land, and Virginia updates each park’s plan every 10 years. The state’s Commonwealth Calendar listing says people at the meeting can ask questions and give feedback on the draft.
The draft is not online yet
As of Oct. 27, the project page offers slides and a recording from a first meeting in March, but not the draft itself. Elsewhere this year, DCR has unveiled drafts at the meeting itself. The Shenandoah River State Park page now carries January’s meeting slides but no separate draft document, and the Powhatan State Park page says its final draft will be posted once available.
State law does say what the draft must contain. Under Section 10.1-200.1 of the Code of Virginia, it must give the size, type and location of proposed facilities, roads and utilities, a phased building schedule, and the projected cost to build, run and staff each phase.
What the 2014 plan called for
To see where the update starts, The Lee Daily Register read the agency’s 2014 executive summary, which the DCR director adopted on July 7, 2014. It split future work into three phases over a 20-year span, with a total estimated cost of $34,913,198.
| Phase | Main projects in the 2014 plan | Estimated cost |
|---|---|---|
| I | 20-cabin complex, staff residence, spray-ground, toddler playground, group camp shelter and vault toilet, picnic area comfort station, accessible trail loop near the creek, Indian village, stabilizing two barns | $16,578,362 |
| II | Meeting facility, storage building, equestrian campground, connector trail to Cumberland Gap National Historical Park | $10,425,823 |
| III | 30-site campground with three camping cabins and a volunteer bunkhouse, expanded trail system | $7,909,013 |
The same plan expected staffing to double. In 2014 the park had six staff positions and a $697,000 budget. At full build-out it would need 12 positions and $1,339,000 a year, in 2014 dollars.
Twelve years into that 20-year span, the facility slides in DCR’s March 4 presentation show the visitor center and offices, Martin’s Station, the Karlan Mansion, the day-use area, trails, historic cabins, maintenance buildings and two ranger residences. A cabin complex and a campground are not among them. The March slides do not say whether those 2014 projects will carry over into the new draft.
What the state’s survey of the park found
The March meeting was about existing conditions, and its slides give the most current numbers on the land the new plan will cover:
- Size: 392.7 acres, including the Gilbert Tract, acquired in 2008.
- Water: about 23 acres in the 100-year floodplain, mostly along Indian Creek, and about 9 acres of wetlands along the park’s streams.
- Protected core: the northern half of the Gilbert Tract, next to Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, is rated by DCR’s Natural Heritage division as a core of outstanding significance, and DCR says keeping it intact should be a priority where possible.
- Rare species: five, including mullein foxglove and wild hyacinth, both ranked critically imperiled in Virginia, and the Tennessee pigtoe, ranked imperiled.
- Old fields: about 40 acres, some turning into native wildflower meadows managed with prescribed fire, some leased for hay or used for animals such as bison, and some kept mowed for events and overflow parking.
- Trails: four trails totaling about 11 miles.
DCR’s own figures for the Wilderness Road Trail do not match. The 2014 summary lists 8.59 miles, the March slides say the rail-trail offers 8.5 miles for biking and horseback riding, and the project page describes a 6.5-mile trail.
How long adoption took last time
Before the plan takes effect, state law requires review by the Board of Conservation and Recreation, notice to General Assembly members and adoption by the DCR director. The law also requires master planning before any new improvement worth $2 million or more that a park’s plan does not already include.
In the last round, DCR presented the plan at a public meeting on Nov. 21, 2013. The board recommended it on May 12, 2014, and after a 30-day review by the General Assembly, the director signed it on July 7, 2014. By The Lee Daily Register’s count, that is 228 days, about seven and a half months, from public meeting to adoption.
How to comment
The meeting is at the park, where Route 58 meets Route 923, Martin’s Station Trail. The March meeting was also available online, but as of Oct. 27 neither the project page nor the calendar listing mentions an online option for the fall meeting.
Written comments are due by Dec. 4. The calendar names Salim Chishti, an environmental program planner, as the contact, at 804-629-6905. In the spring round, DCR took emailed comments at PlanningResources@dcr.virginia.gov with the park’s name in the subject line. The fall notice does not repeat that address, and the planner’s email on the calendar listing contains a typo, so it is worth confirming with DCR before sending. The calendar asks anyone needing an interpreter or captioning to tell the planner as early as possible.
