Sunday Gazette-Mail
17 July 2005
By Tara Tuckwiller
HEDGESVILLE - "How many people are so secluded," said Dave O'Brien, gesturing to the 80-acre forest preserve beyond his rental cabins, "that they can bathe out-side?"
When you're 90 miles from Baltimore and Washington, D.C., not many. But at Cabins by O'Brien, an ecotourism destination in West Virginia's Eastern Pan-handle, antique clawfoot tubs are standard issue on each shady porch.
Dave and Kristine O'Brien's re-treat is, first and foremost, a relaxing idyll. Many of their customers simply want to get out of the city for a while, and "are not obviously eco-oriented people," Kristine O'Brien said.
But without the O'Briens' behind-the-scenes efforts on behalf of the environment - and, as required by true ecotourism, their lo-cal community and nature education - the idyll would not exist.
Take those clawfoot tubs. They're outrageously popular with clients, many of whom could never dream of such seclusion in their overstuffed home cities. "Onewoman told us she took a bath three times in one day," Kristine said.
But the seclusion wouldn't be possible if the O'Briens had built row upon row of rental cabins, as many tourism developers would have done. (Dave and a neighbor tucked just two cabins into the landscape.) Or if they didn't spend long hours battling the invasive species that threaten their swath of Eastern woodland.
Or if they had given in to traditional ideas of what tourists want.
"Our competition, they have Jacuzzis and big flat-screen TVs," Kristine said. That didn't seem to mesh with the whole rustic-cabin getaway. Instead, the O'Brien installed picture windows and CD players and shelves stocked with guides to local flora and fauna. The outdoor tubs were their most creative stroke, allowing clients to relax without the chlorine and motorized humming of a hot tub.
As ecotourism becomes more popular and mainstream, the O'Brien say they have more and more clients who choose them because they are ecofriendly.
"I used to think that very few — 20 percent — were selecting [the cabin] for their environmental importance," Dave said. "Now, I don't think that's necessarily true."
When the O'Brien's left Baltimore for West Virginia in 1988, they knew they wanted to have rental cabins — but not necessarily ecotourism.
At that time, we didn't even have recycling in Baltimore," Dave O'Brien re-called.
But without realizing it, they started by adhering to one of the tenets of ecotourism: respect for the local history.
They bought land that had belonged to a local family for generations, including a Civil War-era log cabin with a turn-of-the-century addition. Instead of tearing down the old house, they re-stored it for their own residence, maintaining a friendship with their neighbor, who grew up in it.
Kristine O'Brien shows off framed black-and-white photos that she keeps prominently displayed in the kitchen: a wide shot of the house and farmyard as it looked half a century ago, and a close-up of the family matriarch doing laundry in the same kitchen.
They did alter the landscape by adding a pond in an already low, wet area. At first, they simply wanted to give their guests a place to swim.
Then, in 1996, something happened: The O'Brien took an ecotour to Costa Rica.
"That," Kristine said, "was our inspiration."
She walked with visitors along the property's two miles of nature trails as she explained.
Back from their trip, the couple started attending "Nongame Wildlife Week-ends" sponsored by the West Virginia Di-vision of Natural Resources. "All of their naturalists would have these excursions and field trips," she remembered. "There was an amazing amount of education every year in that one weekend."
Unfortunately, "they lost the funding for it," she said. "Last year was the first year we hadn't gone in maybe eight years."
But what they learned changed the course of their business. They got involved with the DNR's "Wild Yard" pro-gram, turning their lawn into a low-maintenance garden of native perennials and grasses that provides valuable habitat and food for wildlife. Bonus: less air pollution.
"On a riding lawn mower, I figured out, I could drive to Charleston, S.C., and have the same impact" as mowing thelawn, Dave O'Brien said.
The fish and snails the O'Briens introduced into the pond maintain a perfect ecological balance, and the native, cattail-like calamus plants filter the water clean.
Now, the pond has a resident snowy egret. As guests swim, they might share the pond with a blue heron or a deer grazing at the edge.
Today's guests can be very particular, eco-wise, Kristine O'Brien said.
"One guest said, `Do you really need a full-size refrigerator in this cabin?' " she recalled.
"Good point," Dave O'Brien said. The cabin now has a smaller refrigerator that uses less energy.
The most successful ecotourism businesses tend to be those that offer good tourism and weave the environmental and educational components throughout the experience. So the dish liquid in the cabins is a natural, nonpolluting one. The complimentary homemade granola is organic.
The O'Brien are involved with the Ecology Coalition of Morgan County, a group that helps businesses that want to be more environmentally friendly.
"We're trying to show other businesses how, if you do it more environmentally friendly, you'll save and make more money," Dave said. `Just advertising on recycled paper is good for advertising, when the customer sees that little logo."
Nothing beats a guided nature walk for education, though, Kristine said. She leads them for free, and she said guests often stay out with her for two hours on pleasant, chatty strolls across mossy log bridges and under leafy canopies, during which she will pause occasionally to point out tiny mayapples or the shy, rapid ka-ka-ka-ka of a yellow-billed cuckoo.
"We're just trying to get people to experience the beauty and joy of nature," she said. "Otherwise, we're not going to have anybody to fight for it."
To contact Cabins by O'Brien, visit www.cabinsbyobrien.com or call (888) 495-5755.
To contact staff writer Tara Tuchwiller, use e-mail or call 348-5189.