Parks Stewardship Forum

With over 16.5 million visitors annually, the Blue Ridge Parkway showcases scenic mountain views along its 469-mile length and is the gateway to many unique cultural attractions. To maintain the scenic views and to reduce the possibility of development negatively impacting the quality and beauty of these viewsheds, organizations including the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, through initiatives such as Blue Ridge Rising, have partnered with the National Park Service, local communities, and other community organizations to establish a baseline qualitative assessment for all viewsheds along the Blue Ridge Parkway. With support from the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, the Clemson University Institute for Parks in partnership with the George Wright Society and the School of Natural Resources at the University of Tennessee has coordinated the 2026 Gary E. Everhardt Park Break Program to assist in this effort. The Gary E. Everhardt Park Break Program is a fully supported leadership and service-learning program for graduate students. This year eight Gary E. Everhardt Park Break Fellows, representing eight unique universities, traveled to the Blue Ridge Parkway for one week to conduct baseline qualitative assessments of 59 viewsheds between milepost 202 and milepost 317.5. These qualitative viewshed assessments will assist the Blue Ridge Parkway and partners in identifying the most unique and highest priority viewsheds for future voluntary conservation. In addition, the qualitative descriptions and photographs of each viewshed may be used to develop site narratives and promotional materials of underutilized destinations to assist in distributing visitation more evenly across the Blue Ridge Parkway.