GLEN JEAN, W.Va. — Chief of Interpretation for the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve Eve West says there has been nothing but steady growth in visitation since the park’s redesignation four years ago.
“Typically after a redesignation, numbers will settle out at about a 20-percent increase, but we’re almost double that,” said West.
Eve West
Next week marks the four year anniversary of the redesignation of the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve.
On December 27, 2020, the New River Gorge National River officially became the 63rd national park after Congress passed funding through the New River Gorge National Park Designation Act.
Encompassing over 70,000 acres of land along a 53-mile stretch of the New River, the park extends from the Bluestone Dam in Summers County, up through Raleigh County and on to its most northern point at Hawks Nest Lake in Fayette County.
West said the famous New River became a national river in 1978, but talks of Congress redesignating it into a national park didn’t begin to take place until around 2018, thus prompting the bipartisan bill to start to be introduced.
She said after working through some concerns about hunting and fishing within the areas of the park, the redesignation was very popular amongst all three of West Virginia’s congressional delegation and it became part of the omnibus bill in the late part of Dec. 2020.
Thus, West said, the official concept of the newest national park was born.
“Hunting is not allowed in a national park so they wanted to preserve that, which of course is its traditional use, so they landed on the concept of a national park and preserve,” she said. “This was a bipartisan bill introduced by Senator Capito and Senator Manchin and then also Representative Miller.”
West said since its redesignation, things in the park have changed quite a bit.
She said one major aspect that has seen a significant shift has been the patterns in visitation into the park.
West said the implementation of a national park status in 2020 fell right when another major event was taking place which also left a significant impact on park visitation.
“Of course that was about the time Covid happened, so visitation was going up everywhere, not just here, but between Covid and also the redesignation, it really had a huge impact on our numbers here,” she said.
Photo by New River Gorge National Park Service
She said currently, they are still looking at about a 40% increase in visitation over 2019 parkwide.
West said in the four years since the redesignation and the increase of visitors, the National Park Service came to realize they had to do something to accommodate the influx. For one, she said they had to manage spreading the carbon footprint in the park.
“Of course when you have increased numbers you have increased impact on the resource as well, so that is things that we’re looking at, we’re looking at starting to try to take a look at more of our caring capacities, especially along the cliff lines which are very fragile ecosystems,” said West.
She said they are also trying to encourage visitors to go to parts of the park that aren’t quite as heavily used. For instance, West said the 2.4 miles of the Endless Wall Trail in Lansing just outside of Fayetteville in the Fayette County end of the park is a very popular, heavily-used trail, but there are a number of other trails they are trying to promote more that are also worth exploring.
West said interestingly enough, they are also getting a different type of visitor– people who visit simply to visit and who are not just passing through.
“It used to be, New River was just a place people passed through to get to Shenandoah, to get to the Smokies and other areas, but we have truly become a destination point now, we are a place where people will come, spend three days a week, you know, it has really changed that a lot,” she said.
She said the visitors they haven’t seen as much of yet but hopes to and believes they will start seeing more of are international visitors.
West said when foreign visitors come to the U.S., national parks tend to be some of the first things on their lists to see and experience. However, they have long been exploring places like Yosemite and Yellowstone, and the New River Gorge National Park offers them up something new to experience.
West said national parks are wonderful places that bring people together to explore the vastness of nature this country has to offer, and they are proud West Virginia can now be a major contributing factor in that.
“I think that’s a really, really important piece of what we do,” said West. “You know, it’s hard to say no to nature, it’s a place you can get out, be healthy, find solace, it’s a place you can have a bonding experience with friends and family, and I think we offer a lot of really, really good opportunities for the United States population right now.”