In preparation for the
Storm and
Sea And Sand adventure races, I've spent a lot of time with community and city leadership discussing the "wild" parts of the greater Hampton Roads region. There used to be a group known as
the Virginia Eco-Tourism Assocation (VETA) that was specifically designed to build programs and foster tourism in Virginia's wilderness, but the group fissled out after a few exciting early years (2001 & 2002). Their mission statement read like this: "protect Virginia's natural resources; develop,
promote and market a professional ecotourism industry; and promote
safe, quality experiences for ecotravelers."
Bob Callahan, of
Encompass fame, was vice-chancellor or assistant director -- or something in the leadership team of VETA. I've never asked him why the group lost momentum, but he mentioned to me that there are now rumours circulating that VETA may rise again . . . kindled, in part, by the success of
HRAdventure and our ambitious scheme known as
Virginia Beach AdventureFest. We're drawing attention to facets of Hampton Roads that have been overlooked and undervalued as resources for recreation and it
doesn't involve building condominiums!
While it's great to contribute to a growing eco/adventure conciousness in the region, I hope we don't get too narrow minded in our perspective. It's not just about beach areas or our state parks; let's not get stuck with a concept of isolated enclaves of nature. For example, things like bike lanes along streets (my part of Newport News is atrocious in this regard!) or suburban greenways and greenspace can do wonders for a community and certainly support the VETA aim of "quality experiences for ecotravelers." It'd be nice if tourists didn't
have to rent a car to explore Hampton Roads, for example . . .
Of course, if there was a system of greenspace throughout our cities, planning adventure races would become a bit easier! Charlottesville offers a good example in this regard, but, oddly, there isn't an adventure race in the Charlottesville area . . . yet.