Friends Group · Luray, VA
Shenandoah National Park Trust
A nonprofit partner of Shenandoah National Park.
12 staff + 191 volunteers85¢ to the workFounded 2007
Stand · Find your defenders
Who’s defending Shenandoah?
2 groups have it in their care
National park in Virginia, 200,454 acres, managed by the National Park Service, designated in 1935.
The defenders
The groups doing the most work here
2 groups are on the record for Shenandoah, each tied to it by a source our editors read, in the order they carry the weight. The other one is likely to care: a guess from mission and footprint, with no source tying it to this fight. Give directly; nothing routes through us.
Leading the fight
Friends Group
Shenandoah National Park Association
A nonprofit partner of Shenandoah National Park.
Likely to care: a guess from mission and footprint, no source ties them to this fight
6 more work nearby but are not tied to Shenandoah on the record
On the ground in Virginia
Potomac Appalachian Trail ClubVirginia is one of the 4 states they work inTrailsMountain InstituteVirginia is one of the 2 states they work inCoalitionNorth Carolina Outward BoundVirginia is one of the 4 states they work inStewardshipSouthern Environmental Law CenterBased in Charlottesville, close to the groundLegal
The situation
What’s happening to Shenandoah
A hundred miles of Blue Ridge crest an hour from Washington, with Skyline Drive, black bears, and old-growth hollows. In 2026 the Park Service awarded a 15-year concession contract that for the first time hands every commercial operation in the park, lodging, food, retail, stables, and all four campgrounds the agency once ran itself, to a single private operator. Conservation advocates warn the wholesale privatization of a public park sets a national precedent, and a separate proposal by FirstEnergy would rebuild a transmission line across the park with steel towers up to 115 feet tall.
- 1935Shenandoah National Park established
- 2026Park Service selects the operator for a 15-year concession contract
- 2027Private concession contract takes effect
Single private concessioner selected to run lodging and four campgrounds from 2027
Source: NPS · May 5, 2026
Transmission line rebuild threatens park scenery
Source: Piedmont Environmental Council
No public comment window is open on Shenandoah right now. A call script is ready on the Public Lands Action Network, and the groups above are how the fight gets funded and argued in the meantime.
Your move
How to stand for Shenandoah
GiveGive to Shenandoah National Park Trust
Straight to their own donation page. Your dollar never passes through us.
Their donation page ↗SpeakCall your representativesA ready call script on Shenandoah, plus any comment window as it opens.
Public Lands Action NetworkFollowWatch the mapEvery threatened place in the country, tracked, with who stands for each.
Threatened Lands MapBuild my lineup around Shenandoah: the leading group here opens it, and the other seats fill from this record.
Shenandoah has defenders. It needs more.
2 groups on the record, 1 more likely to care, Shenandoah National Park Trust with 12 staff + 191 volunteers. That is who is holding it. Find your way in.