By Elliot Blumberg | newrivervoice.com correspondent

The Mountain Lake Conservancy’s visitor center is a naturalist’s dream. Glass cases filled with stuffed Appalachian game line the walls. There are skeletons of rodents and other small animals; rusted coins; Civil War-era bullets; and tools and treasures dug out of the Virginia soil. Bird and wasp nests hang on branches suspended from the ceiling. A rocking chair sits on a pelt below an eight-point buck rack. The lodge smells of wood and nature.

The visitor’s center is housed in a long green lodge next to Mountain Lake Hotel. Both overlook what remains of the lake – water levels are down considerably since the ’80s. In the lake’s previous waterline, paddleboats sit static in the dirt, hundreds of yards away from any water.

As you walk down the lodge’s Southern style porch, you’ll find a gift shop. There you can buy trinkets and clothes, most of which are themed after the film “Dirty Dancing.” And if you’re not in the mood for a three-foot wind chime, you can survey some paintings at the art gallery one door down.

Some Brief History

Mountain Lake is one of only two natural lakes in Virginia. The first hotel on Mountain Lake was built prior to the Civil War. William Moody Jr. founded and built the current hotel – made with stone from the surrounding mountains – in the 1930s.

For the better part of a century, the Moody family owned the hotel and surrounding land, until Moody’s daughter passed away in 1986. Upon her death, she created the Mary Moody Northen Endowment, and the conservancy operates under the mission statement to further her “desire to forge bonds between people and nature in Mountain Lake’s unique environment.” This includes barring sale and limiting development of the land. You won’t see condominiums or a strip mall going up on Mountain Lake anytime soon.

A Big Job

The conservancy is a one-employee-enterprise; Jessica Coker holds the position of director and oversees all operations. She came to Mountain Lake three years ago but was recently promoted to her new position. Her job is simple: lots and lots of projects. “There’s ongoing projects all the time and there are lots of components to [our] mission,” said Coker.

The endowment is run by a board of directors out of Galveston, Texas, where the Moody family is from. But the board’s ex-officio members extend to current and former employees in addition to state Sen. John Edwards, Del. Jim Shuler and former Congressman Rich Boucher.

The conservancy is funded by hotel profits and supplemented by the endowment (the conservancy itself is non-profit). “It’s slightly complex,” admits Coker. The conservancy also receives donations in the form of a membership program created in the same year of Coker’s arrival.

The hotel on Mountain Lake is recognized as the filming site of “Dirty Dancing,” the 1987 Patrick Swayze flick that has accrued a cult following and a 6.3/10 user rating on the Internet Movie Database. If you’re unfamiliar with the film, check it out at www.imdb.com.

Coker sums up the conservancy’s feel in a sentence: “It’s important to me for the conservancy to be recognized as a place in Giles County that’s really trying to join in on the motivation for an outdoor active healthy lifestyle.”

But How?

First and foremost, the conservancy works to educate and raise awareness of Appalachian conservation. “Providing an avenue for research and awareness is very important to us,” Coker says. These avenues include hosting the Road Scholar program, acting as a venue for schools’ and community groups’ field trips, and working with local and national partners to target larger and larger audiences.

In order to keep the area ripe for tourism and outdoorsmen, Mountain Lake depends on volunteers and community service groups. Trailblazing and updating maps and signs number among the duties that volunteers take on.

Aside from community outreach, forest and land management is one of the conservancy’s major priorities. Management comes in the form of many projects, including creating a land-steward program alongside the US Forest Service and lowering out-of-hand deer populations by organizing small hunting groups. In the future, Coker wishes to bring out Virginia Tech students to practice sustainable forestry methods.

Coker also works with the hotel and other partners to decrease energy usage, utilize green products and lower carbon emissions.

The Challenge of Conservation

Of the almost 25 million acres in Virginia, roughly 14 percent are protected. Most protected land belongs to the government, with 38 state parks representing 62 percent of the 3.7 million protected acres. While there are more than 50 private land conservation organizations, trusts and conservancies – like the Mountain Lake conservancy – they only represent 5.6 percent of the total. Land isn’t cheap, and conservation doesn’t pay much.

The Western Virginia Land Trust is another private non-profit land conservation agency operating in the New River Valley and surrounding areas. Their 15,000 protected acres and 33 miles of protected streams are spread over 10 counties.

The trust’s focus areas include family farms; running bodies of water – rivers, streams and watersheds; land visible from the Blue Ridge Parkway (viewsheds); ridgetops and mountainsides; and greenways and trails.

Assistant Director David Perry shares some of the issues the land trust faces, particularly with regard to the economy. They still “have the lights on and the doors open,” said Perry, but their energy is often spent on growing revenue. “The more energy we spend having to find revenue and cut costs, the less time we have to go out on farms and talk to farmers and promote conservation.”

Despite their endeavors to generate revenue, however, Perry still recognizes the bright side. “We are blessed to have generous donors,” he says.

Mountain Lake also faces funding issues. The biggest hurdle, according to Coker, is funding for staff.

H.M. “Buzz” Scanland, general manager of Mountain Lake, thinks it’s our cultural attitude. “People will continue to trash the environment until it affects their pocketbooks,” he says. “It is not a quick fix.”