Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 25, 1994 TAG: 9411250002
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
A centerpiece for those programs will be in the park's 115-year-old Howe House, where the existing museum will be modernized and the basement will become an environmental-education center.
The park's main attraction for its more than 300,000 visitors a year is its recreation facilities for swimming, camping, picnicking and hiking, said Park Ranger Richard Johnson.
The new plans are to combine those with programs and special events aimed at ``education through recreation,'' he said.
``At the same time, they learn a little something,'' he said. ``Part of our problem in the past was not having a facility on hand that they could do something with. We will have that now.''
Johnson hoped that the environmental-education center, to be located in the basement previously used for storage, would be ready by September when area schools start.
Before then, park personnel will be in touch with school boards, parent-teacher associations and others to find out what direction people would like to see the center take, he said.
Research Assistant Susan Lilly, a Radford University graduate student who started working at the park as a volunteer and ended up on the payroll, said books will be sought to stock a library in the education center. Teachers, church groups and others interested in the subjects will have access to the library.
Lilly is hoping that books, chalkboards, crayons and other materials will be donated for the center.
The center, located in what was once the home's dining room and winter kitchen, will be just one part of the education program.
``I like to come down here and just dream'' of what the center can encompass, she said. ``We're just going to maximize the space that we have.''
One idea is to have exhibits showing the historical progression of life along the New River, from American Indians and pioneer settlements to water-based industry, she said.
Lilly has done a lot of research on the home's builder, Haven B. Howe (1847-1911), including an interview with 98-year-old Mattie Mae Carper of Pulaski. Carper, who as a child lived in the home with a tenant family, remembers a lot about Howe and the way the home was used. Howe's granddaughter referred Carper to her, Lilly said.
Howe was a significant Pulaski County figure, Lilly said.
``He was one of Virginia's first conservationists, as far as noticing that the environment was changing,'' she said.
A county supervisor from 1879 to 1883, he was elected to the House of Delegates from Pulaski and Giles counties and served from 1891 to 1892. He tried to bring to public attention how dumping mineral wastes from iron ore smelting plants was hurting water quality.
In 1911, he testified at a federal hearing on pollution in New River. The hearing resulted in a new law effective Jan. 1, 1912, one month after his death, banning the dumping of iron-ore wastes in rivers.
A museum on the ground floor of the house will be revamped and updated with quality exhibits, Lilly said. The ones that have been on display are wearing out. Park offices are located on the second floor of the house.
Other planned educational projects for the park include a butterfly garden, to be created by using plants that will attract butterflies. Ducks already use the lake as a migrating stop, and perhaps butterflies will, too, Lilly said.
Not everyone knows that butterflies migrate, Lilly said. ``Some butterflies, like the monarch, go thousands and thousands of miles.''
Students visiting the park also could try identifying different species of ducks that congregate in one of the lake's coves.
``I like to call that little cove down there Duckville,'' Lilly said.
The lake attracts hawks, ospreys - even an occasional eagle. A nest stand for ospreys, diving birds which feed on fish, also is planned.
Lilly envisions student groups learning about wildlife and ecology, taking water samples ``and maybe getting a little bit muddy while they're doing it'' but having fun, she said.
The various, hands-on projects should make the park ``chock-full of resources for teachers ... [and] naturalists,'' she said.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***