Meet the Educator Bringing Backpacking to Rural Virginia Students

It’s 8 a.m. when Blue Ridge Discovery Center (BRDC) executive director Lisa Benish checks her cell and her eyes light up. A staff naturalist has called in sick, so she gets to fill in leading a dozen or so southwest Virginia middle schoolers on an overnight backpacking and fly-fishing trip that will carry them to stunning vistas and hidden trout streams deep in the 200,000-acre Mount Rogers National Recreation Area.

The 59-year-old gathers her long, gray-streaked brown hair into a bun, tucks it under a BRDC baseball cap, and springs into action. She wears sweat-wicking cargo pants and a polyester t-shirt. Benish’s movements are swift and efficient as she snatches a backpack from her office closet and loads it with butterfly nets, hip waders, binoculars, a tackle bag, Audubon Society guidebook, and broken down fly rod—in addition to all the usual overnight accoutrements.

“When we go out on these treks, we try to touch on as many different wilderness and nature experiences as we can,” Benish explains.

By day’s end the group will have identified countless trees, ferns, lichens, and mushrooms; hunted for colorful pollinators in high-elevation wildflower meadows; lifted creekside stones to look for invertebrates and salamanders; scoped migratory songbirds like magnolia warblers or rose-breasted grossbeak flitting in the canopy, and waded into cold, crystal clear mountain streams to fish for iridescent wild trout. Along the way they learn skills like Leave No Trace, how to use a compass, and orienteering. That night, they’ll make camp, help to build a fire and cook a meal, share thoughts about their adventures, and stargaze for constellations.

The Discovery Center, an educational nonprofit, occupies a restored 1925 boarding school that sits nestled in a small valley at the foot of Whitetop Mountain, the state’s second-tallest peak. The area is home to rare southern Appalachian spruce-fir forests and is one the most biologically diverse in the U.S. Staffers lead about 4,000 kids and individuals a year into the woods for nature education outings, backpacking trips, and more. They also host summer nature camps for young children and a fleet of naturalist rallies and events for college students and adults.

Today’s outing is part of a one-of-kind, region-focused partner program with public schools in seven former Appalachian coal counties. The experiences are designed to immerse kids from rural areas—many of which are severely underserved—in what Benish calls the “incredible natural beauty and recreation opportunities that exist right here in their own backyard.”

“The goal,” says BRDC President Steven Hopp, who co-wrote the best-selling farm-to-table tome Animal, Vegetable, Miracle with his wife, Pulitzer Prize winner Barbara Kingsolver, “is to leverage exploration and discovery to get these kids feeling curious and excited about the natural world and stewardship. We want them to go home filled with a sense of awe, wonder, and pride about the uniqueness of where they live.”

Follow-up visits to schools and annual return trips help fuel a lifelong interest in nature, stewardship, and health-boosting outdoor activities like hiking and backpacking.

Benish officially joined the center in 2014 and calls her work there the culmination of a lifelong love affair with the outdoors.

“My grandpa used to say I was born with a fishing rod in hand,” she laughs. Growing up in Greensboro, North Carolina, some of her earliest memories involve using a cane pole and bobber to angle for bream and crappie in her grandparents’ pond.

But it wasn’t until third grade that Benish realized observing nature could be an activity in and of itself. Woodland field trips left her mindblown by her teacher’s seemingly inexhaustible knowledge of flora, fauna, and fungi.

“I’d seen these things before, but had never really looked all that closely at them, much less deeply considered them,” says Benish. It was like a door had been thrown open. “I felt this tremendous curiosity and started trying to pay close attention to and observe every little thing that was going on around me when I stepped into the woods.”

She discovered Virginia’s southern Blue Ridge in high school while hiking during a visit with a family friend and was immediately smitten. “There’s something so magical about this area,” says Benish. Trails pass through a lush and shifting array of forests and cross rushing streams filled with boulders, trout, and bass.

“There was so much to explore,” says Benish. “I truly couldn’t get enough.”

She road-tripped to trek on the Appalachian Trail and fly-fish deep in the woods at hotspots like Grayson Highlands State Park while attending East Carolina University, then found a job in the tiny Blue Ridge Parkway community of Galax post-graduation. Benish married and had three boys—all of whom caught the outdoors bug. Leading their Cub and Boy Scout groups introduced her to the BRDC around 2011.

“I remember being so impressed by what they were doing and the impact that it had on the kids,” says Benish. “So I basically jumped for joy when they called and asked if I’d be interested in leading some backpacking and fly-fishing trips for them.”

She became an immediate fixture and moved into a full-time program directorship in 2016.

“What makes Lisa so great with kids is the way her inner-child just leaps out at the slightest bit of excitement in the woods,” says former BRDC founding executive director, Devin Floyd. She’ll spot a cool-looking salamander, warbler, butterfly, fish, or rock, and “it’s like the world stops and that’s all that exists. That enthusiasm is infectious; it draws kids in and gets them excited about learning.”

Benish says she found her calling in the work, but had mixed emotions when she was asked to take over as executive director in 2022. The move would take her out of the field and into an office.

“My true passion is getting kids out into the woods and helping them fall head-over-heels for the outdoors,” she says. Still, Benish saw an opportunity to help the organization evolve.

Since assuming the mantle, she’s spearheaded development around the partnership with public schools and other campaigns that have brought major improvements like a new onsite wetland discovery area, 150-person outdoor amphitheater, and a visitor’s center that’s slated for completion later this year. Hopp says he hopes to work with her to expand day and overnight offerings, and eventually reach more than 10,000 kids and individuals per year.

“Lisa’s passion for the work we do is unparalleled” says Hopp. “She understands every nuance of this place from the ground up and lives the mission. It’s impossible to express how incredibly lucky we are to have her.”

Nightfall finds Benish and the kids deep in the Thomas Jefferson National Forest, gathered around a campfire in a 4,600-foot-high meadow below the summit of Mt. Rogers. They’ve hiked about a dozen miles (much of it on the Appalachian Trail), explored fairylike rhododendron groves and high-elevation spruce-fir forests in the Lewis Fork Wilderness, spotted wild ponies grazing on grassy balds in Grayson Highlands State Park, and basked in soaring 5,000-plus-foot views from the Elk Garden and Wilburn ridgelines. They’ve just returned from a dark sky immersion experience near camp, where they were awed by the stunning, galactic whorl of the rising Milky Way core.

Benish grins as the kids swap stories peppered with exclamations like, “Who knew so many stars could exist?,” or, “How about those crazy ponies just living on top of a mountain!”

“I love this organization, believe in its mission, and am profoundly proud of the work we do with these children,” says Benish. Each day, she and her staff introduce them to hobbies and a nature-centered mindset that will pay personal and holistic dividends over the course of a lifetime.

“I can’t imagine not being involved here,” she says. Even after an eventual retirement, Benish plans to volunteer at BRDC as long as she can, “preferably until I die and am too old to get out of bed.”