Pitching nature: Ecotourism on the Eastern Shore

CAPE CHARLES

Two snowy egrets watched with curiosity - and probably some laughter, too - as another load of landlubbing kayakers got ready to launch into the marshy channels at the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge.

Sure enough, one would-be kayaker capsized soon after takeoff.

Another paddled precariously backward, on a collision course with a mudflat.

The egrets flew away. Guide Dave Burden stayed upbeat.

"It's pretty windy out here, but hang in there," Burden encouraged the backward-going amateur.

Such was the beginning of a four-day tour this week on the Shore for travel and outdoor writers, including one from The Virginian-Pilot. The trip was part of a new marketing strategy highlighting what organizers hope is a win-win bonanza for the local economy and the environment: eco-tourism.

They hope the writers go home, write articles and create a fresh buzz among back-to-nature travelers who might be intrigued by the many kayaking tours, birding opportunities, water trails, vineyards, bed- and-breakfasts, boating trips and other low-carbon-footprint attractions on the rural peninsula.

"It's high-end, low-impact tourism," said Donna Bozza, director of the Eastern Shore of Virginia Tourism Commission. "We don't want the scale of Virginia Beach, especially given our fragile area here."

A former journalist herself, Bozza added, "If we get paved over and look like everyone else, we'd lose what makes us special."

The commission sponsored the media tour, as well as the overall marketing push, in conjunction with the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program.

The two state agencies share a common goal with the commission: helping the Shore make money and create jobs from the undeveloped beauty here, and also protecting it for generations to come.

Burden, the upbeat kayak guide and owner of Southeast Expeditions, based in Cape Charles, was elected to the Northampton County Board of Supervisors in November, partly because he

advocates a similar philosophy.

The eco-tourism business is good and slowly expanding, he said, but it surely could be better.

"We started a little ahead of your time and figured it was really going to take off," Burden said, "but getting the word out can definitely help."

The public-relations campaign, the result of months of planning and debate among business and tourism leaders, even has its own slogan: "The Eastern Shore - You'll Love Our Nature!" The words now adorn ball caps, posters, brochures and the commission's Web site.

"Oooo," whispered Steve Living, a wildlife biologist leading a bird-watching hike this week, his eyes bugging as if he just won the lottery. "We've got something bounding around in there."

The journalists walking with Living on a butterfly trail at the refuge stopped in their tracks and listened.

"Oh yes," Living said, pointing to a branch. "It's an orchard oriole. See him?"

Binoculars followed Living's finger aiming at the branch. The journalists nodded and smiled and took photos.

"The orchard is a lot like the Baltimore oriole, you know, but with a slightly darker breast. He's very pretty - oh, no, there he goes!"

This was the second leg of the tour, illustrating the lower Eastern Shore's international acclaim as a birding mecca. It's a place where hundreds of thousands of birds stop and feed among the marshes and barrier islands during their annual trek between Canada and South America.

Local boosters have held a birding and wildlife festival for the past 15 years and will do so again Sept. 18-21.

"We always have great feedback from our visitors," said Joyce Fooks Holland, who chairs the festival, "but the marketing is always a challenge. We are constantly fighting to get the word out about us."

Bozza sighs when asked about this point.

"We have an identity crisis. You say 'Eastern Shore,' and a lot of people think Maryland - and these are people who live in Virginia!"

The birding hike proved highly successful, yielding a yellow warbler, an indigo bunting, a killdeer, a group of glossy ibises by a pond.

But the box turtle stole the show. It was sitting under some brush, just off the trail - its neck and head a brilliant orange.

"That's one of the most beautiful box turtles I've ever seen!" Living exclaimed. "That much orange on the neck is amazing!"

The Chatham Vineyard sits on an old farm on Church Creek, just off the Chesapeake Bay, north of Eastville. The Wehners left the hustle-and-bustle of Washington and moved here to start their winery, and their family, in 1999.

Eco-tourism fits nicely into their business, drawing on some of the same visitors who might go bird-watching or hiking through Kiptopeke State Park.

There's even a kayak tour that stops at the vineyard, allows for some wine tasting, then winds its way lazily back to the beginning.

"Sometimes they'll bring along some steamed clams and stop at a little island in the creek, crack open a bottle and enjoy the sunset," said Jon Wehner, the vineyard owner and chief wine grower. "Great stuff, very popular."

Wehner told visiting journalists his vineyard is part of a new economic push on the Shore, including upscale restaurants, refurbished bed-and-breakfasts, art galleries and museums.

"There's a lot going on right now," he said. "Come and see us again."

The afternoon boat cruise had been canceled because of high winds and waves, so after a lunch of chicken salad, croissants and cold asparagus, which had been grown locally at a nearby farm, the journalists headed to a clamming operation instead.

The wind picked up, whipping tall grasses that buffer the vineyard, and the sun came out in full.

Three more days to go, and no one talked of going home.

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com