Southwestern North Carolina represents the state’s premier outdoor recreation area. The region hosts one of the largest water recreation playgrounds in the Southeast, as well as two of the nation’s most visited units of the National Park System, Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Blue Ridge Parkway. The Nantahala National Forest boasts the most visitor recreation user days in the Eastern United States.
Outdoor recreation drives the regional economy for both tourism and local business development. Recreation-related entrepreneurism abounds and is growing at a record pace annually. Much of this prosperity is a result of the abundance of water recreation resources created decades ago by hydro generation.
The region is home to the largest concentration of whitewater outfitters in the world, and the Nantahala River represents one of the most used rivers in the nation for rafting, kayaking and canoeing. Olympic athletes from all over the world train on the Nantahala, where the Canoe Freestyle World Championships were held in 2013. The Tuckaseegee River has some of the highest concentrations of trout outside of Montana and Idaho.
These outdoor water recreation opportunities and the economic benefit they have fed for southwestern North Carolina are made possible in large part from hydro generation of power and the clean, cost-effective and reliable energy source it provides. Duke Energy is a major provider of hydro generation in the region. Smoky Mountain Host of N.C. Inc., the region’s destination marketing and tourism development organization, has worked in partnership with Duke Energy for more than 30 years to promote the uniqueness of the clean, renewable energy characteristics of hydro power generation.
Our region’s quality of life and economic vitality are in large measure dependent on Duke Energy’s continued commitment to a modern and reliable energy grid.
David Huskins, Franklin
The writer is managing director of Smoky Mountain Host of N.C. Inc.