An inability to hire enough staff for this summer is forcing Blue Ridge Parkway officials to close the Otter Creek Campground for the season on August 24.
Reservation holders for the 68-site Otter Creek Campground, located at milepost 60.9, will be contacted about refunds and other options for camping at nearby Parkway campgrounds. The Parkway’s remaining seven campgrounds are expected to remain open through October 31.
“To manage campgrounds, recreational areas, visitor centers and destinations that park visitors enjoy during the summer and fall season, the Parkway relies on a dedicated team of year-round and seasonal employees who work across a broad range of jobs,” said Parkway Superintendent Tracy Swartout. “This year, due a significantly reduced applicant pool, we were able to hire 64 percent of the planned seasonal employees across the Parkway in North Carolina and Virginia. While we are working to minimize the impacts of these lower staffing levels on our visitors, the Otter Creek closure, at a lower occupancy campground, allows us to shift limited staffing to higher-traffic campgrounds and visitor destinations. We appreciate the public’s understanding and patience with this and other operational adjustments that may be necessary as we navigate the remainder of the 2023 season with a commitment to high quality services and safe working conditions for our team.”
The Blue Ridge Parkway is one of the largest designed landscapes in the country, providing visitors with a wide variety of opportunities to experience southern Appalachian nature, history, and culture. The park’s drive-a-while, stop-a-while design enhances the experience; and whether at milepost 0 or 469, driving the scenic route, or camping, Parkway officials remind visitors to have a plan and recreate responsibly.
More details about campground locations and reservations are available at recreation.gov or nps.gov/blri; and a complete listing of facility operating schedules is also available on the Parkway’s website.
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Comments
In some ways I am unsurprised. I've been in the area for 2 1/2 years and have ardently tried to volunteer in that specific area of the Blue Ridge Parkway to no avail but one cleanup at Peaks of Otter. There's some outreach coordinator that replies back excited, but never any follow-up of opportunities. During that one cleanup, an old timer spoke of how the local group had been regularly active but a new super for that area and some sort of spat ended that legacy. Very sad in so many ways whatever that may be about... but it also seems like there's an inefficiency/disconnect in the offices, some sort of silo effect/wonky technology that takes away from eager volunteer applicants.
The NPS, like many low-pay employers, is learning that in the modern age you can no longer treat employees poorly with long hiring processes, short notice, inadequate housing, and various other empty promises (like we can cut your season at any time for any reason), and expect to attract and/or retain quality people.
This has been a long time coming. VIPs have been artificially propping up the NPS's poor employee relations for decades now.
This is going to get a lot worse.
Not only are the two fore mentioned comments spot on, some of the higher paid positioned employees need to get off there you know what and start helping to close some of those gap.
And ...... Staffing? What staffing? You NEVER see an employee here (or almost anywhere for that matter). You can't find a single person to even drop by once a day to spot clean thge restroom? Also ...... The "friends" association who only want to put on concerts and build playgrounds for comminities out side the park.