The boards of county commissioners and county supervisors in the 12 counties in Virginia and 17 counties in North Carolina that host the Blue Ridge Parkway have passed resolutions of support calling for funding to repair the national park and implement the Blue Ridge Rising Action Plan.
Through Blue Ridge Rising, the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation is working with a wide variety of partners representing tourism, economic development, education, workforce training, natural resource conservation, cultural heritage, nonprofits, and government agencies to implement strategies that unite the region.
“We listened to hundreds of people from all 29 Parkway counties to develop sound strategies to expand travel and tourism across the region,” said George Ivey, director of Blue Ridge Rising. “We’re thrilled to be able to say that elected officials in every Parkway county support both the Parkway and the Action Plan.”
The Blue Ridge Rising Action Plan, created through more than three dozen local and regional listening sessions, marks the first time in the national park’s history that these counties are working together to implement travel, tourism, and outdoor recreation strategies that will have wide-ranging benefits throughout the Parkway corridor.
“This is a historic day for the foundation and the vision of unity along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The adoption of resolutions by all the boards will strengthen the Blue Ridge Rising initiative,” said James Houchins, Director of Economic Development & Tourism for Patrick County, Va. “We are excited and look forward to the great work that is to come.”
In 2025, the Foundation secured a three-year, $5.13 million matching grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) to support regional strategies to advance cultural and recreational tourism. This grant was made under the Appalachian Regional Initiative for Stronger Economies (ARISE), which is an ARC initiative that aims to drive large-scale, regional transformation through multistate collaborative projects across Appalachia. Additional funds secured will go toward the required match for the ARISE grant.
The Parkway is the most visited unit of the National Park System with 16.7 million visitors in 2024— more than Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, and Yosemite combined. In the same year, visitors spent $1.5 billion and supported 15,700 jobs, creating a total annual economic output of $1.9 billion.
The 469-mile scenic route travels through Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, McDowell, Mitchell, Surry, Swain, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes, and Yancey counties in North Carolina. The Parkway corridor includes Amherst, Augusta, Bedford, Botetourt, Carroll, Floyd, Franklin, Grayson, Nelson, Patrick, Roanoke, and Rockbridge counties and the independent cities of Buena Vista, Galax, Lexington, Lynchburg, Roanoke, Salem, Staunton, and Waynesboro in Virginia.
Blue Ridge Rising earned the Public Lands Alliance’s 2025 Outstanding Public Engagement Award. The Foundation is partnering with Friends of Southwest Virginia, based in Abingdon, Va., to implement the ARC grant.
The Foundation is the nonprofit fundraising partner of the Blue Ridge Parkway, helping to ensure cultural and historical preservation, natural resource protection, educational outreach, and visitor enjoyment now and for future generations. Since 1997, the Foundation has provided more than $24 million in support for one of the country’s most visited national parks. To learn more, visit BRPFoundation.org. To learn more about Blue Ridge Rising, visit BlueRidgeRising.com.
ARC is an economic development partnership entity of the federal government and 13 state governments focusing on 423 counties across the Appalachian Region. ARC’s mission is to innovate, partner and invest to build community capacity and strengthen economic growth in Appalachia to help the region achieve socioeconomic parity with the nation. Learn more at arc.gov.
