Building a one-stop website for state outdoor destinations
If your summer plans are still up in the air, a group of Virginia agencies and organizations has created a new website to help you get down on the ground and out on the water in the state’s best parks.
The new site, www.VirginiaOutdoors.com, features the best of Virginia’s outdoors, according to literature from Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. Content for the site comes from state agencies such as DCR, which manages the Virginia State Park system, and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, which provides content on the state’s hunting and fishing opportunities.
Also included is information on the Virginia Wildlife and Birding Trail.
Private, nonprofit groups like the Virginia Horse Council, Virginia Master Naturalist Program and others also provide content.
The site was developed for the Virginia Association for Parks through donations from the Dominion Foundation. Imperial Multimedia of Baraboo, Wisconsin, developed and manages the site for the association.
The goal, officials said in a telephone press conference Wednesday, is to make the website the one-stop, all-encompassing resource for information on every outdoors destination in the state. “Our hope is the site will incorporate all there is to do outdoors in Virginia ultimately in a seamless experience of learning about the outdoors,” said Nancy Heltman, operation director for DCR.
The website traces its origin to Imperial Multimedia’s kiosk project in 2007 that put digital information on touch-screen information stations in the state parks, said Imperial’s Fred Lochner. Virginia was the first state in the country to use the technology statewide to display park maps, fees, program schedules for the parks where the kiosks are located and for all of the state parks in Virginia.
“A lot of content acquisition was done,” he said. “After that, a lot of people wanted it leveraged to the web. The Virginia Association of Parks worked to seek funding and Dominion stepped up, and we started building it.”
“Dominion has partnered with the state for years to help preserve and improve Virginia’s beautiful parks and open spaces. Our employees regularly volunteer to repair trails, improve accessibility for all and make other enhancements,” said Robert M. Blue, Dominion senior vice president of public policy and environment. “Our company foundation has provided significant funding, including grants for the interactive computer kiosks and for the development of this unique new website. Our goal is to help make our wonderful state parks even more inviting and accessible to all Virginians.”
On Wednesday, Blue said Dominion’s history of supporting Virginia’s parks goes back to the 1990s. The foundation has donated more than $800,000, he said, including $300,000 for the kiosks and $350,000 for the website. Blue said no contribution by the foundation, the charitable extension of Dominion Resources, comes from customers’ bills.
To encourage people to visit the new site, DCR said everyone who goes online and registers as a free associate member of VAFP until Labor Day will receive a pass for a free day of parking in a Virginia State Park. Depending on the number, registrants will also be eligible to win prizes ranging from an annual park pass to camping or cabin stays. Visitors can register online at www.virginiaoutdoors.com/join.