Environment

Each spring when the mountains turn green, Gatlinburg celebrates “Going Green” in a big way during the annual Gatlinburg Earth Week Celebration. The week-long celebration running Monday, April 17 to Saturday, April 21, 2017, presented by Hilton Garden Inn Gatlinburg, features a daily event designed to share easy green practices through games, crafts and music, opportunities to get outside and ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park hosted a celebration to unveil two new propane fueling stations and six new propane-fueled trucks. By incorporating these new pieces of alternative fuel equipment into daily operations, the park continues on the path to reduce carbon emissions. “We continue to work towards meeting our goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from 2006 levels by 20% ...

Sculptures created by 11 University of Tennessee art students that incorporate materials provided by steel recycler Gerdau will be on public display April 6-19, 2017 at the Knoxville Convention Center. “The Art of Recycling” sculpture exhibition celebrates April’s National Recycling Month and is a partnership among Gerdau, Dogwood Arts and the University of Tennessee Sculpture Program. The artworks will be ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials invite the public to comment on a proposed sustainable energy project through March 20, 2017. The National Park Service is proposing a solar power system to support the electrical power needs of the Cable Mill area in Cades Cove. This project would reduce usage of traditional fossil fuels and provide opportunities for park visitors ...

The celebration of New Year’s Eve in Gatlinburg will carry on as usual this year to ring in 2017. After receiving notification that the burn ban was being lifted in the area, Gatlinburg officials announced the traditional fireworks display and ball drop would take place as usual from the top of the Space Needle. The New Year’s Eve Ball Drop ...

Keep Sevier Beautiful will be holding their annual Fall Roads & Rivers Day on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2016 from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. “Roads & Rivers Day is a great opportunity for our community to come together to keep Sevier County clean and beautiful,” noted Executive Director Lisa Bryant. “Not only for our residents, but also for the many ...

Schools are back in session and in another local tradition, street rods are rolling into town. The Shades of the Past car show is once again, offering a service this year that has nothing to do with street rods – recycling! As the number of special events that make Sevier County their destination grows each year, the waste generated by ...

Keep Sevier Beautiful is partnering with Douglas Lake the Beautiful to host a cleanup event at Douglas Lake this weekend after a letter to a local newspaper citing the trash within the Lake engaged citizens throughout the area to create the inaugural Island Invasion. “The islands on Douglas Lake are public land and known as a great destination for recreational ...

Solar panels on the roof of a Sevierville business exemplify the company’s commitment to local air quality and renewable energy. Commercial Door and Hardware is excited to announce the addition of solar panels to the roof of their facility at 2784 Newport Highway in Sevierville. The system was commissioned and has been producing power since Tuesday, June 7, 2016. “I ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s Inventory and Monitoring Branch has partnered with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and the School of Arts at the University of Tennessee (UT), Knoxville, to create a new web application called Species Mapper. Everyone from park managers to school groups can use Species Mapper to explore suitable habitats for more than ...