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.”

By Taylor Faw | New River Voice correspondent

This year's Harvest Festival was a celebration of music and farm life. (Photo by Taylor Faw)

The wool went flying as Derrick Spangler snipped away at an unsuspecting, four-legged fluff ball. The sheep-shearing demonstration was just one of the many agriculture-oriented events at the 6th annual Floyd County Harvest Festival and County Fair on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2011.

Farm-minded people from around the New River Valley flocked to the “4-H & Extension Office” lot of Fox Street to get their fix of antique tractors, line-dancing, and of course, Floyd heritage. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., the property was transformed from an ordinary parking lot to a local fairground featuring activities for the whole family.
This animal farm was no dystopia; the Livestock Show was extensive and daylong, because what’s a fair without a truckload of goats? Some checked out the early morning Dairy Heifer exhibit while the lactose-intolerant hit the Lamb Show.

Heritage demonstrations took place throughout the day, offering insight to unique crafts of the region’s past, like Spikenard Farm bee-keeping, Blacksmith Forge and Home Food Preservation. The Master Gardener Volunteers shared their secrets through plant and gardening clinics throughout the day. Competition for the blue ribbon was high; whether it was the Farm Bureau Ag Olympics, pie-baking, or photography contests.

The Floyd County Harvest Festival and County Fair was fortified with an army of local vendors selling anything from fresh squeezed lemonade to puppets to insurance.

Bootleg Barbeque appeased the carnivores with its Hickory Smoked Southern Style Chicken, pulled pork and ribs. Barbara Von Claparede, practitioner of the dark arts of pastry-craft, cooked up a plethora of delicious homemade cakes, sweet breads, cookies, and jams. Harvesters from all over brought fruits, vegetables, and baked goods to sell.
The makeshift amphitheater, consisting of a vast ocean of haystacks and some P.A. equipment, gave barnyard refugees a place to lay low and enjoy some live music. Performances ranged from the acoustic Americana music of Andrea Marshall to the hybrid sound of Friends of Bernie, incorporating bluegrass flatpicking with Django-style gypsy jazz.

The Floyd County Harvest Festival and County Fair, coordinated by Dawn Barnes, was created in order to highlight Floyd County’s agricultural climate, both past and present. It was also intended to give people an opportunity to recognize the county’s history.

“Our goal is to keep the youth interested in agriculture throughout the community and to promote leadership skills,” said Barnes.

The festival was free to the public this year, however, donations were accepted to help front the costs for next year’s celebration. The event was sponsored by over 20 entities from the nearby community. Sponsors were broken down by their level of contribution; bronze, ($26 – $50) silver, ($51 -$125) and gold. ($126 and above) Some of the highest bidders included Floyd County Farm Bureau, James W. Shortt and Associates, P.C. and Quilters of Floyd.
The Floyd County Harvest Festival and County Fair is expected to continue the tradition next September.

Floyd centenarian Effie Brown attended an exhibit of her hand-sewn quilts and quilt block designs at the Old Church Gallery on Saturday.  Gallery director Catherine Pauley said that, along with Brown’s full-size quilts, the exhibit features close to 30 patchwork patterns that Brown quilted and donated to the community through the gallery.

With names like Bear Claw, Nine Patch, Rising Sun and Pine Tree, the squares represent traditional quilt pattern examples and are accompanied by handwritten descriptions and histories, written in longhand by Brown.  One pattern, the Log Cabin, dates as far back as ancient Egypt and was discovered wrapped around a mummy in a tomb.

Brown said she grew up with quilting and is self-taught, preferring to hand sew her quilts.  “I can’t get the corners to meet with a sewing machine,” she said.  After finishing her last quilt, Brown stopped quilting when her husband suggested that she spend more time with him.  He lived for five more years after that.

As the gallery’s guest of honor, the 100 year old former school teacher and Check Elementary School principal greeted a steady flow of visitors and told stories of growing up in the county.

When asked about her secret to long life, she said, “I worked on the farm my whole life.” She remembered when she was 15 years old, her father had a stroke and it was up to her mother and her to mow, rake and put up the hay. Her mother got stung by bees and so Brown was in charge of the chore, which was done with horse drawn equipment.

Her family (the Kings) had an apple orchard and it was Brown’s job as a young girl to cut apples for drying after school.  Her mother sold the dried apples to buy sugar and other supplies, Brown remembered.  The cut apples were spread out on the family wagon shed roof to dry.   In the winter, apples were strung by the woodstove and hung from the ceiling in the house.

“There were always apples in the fruit bowl,” Brown said.  Recalling the old saying about an apple a day keeping the doctor away, Brown joked that she ate three a day.

With her 101st birthday coming up in December, Brown is grateful for her good health.   “I saw the doctor a couple of times and he said, ‘I can’t find anything wrong with you,’” she said.   ~ Colleen Redman

Post notes: Brown’s exhibit of quilt blocks can be viewed on Fridays 4 p.m. to 6:30 and Saturday 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Old Church Gallery on Wilson Street. Watch a video clip of Effie Brown reciting a poem she memorized in grade school HERE. In another clip she talks about growing up on the farm in Floyd County HERE. ~ The above also appeared in The Floyd Press newspaper on September 15, 2011.

I keep writing Floydfest 11 for the year but the actual annual event is at year 10 and the Floydfest family has been getting lot of mileage out of using the Roman numeral X, with words like X-tradoinary to describe the 4 day music Xtravaganza.  Here is a sampling scenes from Floydfest X thus far.