Gary Barrigar, president of Friends of Roan Mountain, is a believer that community involvement is a must.

And for years, the Friends of Roan Mountain have a played a big role in the conservation of the natural landscapes of Roan Mountain.

One of the more recent undertakings the group has taken on is the adoption of the Twins Spring Picnic Area in the Cherokee National Forest.

According to Barrigar, governmental cutbacks have led to a shortage of resources for agencies like the Cherokee National Forest branch of the Forest Service and one of the locations impacted was the Twin Springs Picnic Area. The Friends of Roan Mountain, in October of 2017, signed an agreement with the Cherokee National Forest to help with the upkeep of the location.

“There have been so many spending and staff cutbacks with the Forest Service that they have had to close a lot of areas,” said Barrigar. “They closed down Twin Springs, and it had become run down and littered. We initiated with them that we wanted to help.

“It is my understanding that this is happening in other places,” added Barrigar. “That local groups are taking up the slack where the government has had all of these cutbacks.”

Since adopting the Twins Springs Picnic Area, the Friends of Roan Mountain have held cleanups at the location. One of the biggest projects so far was the reroofing of the picnic shelter, which saw volunteers with the Friends of Roan Mountain and crew members with the Cherokee National Forest chip in with the completion of the project.

“The roof on that shelter was going bad,” said Barrigar. “Of course that would cause the interior of it to eventually rot also. So we decided that we wanted to put a new roof on it. We paid for that.

“We had a local contractor volunteer his services to direct our work there,” added Barrigar. “In two days, we got that done in November.”

The next clean up at the location will be held around April, said Barrigar, right before the Friends of Roan Mountain holds its annual Spring Naturalist Rally.

The group is always looking for new members, said Barrigar.

“We have a strong membership of several hundred people,” he said. “We draw from them for projects.”

For more information about the organization visit them online at www.friendsofroanmtn.org.

“We have adopted the entire Roan massif,” said Barrigar. “We are also strong supporters of the state park.”