Updated 11/26/14 4:11 p.m.
Land Between the Lakes wants to boost its visual appeal and is asking for public comment on a proposed Scenery Management Plan.
Landscape architect Rourke McDermott developed the plan to spruce up LBL's appearance. McDermott is the architect for New Mexico’s Valles Caldera National Park. For this project, he conducted surveys and field work to determine what modifications to make.
“If we can enhance the visual experience in the areas where 80 percent of the guests go, then that would be achieving the goals of trying to create a better experience for our guests and ultimately helping them create a strong emotional attachment to the landscape, and to nature, and to the environment,” McDermott said.
The aesthetic plan includes suggestions for more open land along byways and clearing understory brush for better land and shoreline views. Some methods to achieve greater visual diversity include prescribed burning, timber harvesting, and vegetation planting. Many of these methods are already being utilized according to LBL’s Land and Resource Management Plan.
"If we can create more visual interest along with the built infrastructure to receive the guests so they can pull off their cars... that’s going to give them more time to visually engage the landscape,” McDermott said. “The more that those senses are stimulated, the richer the memories.”
Comments on the plan may be emailed to lblinfo@fs.fed.us with the subject line “Scenery Management System Plan” by December 17.
