Conservation

The RRG area is incredibly important for its biological and geological diversity. RRG is part of Central Appalachia, one of the top five most biodiverse regions in the world. Home to more than 100 natural sandstone arches, it is second only to Utah for number of natural arches. Because of this incredible richness, the Red River Gorge has been designated a National Natural Landmark and National Archaeological District, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The section of the Red River in the upper gorge is also Kentucky’s only federally designated Wild River. This intricate canyon system features an abundance of high sandstone cliffs, rock shelters, waterfalls, and natural bridges.

The multitude of sandstone and cliff-lines have contributed to this area’s becoming one of the world's top rock climbing destinations and is home to the Red River Gorge Climbers' Coalition.

Because of its unusual, rugged nature, the Red River Gorge features a remarkable variety of ecological zones. A huge increase in visitors will have an irreversible impact on all aspects of the Gorge ecosystem. RRG is home to lifelong residents with deep local wisdom, natives who are archaeologists, longtime residents who are biologists, historians, geologists who have made it their home because of its unique nature, intent on conserving the region. Involving the local knowledge base is imperative to creating slow, sustainable growth.

Overcrowding

Red River Gorge currently attracts 750,000 visitors annually. RRED’s planning documents, including the themed village and other developments, state they could attract 1-2 million visitors a year. We don’t know if RRED has factored existing tourism into their projections or not. What we do know is that our area is already struggling with a full-to-overloaded infrastructure of tourists and visitors during the high season. Think, for example, of the sometimes overfilled trailhead parking lots, long traffic lines, and tested tempers at the historic Nada Tunnel.

The continuing conversations between the National Forest Service and the Red River Gorge Climbers’ Coalition over crag accessibility and the constant vigilance and volunteer time currently needed to battle against trash and detritus in our waterways and along roads, to name a few examples.  For the sake of comparison, The Red River Gorge is a 29,000 acre (45 square mile) specially demarcated area of the Daniel Boone National Forest, set aside as unique because of the exposure of sandstone, limestone and a canyon system which funnels into the Red River, a 20-mile stretch of which is a federally recognized “National Wild River.” The entire Daniel Boone National Forest is 706,000 acres (1,100 square miles) and stretches from the town of Morehead, KY to Tennessee. Such crowds are generally dealt with by the National Park System, not the National Forest Service. And likewise, with the National Park Budget, not the National Forest Service budget.

Other outdoor recreation areas which receive visitation numbers in this range are:

Arches National Park (1,663,557 visitors in 76,679 acres (120 square miles)

Bryce Canyon National Park (2,679,478 visitors in 35,835 acres (56 square miles)

Cuyahoga Valley National Park (2,096,053 visitors in 33,000 acres (56 square miles)

Glacier National Park (2,965,309 visitors in over 1,000,000 acres (1,583 square miles).

New River Gorge, WV, National River (1,232,627 visitors in 70,000 acres (109 square miles)

Smoky Mountain National Park ( 11.3 million visitors in 522,427 acres (800 square miles)

Every one of these parks is larger and has more resources to deal with a larger influx of visitors than the Red River Gorge. While more tourism can be good in some ways, overdoing it can also cause people to abandon the area. Critically, we risk losing the current visitors, who tell us repeatedly that they value the unique nature of the RRG and the fact that it is small, businesses are small and locally-owned, and the atmosphere is not one of industrialized tourism.

There are other eastern Kentucky communities leading place-based planning efforts. For instance Martin County is collaborating with high schools, community partners, University of KY, Lexington-based Liken Knowledge and Appalshop in story-catching about the special landscapes of the Central Appalachian plateaus—the forests, coves, waterways, and species that shape mountain life. Youth and elders in Appalachia share photos, memories and visions of the future. This intergenerational storytelling catalyzes community involvement in decisions about how land and resources meaningful to communities might be managed collaboratively.

The pace and secrecy of this project to date simply do not allow for the incorporation of community concerns in the planning process. Input from community members can serve many purposes. First and foremost, it would ensure that the community as a whole will benefit from the development. As helping the community is the stated goal of RRED, it does not make sense to leave out the community in the planning process.

Secondly, community input would actually make the development better in the long term, because local people and business are familiar with the specific challenges and particulars of the area. In addition, the inclusion of the community would ensure the development is supported by the people surrounding it.

We object to the lack of any firm language in the documents currently available that would provide safeguards that community-raised concerns would be met. Simply listening to the community is a great start, and is included in the current RFP. However, there could be language to require community approval of final plans, require financial support of the community instead of only benefiting investors, allow community buy-in, or provide a certain percentage of the higher-wage jobs available to local area residents. The lack of such language raises concerns that the ‘listening’ process will be limited to listening only and will not include action.

Use of public funds:

RRED has been awarded $1 million to use for developing a master plan for their proposed development. In the RRG area, this money could be used in many other ways that would provide an immediate benefit to the residents and businesses already in place. One example of this would be access to reliable and affordable internet service, but other infrastructure projects could also benefit.

Workforce:

RRGU supports development of good quality jobs in the region. We don’t see a resort as providing these sorts of opportunities. The lower wage service jobs already exist in the Gorge. We support the development of small sustainable manufacturing, especially around the natural assets of our region - food and forests, as well as independent ecotourism.

Zoning + Branding:

RRED’s RFP mentions identifying environmentally-sound land-use planning techniques for encouraging appropriate and sustainable physical and economic development within the vicinity. Their planning documents mention that “any private developer investing millions of dollars and creating hundreds of jobs will want assurances from local authorities that any other developments that follow will complement the proposed high-quality resort and the RRG brand. A land-use plan and reasonable restrictions within a certain radius of the anchor resort will be necessary to attract developers and capital investment.” This could both limit further business development and drive out existing businesses by limiting their ability to grow and adapt over time. An area within a 10-mile radius of the development site has been mentioned to fall into this zone.