Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 11, 1993 TAG: 9307090084
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RANDY UDAVCAK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
As district ranger for the Blacksburg Ranger District, Collins oversees an office that's charged with the protection and maintenance of a sizable portion of the Jefferson National Forest.
"I don't have a typical day," said Collins. "I love it."
The Blacksburg station has just moved into its new headquarters at 110 Southpark Drive off South Main Street - easily identified by the army of bright pastel green trucks that surround the building. The district had lost its lease on its former office building off U.S. 460 north of town.
While the buildings are roughly the same size, the new office has a larger information/reception area. The new space created room for displays by the Virginia Museum of Natural History on a variety of environmental topics, as well as racks of maps and public information pamphlets describing scenic locations and recreational facilities in the Jefferson.
The Blacksburg Ranger District extends over 110,000 acres and includes all of the Jefferson National Forest in Montgomery and Giles counties; a portion in Craig County; small sections in Bland and Roanoke counties; and a small segment in Monroe County, W.Va. The rest of the forest is maintained by five other ranger districts.
The Blacksburg station has its work cut out for it.
"The direction that we have from Congress is to manage the land for multiple uses," said Collins. "Multiple use is soils, air, water, fisheries, wildlife, timber, recreation and wilderness - the National Forest is managed for all those uses."
The office's activities include:
Providing information about recreational facilities in the forest, including such popular areas as the Cascades and Pandapas Pond.
Enhancing the habitat for wildlife. An example is the yearly planting of acorn-bearing trees as a food source for squirrels and bears.
Undertaking fisheries projects, such as the recent installation of stream structures in Stony Creek to provide cover and maintain water levels for stocked fish year-round.
Keeping up campgrounds and picnic areas.
Maintaining 83 miles of the Appalachian Trail that runs throughout the district.
Thinning and reforestation of trees.
Giving programs at schools and working with scout troops on various projects.
The district is involved in several improvement/conservation projects, with many more still on the drafting table.
This summer, construction already has begun on a fishing trail for the handicapped and special platforms on Stony Creek in Giles County. Sheryl Mills, a landscape architect with the Blacksburg District, said the project is a group effort among her office, the Paralyzed Veterans of America, the Giles County 4-H and Trout Unlimited.
In addition, a two-week summer class at Virginia Tech offered by the landscape architecture department will give students the chance to work on the trail.
Mills says the first phase of the project - broadening and reinforcing trails and building an elevated boardwalk and fishing platforms - will be completed by late August, with a further expansion of the trail to be completed later.
The district recently completed a project designed to suppress gypsy moths in the Peters Mountain and Johns Creek Mountain areas.
Most of the trees in the Jefferson Forest are about 80 years old, having come back after extensive cutting around the turn of the century.
"In some cases they haven't reforested well," said Collins, noting that some of the district's reforestation activities are an attempt to right the wrongs of the past.
The Blacksburg Ranger District office is open Monday through Friday from 8 to 4:30 p.m. The phone number is 552-4641.
by CNB