THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 18, 1994 TAG: 9412160074
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 251 lines
WHEN RON KUHLMAN wanted to escape civilization, he used to coerce a friend with a Jeep to drive into the mountains of Arizona. It would take two hours and good traction to reach a spot where they could hike or paddle a canoe.
Things got worse when Kuhlman moved to Virginia Beach three years ago: He'd head four hours west to the Blue Ridge Mountains to find some peace.
But then he made a stunning discovery:
Within 30 minutes of his beachfront home, he could be hiking to False Cape, one of the most secluded places on the East Coast.
``I'm exploring the city again from a new perspective,'' said Kuhlman. ``There aren't many places like this.''
It's hard to believe that the most populous city in Virginia could also be one of its most significant naturally. But 40 percent of Virginia Beach is undeveloped - including a state park, a national wildlife refuge, a dozen miles of oceanfront and a conservation area that's a resting spot for thousands of migratory birds.
Many people who live here don't realize the Beach has so many natural resources. Most tourists think the city stops just west of the Oceanfront.
But a three-fold effort led by naturalists and city officials is aimed at changing those impressions by promoting, preserving and expanding the Beach's natural assets.
The Convention and Visitor Development Department is heading up efforts to develop a marketing plan to inform tourists about the Beach's canoeing, biking, hiking and nature-watching opportunities. Promoting these kinds of trips can range from showing the city's canoeable waterways on tourist maps, to identifying bike paths with new signs, to buying ads in the right magazines.
A group of local environmentalists and farmers is crafting a proposal to prevent development of agricultural land in the southern half of the city. If that and other preservation efforts succeed, most of the city's undeveloped land will remain open for outdoor activities.
And the Parks and Recreation and Planning Departments recently finished the city's Outdoors Plan, a new approach to expanding recreation and improving access to the city's natural resources.
Combined with efforts by the Virginia Marine Science Museum and Seashore State Park, these steps mean residents and tourists will soon have many more open-air options to choose from.
The groups are not working together, but the cumulative impact of their projects could change the city's tourism appeal and its self-image. PROMOTING ECO-TOURISM
Skeptics might wonder if people will really come to the Beach to look at birds rather than bikinis. An expanding national travel trend would suggest they will.
So-called eco-tourism is one of the fastest growing segments of the travel industry.
The people who take these trips want to get a little exercise, escape for a while and perhaps learn something about the world around them. They tend to be somewhat older than the average summer weekend visitor, and have more time and money to spend.
The stereotypical eco-tourist would rather look through binoculars than gun sights; rather canoe down a gentle stream than negotiate rapids; rather stroll through the woods than hike up a cliff; and rather bike for a half-day than half-way across the country.
They are the kind of people who camp along Cape Hatteras, bicycle up the Eastern Shore and walk the easier parts of the Appalachian Trail. Across the country, more than 75 million people like to observe wildlife, nearly 70 million take fitness walks, 47 million go camping, 22.7 million hike and 14 million go canoeing, kayaking or rafting, according to the Outdoor Recreation Coalition of America.
Not all of them want to take long trips to enjoy the outdoors; many, like Kuhlman, would rather escape without leaving their own city limits.
``The resident can benefit from this just as much as the tourist can,'' said H. Clayton Bernick III, an administrator with the planning department.
But it is the potential tourism dollars that have spurred the Convention and Visitor Development Department into action.
Led by outdoor enthusiast Kuhlman, director of marketing and sales for the department, a group of officials, environmentalists and business leaders is developing a marketing plan to help the Beach tap into those dollars. They have been meeting since early fall and held a half-day retreat Wednesday to firm up their ideas.
Their goal is to increase tourism during the ``shoulder'' months of spring and fall when nature is most appealing and hotels sit mostly vacant.
The market is already there, several members of Kuhlman's committee insist: Just look at the Virginia Marine Science Museum.
Last year during the dreary months of January and February, more than 3,000 tourists came to the Beach to go on whale-watching tours sponsored by the museum. They stayed in hotels that averaged only 40 percent winter occupancy.
C. Mac Rawls, director of the city's department of museums, is convinced more people would come if they only knew the natural wealth that was here.
``I'm not so sure that everybody immediately thinks of Virginia Beach as being a great natural area,'' Rawls said. ``I think you have to tell them about it.''
Like other committee members, Rawls repeats the mantra that the Beach has something special. Like Kuhlman, working on the marketing plan has helped him appreciate the city's assets even more.
Fred Hazelwood, another committee member and director of Seashore State Park, doesn't need to be convinced.
``Virginia Beach has some incredibly special environmental resources,'' Hazelwood said. ``The diversity of species within the city of Virginia Beach is tremendous.''
Most people say Seashore is Virginia Beach's best environmental asset. It is the most popular state park in Virginia and has the most accessible, varied trails in the city.
It doesn't take a backpack, special gear or even much time to explore the park, which includes nearly 3,000 acres near the mouth of the Chesapeake. And the rewards can be great: there are blue heron, egrets, two types of warblers and osprey. There's enough room on the 19 miles of trails to find solitude even on a gorgeous day. And its 600-year-old bald cypress trees are the ones John Smith's party might have seen when docked here in 1607 shortly before founding Jamestown.
Hazelwood, who lives in the park, wants to share it with others. If people know how the natural environment works, he said, they will be less inclined to do things to damage it.
``We're trying to encourage people to be good stewards of all land. . . to show them how wonderful the natural world is,'' Hazelwood said. ``Hopefully, they will take some of this knowledge home with them and apply it in their own back yards.''
But there is an inherent conflict in eco-tourism: If too many people come to look at Virginia Beach's natural resources, they will damage them. There must be a careful balance between the public's need for access and the environment's need to be left alone, he and most other eco-tourism advocates said.
``It's OK for people to be here, and so long as they act responsibly, they need to be here,'' Hazelwood said. ``If we were to say it's so special that no one needs to be here - if people lose that sense of why it's special - then sooner or later they'll start to question'' why money is spent to preserve it.
Lillie R. Gilbert sees that conflict from a more personal perspective.
Gilbert, owner of Wild River Outfitters, a Beach outdoor specialty store, stands to make a lot of money if eco-tourism takes off here. But as a canoeing enthusiast, she doesn't want to exploit the environment too much.
``You want to run a healthy business,'' she said. ``But to do that, you have to put large numbers of people into the very environment you want to protect.'' PRESERVING FARMLAND
Louis E. Cullipher, director of the city's agriculture department, said he's concerned that the agriculture industry might be a loser in that conflict.
Farming looks pretty from a distance and can help eco-tourism by providing hay rides and pick-your-own fields. But farming and eco-tourism are uneasy partners.
It will take careful management to ensure that paddlers aren't sprayed by the crop dusters that protect the farmers' harvests; and strong controls to guarantee that the deer that eat farmers' soybeans and sweet potatoes aren't allowed to overpopulate to encourage tourism, Cullipher said.
Several environmentalists said they would rather see the land owned by farmers than developers. That's why they are supporting a program, expected to come before the City Council next month, to preserve farm land in the southern part of the city.
``From a functional value, those farm lands and that open space surround some of the most ecologically important areas in the Commonwealth,'' said Michael L. Lipford, state director for the Nature Conservancy, a non-profit organization which buys and protects land worldwide. ``That is why we and other (private sector groups) have put about 10,000 acres into preservation.'' EXPANDING OPPORTUNITIES
His organization is about to increase its holdings on the North Landing River from 5,883 acres to 7,348 acres; which leads into the third key aspect of the move to make Virginia Beach more naturally attractive: Expansion.
The Beach has a lot of great natural resources today, but it can always use more.
There aren't many spots to put a canoe into the 121-miles of navigable waterways in the city. Bike trails are short and too boring for real enthusiasts. And many walking paths go nowhere.
Patricia Ann Ingmire likes to imagine Virginia Beach as a place where kids don't have to bike on an interstate to reach friends in the next cul-de-sac. The long-distance biking enthusiast was stunned to discover a year ago that pedaling to her job as a hair stylist takes only a few minutes more than taking a car - but she's not willing to risk her life to do it regularly.
``I got my exercise and I enjoyed it,'' she said, but she added that the Pembroke area ``is not really very bicycle friendly.''
By building more bike paths and walking trails, she said, maybe more people will be able to explore the nature in their own back yards without driving to it or trampling on it. People could bike or hike to the Pungo strawberry festival instead of cramming rural roads.
``We have so many riches in the southern part of the city that a lot of people aren't aware of,'' she said. ``Let's bring them here in a non-invasive way.''
Ingmire gives Virginia Beach a C+ or B- grade on its existing trails.
The city's new Outdoors Plan is intended to boost that grade by addressing problems that now limit the Beach's environmental appeal.
The plan, which will be implemented piecemeal over the next two to three decades, will create a comprehensive system for outdoor recreation and natural resources in the city. It emphasizes development in five areas: greenways and scenic waterways, heritage resources, parks and golf courses, public beach access and hiking and biking trails.
A well-publicized $38 million expansion of the Virginia Marine Science Museum will also make a difference by enabling the facility to play a key role in the development and promotion of the city's natural resources. Rawls, the city's museum department director, said the trails the museum is building will help educate tourists and residents on the importance of Virginia Beach's habitats.
The trails will not be long, but will be ``concentrated in terms of the subject matter, and it will give us a chance to help people appreciate salt marshes and other things that are characteristic of what Virginia Beach has to offer in the way of eco-tourism,'' he said. ``They will help a person appreciate more what he will see at False Cape or Seashore.''
When the expansion is completed, the museum will be one of the best of its kind in the country, Rawls said, and will be attractive to people far beyond the city limits.
Hazelwood is also overseeing an expansion of his park's educational mission. Planning has begun for the $1.5 million Chesapeake Bay Environmental Education Center to be located at Seashore State Park.
The goal of the expansions and of the promotional efforts Kuhlman is overseeing is to avoid comments like the one made in Lillie Gilbert's store the other day.
A customer was buying a Christmas present and noticed an article pinned near the register, Gilbert recalled.
``Virginia's Premier Paddling Community,'' the woman read. . . ``Where is that?''
``Virginia Beach,'' Gilbert answered.
``You're serious?'' the woman replied, ``. . . Right here in my own back yard.'' ILLUSTRATION: MOTOYA NAKAMURA/Staff color photos
Lillie Gilbert canoes on one of Virginia Beach's many waterways. The
city offers other outdoor activities that appeal to a new breed of
vacationer, the eco-tourist.
William Gemmill of Virginia Beach makes use of a bike track on
Little Neck Road.
Color photo
LAWRENCE JACKSON/Staff
Ron Kuhlman of the Virginia Beach tourism department wants to help
the city lure outdoors enthusiasts.
Photo
LAWRENCE JACKSON/Staff
C. Mac Rawls, director of the city's museums department, says more
tourists would come if they knew the natural wealth was here.
Map
STAFF
THE VIRGINIA BEACH OUTDOORS PLAN
Graphic
Eco-Tourism and Us
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
by CNB