She leads Virginia State Parks, the first state in the nation to open a system of parks. “From the mountains to the piedmont, you can get just about anything you want in Virginia.”
Photo Above: Virginia State Parks Director, Dr. Melissa Baker. Courtesy of Dr. Melissa Baker
For 20 years your work has taken you throughout the United States. Share your experience that began with wanting to be a teacher, and now you’re leading Virginia’s 43 state parks.
It’s been quite a journey. When I went to college, I planned to be a high school math teacher. This changed when I got a summer job at a Kentucky state park. I just loved how important the park was to the community and how much it meant to visitors! So, I changed course and went into recreation for graduate school.
From there I taught at a university in Maine and later Wisconsin where I switched to managing recreation for a state forest. That took me to Montana as chief of operations for Montana State Parks, then to my roles as director of North Dakota State Parks and now as director of Virginia State Parks.
What do you and your family enjoy most when you’re not working?
In addition to spending time in state parks, my husband Dean and I really enjoy bird watching. On an interpretive hike at First Landing State Park, I was introduced to the Merlin bird identification app. I started identifying birds in my backyard, and now I do it everywhere! Dean and I really enjoy building a campfire in our backyard on a weekend morning and cooking a campfire breakfast while watching birds that visit our feeders.
Clinch River State Park is one of Virginia’s newest, opening in 2021, and named “one the last great places” by The Nature Conservancy. Why is it unique, and what is a blueway?
The Clinch River is one of the most biodiverse in the Northern Hemisphere, and the park is really focused on the river, how people experience it and how it connects communities. Strong community support and vision actually helped create it! A “blueway” is a marked route on a waterway for recreational use, and that’s the foundation of the “string of pearls” concept for this park. Rather than one large contiguous parcel of land, the park is comprised of a series of smaller areas where visitors recreate on land and also plan a river trip starting their day on one part of the park and ending on another. Connecting visitors to both the river and the adjacent communities is central to the park’s purpose.
What’s next for Virginia’s state parks?
Virginia State Parks is really investing in infrastructure. Last year we completed a beautiful renovation of all cabins at Douthat and Fairy Stone state parks. This year we’re refurbishing more cabins and improving camping throughout the system. We continue to enhance our recreational and educational programming. Our Master Hiker, Paddle Quest and “Let’s Go!” programs continue to attract great attention. We’re also planning for two additional state parks!
Tell us about the park system’s variety and overall bounty. What is your favorite “aha” moment?
Virginia State Parks are really special in that they are very diverse. Geographically, you can experience mountains, forests, lakes, the piedmont and the coast. Thematically, we have parks with stunning landscapes, important culture and history, or as with Clinch River State Park, incredible biodiversity. One of my favorite “aha” moments happened when I interviewed for Virginia State Parks, and I visited Natural Bridge State Park. I still remember the awe I felt when I rounded that curve in the trail when you first see the bridge. It’s stunning. Now when I visit there, I like to spend time at that spot, watching visitors as they have that same “aha” moment for the first time. As park rangers, we get to experience that with visitors at every park, but at Natural Bridge there is that one spot when you can count on it happening.
The story above first appeared in our May / June 2025 issue.
