Clinch River eyed as area for potential new Virginia State Park

A river in Southwest Virginia could become apart of a new proposed state park that hopes to attract thousands of people to the region.

According to a story from the Associated Press, work continues on turning several hundreds of acres, planned to be separated as parcels of land along the Clinch River into a park. Leaders have already allocated $5 million and plans could include building amenities like cabins and visitor centers along the very biodiverse river.

Advocates for the proposed park say this could help play a role in protecting the 130 mile river while also boosting tourism in the four counties it flows through.

Courtesy of Image: This July 26, 2019 photo provided by the Nature conservancy shows a StreamSweepers employee pulls a canoe to shore on the Clinch River, Va. The Cumberland Forest Project protects 253,000 acres of Appalachian forest in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia and is one of TNC’s largest-ever conservation efforts in the eastern United States. StreamSweepers is a not for profit river maintenance and restoration service, staffed by young adults from Central Virginia. StreamSweepers assess the ecological health of rivers in the Piedmont portion of the state and remove small to large trash items from the river bed and banks. (Travis Dove/The Nature Conservancy via AP)